Jellied pike perch

Pike perch jellied is considered by many to be the same integral part of the New Year's menu as Olivier salad. And even the famous phrase from the popularly beloved film for many years has not been able to spoil the reputation of the dish. Pike perch with its delicate pulp and not too pungent fishy smell is excellent for its preparation. The broth, boiled with the head and bones of this fish, turns out to be very rich and tasty. The main thing is not to rush, strictly follow all our instructions and pay special attention to decorating the jellied one so that it can be proudly hoisted in the center of the festive table.

Ingredients

• ground white pepper
• bay leaf
• 3 black peppercorns
• 30 g of granulated domestic gelatin per liter of water
• 1 small carrot
• zander
• onion - 1 small onion
• For decoration:
• 2 medium-sized pickles
• a handful of green peas
• half a sweet red pepper
• sprig of parsley
• 30 g red caviar
• 5 quail eggs
• 1 medium lemon

Directions

1. Prepare fish for aspic from pike perch. Clean the scales, starting from the tail. Cut open the abdomen and scrub the insides. Remove gills. Cut out the dorsal fin. It is permissible to do the opposite - cut off the fins, and then peel off the scales. But then you can accidentally damage the skin of the pike perch, thereby spoiling the future appearance of the aspic.
2. Aspic pike perch, prepare fish bones and fillets
3. Separate the zander's head. Carefully cut the ridge with rib bones. If this does not work right away, cut off the rib bones separately or remove them with tweezers. In this way, separately prepare the fish bones and two pieces of pike perch fillets.
4. Pike perch jellied, boil fish bones with vegetables
5. In 1.5 liters of cold water, lay the bones and the head of the pike perch. Peel the carrots and onions, and place them in a saucepan. Put the pan on the fire, bring to a boil. Add pepper and bay leaves. Reduce heat and cook the broth without a lid for 1 hour. Remove the foam that forms on the surface with a slotted spoon. During the cooking process, the amount of liquid should be reduced to 1 liter.
6. Pike perch jellied, take the bone broth
7. At this time, pour gelatin with a glass of cold boiled water. You can put a piece of ice. While the jellied broth is boiling, the gelatin granules will increase 3-4 times. Gelatin should not be poured with warm water, otherwise it will immediately stick together and cannot be diluted.
8. When the broth is ready, gently strain it through a sieve and four layers of cheesecloth into a saucepan (never aluminum!). Introduce the swollen gelatin into the hot strained broth. Stir well. You can strain again. This is how lanspeak is made - hot jelly.
9. Add about 1 tsp. salt, stir. Pour 0.25 L of lanspeck into a bowl and refrigerate. Cool the rest to room temperature, 16 ° C. To speed up the process, you can put the pan on ice. If the lanspeak, on the contrary, is too cold and begins to freeze, put the pan in a water bath.
10. Jellied pike perch, boil the fish
11. Put the fillet on a dish, on plastic wrap, skin side down. Salt a little, season with white pepper. Cover with foil on top. Put the dish in a preheated oven, simmer the fish fillets in their own juice at 100 ° C for 1 hour. The fish can simply be boiled in water, but then its taste is significantly lost.
12. Pike perch jellied, pour some broth into the mold
13. Pour the first layer of lanspik, about 5 mm, into the bottom of the jellied dish. Put the dish in the refrigerator.
14. Zander aspic, cut the pike perch fillet into pieces
15. Cool the finished fillet, still in the foil, after the oven. Put in the refrigerator for a long time, best of all - overnight, so that the fish stand and do not crumble when cutting. After that, carefully remove the film from the fillet. Cut the fillet into portions.
16. Pike perch aspic, garnish with herbs, vegetables and eggs
17. Put the fish from the knife on a platter with already frozen jelly. Fix the fish in this position by watering the fillet pieces from above with three lanspeck ladles. Put the dish with fish in the refrigerator to fix until decorating.
18. Using a knife, make indentations on the skin of the lemon, cut it into thin half rings, remove the seeds. Using the confectionery recesses, cut out figurines from the sweet pepper. Use pieces of pickled cucumbers as a pedestal for halves of boiled quail eggs. First, dip each detail of the drawing into the lanspeak, then put it on a dish with fish.
19. Aspic from pike perch, add the rest of the broth to the aspic
20. Fill everything with lanspecom. He should cover the fish with a thin layer. Put the dish in the refrigerator. Finely chop the frozen jelly from a bowl. Make a bag of parchment paper, put chopped jelly inside. Roll up the bag and cut off the sharp end.
21. Pike perch jellied, the dish is ready
22. Get out a dish with frozen aspic. Put red caviar on the quail eggs, garnish with slides of jelly.