stories : Feature
Naked GefilteThe Passover fish dish made from scratch |
Passover Seder is not like Thanksgiving. The shank bone, egg, parsley, horseradish, and salt water that are included on the traditional Seder Plate are there primarily for symbolic reasons, not because they’re especially tasty.
Brad Levy, chef-owner of Firefly Restaurant in San Francisco, has done his best to change this, cooking Passover Seder for his customers for the last 13 years. CHOW followed him through the process of making Gefilte Fish, the traditional ground, deboned fish patties that typically come from a jar. Originally gefilte fish was stuffed back into the skin of the deboned fish, then served in slices. That’s why it’s called gefilte, which means stuffed or filled in Yiddish.
Also, according to Jewish folklore, fish are believed to bestow certain beneficial qualities on the eater, like fertility.
Who knew fish fins were bitter!
Gills make stock bitter too. You also don't want to add any of the guts or scales, but it looks like these fish came gutted and scaled.
What is with the traditional cooking times of two hours or so? I never understood that.
Here on the west coast, I've used salmon and halibut because they don't have the traditional fish here. It's good, but looks like children's aspirin. And Regan is so right about thie gills. I didn't know that the first time. That was pretty sad.
Don't taste the raw gefilte mix! There's a particular form of parasite that Jewish women used to get from tasting raw gefilte fish, although I can't remember the particular name.
My daughter-in law --on the East Coast but originally from LA--makes salmon, baked in strips and served with a tomato "marmelade" that's so good I never get beyond it in the meal.
I repeat the warning: DO NOT taste the fish raw. You can (like many gefilte-making housewives) contract a fish tapeworm. Yes, it's curable, but why let yourself get sick in the first place! Do a little research by googling "gefilte fish parasite."
When I asked Brad of Firefly about the tasting of the fish, he replied, "I don't know about particular parasites in the fish I used, but I taste and spit, not swallow. But what I do know is very little joy exists without peril." I love that he said that, but it sounds as though this parasite question merits more research. I'll see what I can do about that. Thanks for your comments everyone! Meredith
I wished I'd seen this before passover!!!
That is a LOT of work. Unless I ever visit his restaurant, I'll continue to buy mine in a jar. We eat ours with the traditional horseradish sauce - but we also serve kosher red lumpfish caviar with it to add a bit of saltiness and extra flavor.
I was intrigued enough to Google the parasite, which is a fish tapeworm! There is a story at this link: http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/08/hea...
Really quite nasty!