Carp, especially not frozen, but fresh, is a very nutritious and tasty fish. But there are many people who do not like cooking carp. All because of the huge number of bones, which are also very sharp and small.
But, for example, in China (where, by the way, the carp came from), residents learned how to carve this fish in a special way. In this country, carp dishes are a delicacy worthy even of an emperor.
Now we will not analyze how to bake carp in the oven. Let's try more interesting recipes.
Carp Meatballs
The easiest and most logical way to get rid of bone problems is to simply grind the fish into minced meat.
To prepare carp, start by cutting it on the fillet, having previously removed the costal bones and the ridge. Twist the fish with the same amount of pork until a minced meat is formed. Craftsmen use two large and heavy knives for this procedure, but you use a simple meat grinder. Add egg white, a little starch and rice wine to the minced meat.
Pepper, salt and knead all the ingredients well. Add finely chopped leek to the minced meat (take only its white part) and put in the refrigerator for 30 minutes. As time passes, soak your hands in cold water and roll the balls of minced meat. The diameter of the balls should be approximately 2 centimeters.
Let the chicken stock come to a boil. Now carefully put the meatballs you just made into it. Make the fire smaller and cook for 5 minutes. Then add the “green” leek sliced into the “soup”.
If you have a small amount of fresh mushrooms, such as oyster mushroom, you can add them. After that, still cook for 5 minutes and the preparation of the carp is finished. You can serve the dish. Just before that add a little soy sauce and sprinkle with finely chopped cilantro and chili pepper.
No need to refuse to cook carp just because it is difficult to choose bones from it. If you choose the right approach, nothing will stop you from enjoying the great taste of this wonderful fish. Her meat is a bit sweet and very tender. Moreover, in large cities, carp is almost one fish that can be bought still alive, and therefore, the freshest.
Cooking Carp Squirrels
Ingredients:
- one whole carp with a weight of about 1 kg;
- a little corn starch;
- vegetable oil;
- A small amount of pine nuts and green peas (to decorate the dish).
Sauce Ingredients:
- 6 tablespoons of ketchup or tomato paste;
- 6 tablespoons of water (cold);
- 2 tablespoons of rice vinegar ;
- 1 centimeter of ginger root (fresh);
- 3 tablespoons of sugar;
- one small stalk of leek;
- 2 teaspoons of corn starch;
- salt.
Cooking:
Clean the carp from the scales, remove all the gills and entrails, cut off the head. Cut the carcass of the fish into fillets, removing the costal bones and the ridge. In this case, the fillet should remain attached to the tail.
Lay one fillet down with your skin and make cuts across. The knife must be kept at an angle to the table, cutting through almost to the end, but without touching the skin itself. Start doing this from the head, heading towards the tail. After that, you need to make the same deep cuts, but already parallel to each other, holding the knife perpendicular to the surface of the table. And the smaller the distance between the cuts, the better. All the same will need to be done with the second filet.
Roll both fillet and carp head in starch and deep-fry separately. Put everything on a paper towel to drain excess oil.
Make the sauce. To do this, mix ketchup or tomato paste diluted with water, salt, sugar and rice vinegar. The taste of the sauce should be sweet and sour at the same time. Add a little vegetable oil to the stewpan and quickly fry the ginger and leek, cut into small pieces. Pour the sauce, bring to a boil and simmer with starch, which previously diluted in a proportion of one to one. Add 3 tablespoons of deep-frying oil and remove the saucepan from the heat.