Carp is the closest "relative" of the carp. In fact, this is one and the same fish, just carp lives in rivers and lakes, and carp are bred in ponds. That is, carp is a kind of “domesticated” breed of carp.
In cooking, carp is used quite widely, since its meat is tasty and tender. Carp is cooked in a boiled, fried or baked form. A recipe like stuffed carp is also popular. Moreover, this dish can be served as a cold appetizer, and as the main hot fish.
There are many recipes for cooking stuffed carp. Some of them are quite complicated. It is recommended that they cut the fish in such a way as to remove all bones from it, leaving intact skin with a layer of meat. Naturally, to perform such an operation, you need to have certain skills. Therefore, we will consider simpler versions of the recipe for stuffed fish.
In order for us to get carp stuffed with delicious, it is advisable to use large fish weighing two kilograms. The carp should be well cleaned of scales, gutted through an incision on the abdomen, and remove the gills with kitchen scissors.
Now rub the fish inside and out with juice squeezed from the lemon, as well as salt and your favorite spices. You can use a ready-made mixture of spices for fish. Set the prepared carp aside for about half an hour to marinate it. And we will do the stuffing ourselves.
To do this, we sauté the chopped onion in butter, then add the grated carrot and fry it all together for several minutes until golden. Then add finely chopped mushrooms, a little sour cream and bring everything to full readiness. Do not forget to salt and add seasoning.
The inside of the carp’s abdomen is well lubricated with sour cream (it is better to take a product with a fat content of 20%), put the minced meat there and sew it well with thread. Of course, you can try chopping with toothpicks, but in this case the look of the finished fish will be less accurate, and more juice will flow out.
On the back of the fish on both sides you need to make fairly deep cuts on both sides and grease these cuts well with sour cream. So our stuffed carp will turn out more juicy. For flavor, in the cuts that appear on top when placing the fish on a baking sheet, you can insert half a cup of thinly sliced lemon.
The oven should be heated to a temperature of 180 degrees and put a baking sheet with fish. Cooking time - about an hour (depends on the size of the fish and the characteristics of the oven). During baking, you need to lubricate the carp on top with sour cream a couple of times.
Everything - our stuffed carp is ready. It can be eaten hot (without forgetting to remove the threads), or it can be cooled and served like a cold snack.
Of course, this cooking option is not the only one. There are many different fillings suitable for stuffing carp. For example, many people like stuffed carp, the filling recipe for which contains walnuts. To prepare this dish, you need to fry the onions well, add nuts that are well chopped to it. Then salt and season the filling to taste. Fans of the Caucasian cuisine can add pomegranate seeds to the onion-nut mixture. The rest of the cooking technology does not change. Although if someone does not like sour cream, then this ingredient can be completely replaced with sunflower or butter, only butter should be taken less than sour cream.
Fans of Russian cuisine will surely appreciate the recipe "Carp Stuffed with Buckwheat". To prepare the filling, you need to cook the loose buckwheat porridge and season it with the onion fried in oil. You can add boiled mushrooms or an egg, cut into small pieces, into the filling.
Equally popular are various options for fillings for fish, prepared on the basis of friable rice porridge. Various vegetables and mushrooms are used as additives.
Serve stuffed carp should be laid entirely on a dish and garnished with herbs and fresh vegetables.