Fried Carp Roe with Onion
Roe is not something you buy — either it was inside the fish or it was not. No shop sells carp roe, and that is exactly why this is an angler's recipe: you need it on the very evening you take two full skeins out of the catch and have to decide what to do with them.
And you have to decide straight away. Roe spoils faster than fillet: it is fatty, fine-grained and has an enormous surface area. If the fish was cleaned in the evening, the roe goes into the pan that same evening or into the freezer — "it will keep till tomorrow in the fridge" does not apply to it.
Strip every last piece of membrane
The skein is a sac of connective tissue, and it is the membrane that turns bitter and rubbery in the pan. Rinse the roe under cold water and free it from the membranes completely: any scrap left behind curls up and stays visible in the finished dish.
Salt the roe before the pan, not in it. The salt has time to spread through the grain while the onion softens.
Five minutes, no more
Roe cooks faster than any other part of the fish. Five minutes over medium heat is enough, and you stir it the whole time: the grain that sticks to the bottom dries out first. Beyond that point roe does not get better — it gets dry and sandy.
When there is no roe
A spawning ban applies to carp in spring, and taking a fish full of roe at that time is not allowed. The exact dates are set by the regional department of the State Fisheries Agency in its annual order — they differ from region to region and are worth checking before the trip.
If the catch is large, the fillet from the same fish goes into the pan in batter, and the roe comes here: they cook at different speeds and do not share a pan.
Roe is only part of the catch. The fillet of the same carp goes into Carp in Batter, Pan-Fried, and the heads and backbone into Carp Head Fish Soup: one fish covers three dishes.
Get the ingredients ready
For two servings you need 200 g of roe, one small onion, salt, pepper and oil. Herbs are optional and go on the plate at the end.
Dice the onion finely
Peel the onion and cut it into small cubes — large pieces stay raw in the roe, because the roe is done before the onion has softened.
Remove the membranes and salt
Rinse the roe under cold water and free it from the membranes down to the last scrap. Put it in a bowl, salt, pepper and stir.
Soften the onion
Fry the onion in oil until soft — it has to be ready before the roe goes into the pan.
Add the roe
Put the prepared roe in with the onion and stir at once so that it does not set as a single lump.
Five minutes, stirring constantly
Fry for about five minutes until golden, stirring all the time. As soon as the grain turns opaque throughout, take the pan off the heat.
Serve
Transfer to a plate and scatter herbs over it. Hot, the roe is soft; once cooled it is denser and can be spooned.
Notes
What other roe works. Bream, silver bream and crucian carp roe are fried the same way — the grain is finer, so give it a minute less. Pike roe is firmer and is more often salted than fried.
How much you get. A two-kilo carp yields around 200 g of roe — exactly enough for this recipe. Less than that is usually not cooked on its own but added to scrambled eggs.
Freezing. Freeze roe already cleaned of membranes and in portions: once thawed it will not survive the cold a second time.
Serving. Fried roe is good hot and cold alike — cold it is denser and can be spooned like a pâté.
Recipe and photos — kolizhanka.net.ua
