Baked Crucian Carp with Potatoes in Sour Cream

There are three techniques here that no other crucian carp recipe uses, and each one solves its own problem. Wine vinegar removes the muddy taste of pond-raised fish. Onion scalded with boiling water loses its sharpness and doesn't overpower the sauce. Flour stirred into the sour cream keeps it from separating under the foil.

The potatoes are parboiled in advance. The dish spends only twenty minutes in the oven — raw potatoes wouldn't be done in that time, but boiling them fully isn't an option either: they'd fall apart in the sauce.

The crucian carp is pan-fried before going into the oven, and it's the pan that cooks through the small bones. The source recipe claims that frying "removes the little bones" — that's an exaggeration: the bones don't go anywhere, they just become brittle and stop being noticeable.

The same dish cooks faster on the stovetop — crucian carp with potatoes in sour cream sauce in a pan. No baking dish on hand? Foil does the job: crucian carp with sour cream, baked in foil.

Caloric content: 150kcal

Notes

• The onion is scalded with boiling water. Two minutes in boiling water and the sharpness is gone, while the sweetness stays. Raw onion in the sour cream sauce is more noticeable than the fish.
• Flour is stirred into the sour cream in advance. Two tablespoons per four hundred grams. Without it, the sauce under the foil separates into water and flakes.
• The potatoes are parboiled. Twenty minutes in the oven isn't enough for raw potatoes, while fully boiled ones would fall apart in the sauce.
• The bones don't disappear. Frying makes them brittle and unnoticeable — that's not the same as removing them.
• Go easy on the vinegar. Five milliliters of wine vinegar for the whole fish. Any more, and the crucian carp starts tasting like marinade.

Questions and Answers

Why does the recipe call for wine vinegar?

It removes the muddy taste of pond-raised crucian carp. Five milliliters per fish is enough — any more and it's noticeable in the finished dish.

How long do you bake crucian carp with potatoes?

Twenty minutes at 200 °C under foil. The fish is already fried and the potatoes are parboiled — this step just finishes the cooking.

Why scald the onion?

So it loses its sharpness. In the sour cream sauce, raw onion overpowers the taste of the fish.

Why does the sauce separate?

No flour was added to the sour cream. Two tablespoons bind the liquid and keep the sauce smooth.

Recipe and step-by-step photos — kolizhanka.net.ua.