Crucian Carp with Potatoes in Sour Cream Sauce in a Pan

This is a casserole made in a pan. The order of the layers is the same as it would be in a baking dish: fried onion at the bottom, potatoes on top of it, sour cream, and the already-cooked fish on top — only the lid does the job the oven would.

The potatoes go in raw, and they are what sets the time. Thin rounds cook through in sour cream under the lid in forty minutes; sliced 'as for frying', a centimeter thick, they will stay firm even once the sour cream starts to catch on the bottom.

The crucian carp is fried first and set aside temporarily. If it stayed in the pan for the full forty minutes, only fibers would be left of it in the sauce — as it is, it goes back in ten minutes before the end and only warms through.

The same fish-and-potato pairing also works in the oven — baked crucian carp with potatoes in sour cream. Don't need a side at all? Go with crucian carp in sour cream with onion, pan-fried.

Caloric content: 140kcal

Notes

• Slice the potatoes five millimeters thick. This is the main constraint of the recipe. Thick rounds don't cook through in sour cream under the lid — they steam instead of baking.
• Take the fish out of the pan. Forty minutes in the sauce is more than crucian carp can take: the meat will come off the bones and fall apart into the sour cream.
• Use sour cream with at least 15% fat. There's a lot of it here and it gets diluted by the potato juice, so the lower fat limit works — unlike recipes where sour cream goes on in a thin layer.
• You need a deep pan. Three layers plus the sauce don't fit in a regular one, and without a lid the whole thing doesn't work at all.
• Add the dill at the end. Dropped into the hot sauce for forty minutes, it loses both its color and its aroma.

Questions and Answers

How long to cook crucian carp with potatoes?

Forty minutes under the lid over medium heat: thirty for the potatoes in sour cream, the last ten together with the fish.

Why did the potatoes stay raw?

They were sliced too thick. Under the lid in sour cream, they cook through only as thin rounds five millimeters thick.

Can I leave the fish in the pan the whole time?

Better not to. In forty minutes in the sauce the crucian carp will fall apart, and the whole point of the dish is a whole fish on a bed of potatoes.

What sour cream should I use?

At least 15% fat. Here it gets diluted by the potato juice, so even a leaner one works.

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