Smoked fish

Smoking fish is one of the oldest ways of preserving food known to man, being considered better than salting or freezing. Smoked fish stands out with its flavour, taste and colour.

Ștefan Baciu, 15.12.2013, 13:52

Smoking fish is one of the oldest ways of preserving food known to man, being considered better than salting or freezing. Smoked fish stands out with its flavour, taste and colour.

Obviously, it can be eaten as is, but here are a couple of recipes made with smoked fish. A quick and satisfying dish, as well as light, is made by breaking off flakes of your favourite fish, then cubing plain boiled potatoes, slicing finely onion and apple, and squeezing some lemon juice, adding salt to taste. Mix well in a deep bowl. It is a salad that can be served hot or cold.

The other dish you want to present to you is a bit more elaborate, typical of Balkan cuisine, which is a Danube Delta specialty. It is called “scordalea”, coming from the Greek word “skordo”, meaning garlic.

You need a kilo of boiled potatoes for the mashed potato side dish, a kilo of smoked fish which you boil, oil or milk, butter, walnuts, garlic, black pepper and celery leaves. You don’t need to put salt in the mashed potatoes, since the fish has plenty of it, but do use a bit of the water in which the fish boiled. Mix in crushed walnuts, mashed garlic, pepper to taste and a few celery leaves, finely chopped. Mix in oil or milk, whichever you prefer, to bring the mashed potatoes to a creamy consistency.

You can serve this dish Danube Delta style, by laying the pieces of fish on a wide platter and spreading the mashed potatoes on top, or you can mix the fish in it.

Poftă bună!