Gefilte Fish: The Next Generation

                        From the April 12, 2000 New York Times

Aaron Lee Fineman for The New York Times 

JUST THE SKIN Buba Khotoveli with gefilte fish at his restaurant, Primorski

By Joan Nathan

    Anya Kushner, the cook at Primorski in Brighton Beach, Brooklyn, makes gefilte fish year-round from a recipe she learned growing up in Odessa.  First she sautés onions, then grinds them with carp and whitefish and mixes in egg and seasonings.  Although her mother boned the fish, then sewed the skins together to encase the stuffing, Mrs. Kushner simply places few long sheets of skin on a piece of aluminum foil, then fills them with chopped fish mixture, then covers it with more skin and encloses the whole “fish” in the foil.  She simmers it in a broth colored red with beets.  The result has a look of a whole fish without the mess.

    Although Mrs. Kushner and other Russians insist that the gefilte fish mix should be at least 75 percent carp, others prefer at least 50 percent whitefish.  But a bigger debate is over horseradish, the traditional accompaniment for the Passover dish and the symbol of slavery when the Jews were in Egypt under the pharaohs.  Some say it is indispensable for taste and to clear the nasal passages at this springtime festival, when pollen is in the air; others liken it to tomato sauce on good ravioli-all it does is cover up the flavor.  No matter.  Along with gefilte fish, red or white horseradish is an essential to Passover as matzo and four cups of wine.