Ingredients: serves 4
1 medium carp, innards removed (about 3 1/3lb/1.5 kg), 1 onion, salt, 1 tablespoon Sweet Ann or mild
Red Gold, 1 teaspoon “Strong Steven” hot cherry pepper paste or hot Red Gold, about 2 tablespoon all-purpose flour, cooking oil for deep frying
Sauce: 3 1/2 oz/ 6 dkg smoked bacon, 1 onion, 7-9 oz/20-25 dkg mushrooms, 1 green pepper, 1 tomato, 2 tablespoon cooking oil, 1 tablespoon quality paprika, 7 oz/2 dl sour cream, 1/4 level
teaspoon ground black pepper, about 1 heaping teaspoon all-purpose flour, 1 teaspoon hot Red Gold
Galuska: 3 rolls, 10 1/2 oz/30 dkg ewe cheese, 3 eggs, about 6 tablespoon all-purpose flour, 2 teaspoon salt, 1/2 cup fresh dill

Filet the carp. Prepare 10-14 oz/3-4 dl fish stock from the cleaned head and bones along with the onion, already sliced, and a little salt, cooking it for about 1/2 hour. Cut the filet into 6 large or 12 small pieces, if possible all the same size. With a sharp knife make several close incisions in the fish, namely, cut it nearly to the skin every 1/16”-1/8”/2-3 mm. You can hear the small fish-bones crack while cutting. During baking these cut-up bones cook through entirely and the carp becomes nearly
boneless. Salt the slices, rub them with the 2 different paprika creams and set aside while you prepare the sauce and side dish. Sauce: dice the bacon and cut the onions fine. Clean the mushrooms, remove the seeds from the pepper, cut out the tomato stem and dice the vegetables into 1/5”/1 cm cubes (the mushrooms can be cut into wedges). Fry the bacon in the oil in a pan and quickly toss in the onions. Add the mushrooms, pepper, and tomato and after sautéing them briefly dust with paprika. Pour in the fish stock immediately, lest the paprika burn, and cook 5 minutes. Blend the flour and sour cream smooth, spoon a little of the hot stock into it and add it to thicken the mushroom and paprika broth. Season with Red Gold, add salt if necessary. Galuska dumplings: soak the rolls in cold milk or water and squeeze out the liquid. Press the ewe cheese through a strainer, add the eggs and flour and season with 1 teaspoon salt and the chopped dill weed. Bring water with the remaining salt to boil and using 2 teaspoons scrape small bite-size pieces of the mixture into the boiling water (the pasta expands a little as it cooks). Once they come to the surface, cook an additional 2 minutes, then strain. It is worthwhile rinsing them a little under cold running water so that they don’t stick, then stir in 1-2 tablespoon cooking oil.
While the dumplings are cooking, prepare the carp. Fry the seasoned fish slices until crispy in hot oil about a finger deep in a large skillet on medium heat, about 5-6 minutes on each side, then drain on a paper towel. To serve, place the fish on a plate, pour the mushroom sauce around it, and pile the ewe cheese dumplings next to it on one side. You can garnish it with curly parsley leaves, hot peppers, and lemon and tomato wedges.

Words of Wisdom
Anyone inexperienced in prepping fish for cooking, purchase the fish filet already cleaned and boned and buy the bones separately. You can also buy the filet alone and make the stock with just plain water. The dish can also be made from catfish, pikeperch,
or salt-water fish instead of carp. If using dried forest mushrooms or a variety of mushrooms, presoak about a handful of them in say, 2 cup/5 dl
lukewarm water. Once they have swelled, slice and add them along with their liquid to the onion-paprika sauce. If following this method, no additional water is necessary.

Preparation time: 1 hour 15 minutes
Calories per serving: 938
Skill: Easy to prepare