A Gefilte fish story

 I volunteered to bring the Gefilte fish to Pesach/Passover dinner tonight for our group knowing that my mother-in-law Lea makes an awesome Gefilte fish.  Over skype a week ago Saturday, I asked if she could some how get me that recipe.  Lucky for me, she was excited to share because it took some doing.  First she wrote it out in French because she cooks in French so she won't forget the language.  Then she nagged her husband Dov to type it out in Hebrew on the computer as she verbally translated it into Hebrew for him.  (They live in Israel, he being born there and she moving there probably in the early 1950s from France though she was born in Germany.)  After a few days of this, she gives up and calls her oldest son David in northern Israel and translated it to him over the phone as he typed.  David then sends it as a pdf to Nahum who printed it off for me this last Saturday.  Saturday night he translates it to English for me as I write out the ingredients and cooking steps.   This generates a few questions and 2 more phone conversations with Lea to get everything straight on Sunday.

Armed with an ingredient list and only Sunday to figure everything out, I start calling the local grocery stores because I need whole carp scaled, de-boned, and ground and the heads, tails, and bones preserved for fish stock.

Basic conversation with all 3 places I could call:
Me, "Do you have carp?"
Them, "No, we never have carp."
Me, "Do you have whole fish?"
Them, "No, not today.  If we did it would be trout."
Me, "Can you grind fish for me?"
Them, "No, no one in this area has the ability to do that due to cross contamination issues."
Me, "Do you have Pike?" (It's the other option listed in my Joy of Cooking book.)
Them, "No, we're out of that today."

Luckily, we had invited some friends over for brunch, the Sanborns.  We tell this story to them and Robin miraculously solves one problem with,  "Oh, I have a meat grinder on my Kitchenaid mixer.  I can grind the fish for you."  I still don't know what fish to buy, but at least I was temporarily saved from the horrible fate of buying a jar of Gefilte fish from the 5' Kosher section of our Kroger.  After call the original 3 stores and 2 more, I'm able to locate 1 store with fish stock.  Once at Kroger for the bulk of my shopping, I consult with the butcher as to which fish in the display case is most similar in taste and/or texture to carp or pike.  We decided on tilapia.  After picking up some fish stock, I head over to Robin's for a quick fish grinding party. 

After another hour in my kitchen and two hours for the fish on the stove, I now have homemade Gefilte fish patties that taste pretty good but got a lot more help than originally anticipated to get here..  Nahum was the official taste tester as he's been eating Lea's fish all his life.  While he says the texture is definitely different, he gave them his full approval (with a little salt of course).

Click here for a picture of the pot cooling on the back deck last night.