Fish Rassolnik

⏳ Time

30 minutes

🥕 Ingredients

🍽️ Servings

Description

Fish heads, typically from large freshwater fish, are used in this dish. The most valuable types of fish heads are sturgeon, and ideally, they should be used for making fish rassolnik. Fish heads are used in Russian cuisine for preparing fish soups, fish solyanka, and rassolnik, as well as in regional varieties of fish soup.

Ingredients

Fillet of Sturgeon - 17.6 oz
Pike Perch Fillet - 7.1 oz
Parsley - 1.6 oz
Parsnip - 1.1 oz
Celery salt - 0.5 oz
Onion - 1 head
Leek - 1.1 oz
Sorrel - 1 bunch
Spinach - 1 bunch
Pickles - 2 pieces
Cucumber Brine - ½ cup
Salt - to taste
Vegetable Oil - 2 tablespoons
Ground Black Pepper - to taste
Sour Cream - 4 tablespoons
Herbs - to taste

Step by Step guide

Step 1

Cut the sturgeon fish heads into several large pieces, rinse thoroughly, and boil in slightly salted water for one hour. Then remove the fish heads from the pot, cool them, and separate the flesh from the cartilage, removing the bony plates. Set the flesh aside in a separate bowl for later use. Place the cartilage back into the broth and continue to cook until ready.

Step 2

Rinse the fish (you can use not only pike perch but also catfish, cod, or sea bass) and cut it into large pieces. Then cook the fish until done in a separate pot.

Step 3

Rinse, dry, and julienne the parsley root, celery root, parsnip, onion, and leek. Heat vegetable oil in a pan and sauté the roots and onion until soft.

Step 4

Peel the pickles, cut them lengthwise, remove the seeds, and julienne them.

Step 5

Combine the fish broth and the broth in which you boiled the fish heads, and bring to a boil. Add the sautéed vegetables, pickles, and spices to the boiling broth and cook for 15–20 minutes.

Step 6

Rinse the sorrel and spinach leaves (if it is not the season for spinach and sorrel, or if they are hard to find, you can substitute them with regular green salad), dry them well, and chop them like cabbage. Five minutes before the vegetables and roots are done, add the spinach and sorrel to the pot, season with salt, and pour in the cucumber brine (ideally, it should be boiled and strained beforehand).

Step 7

Turn off the heat and let the rassolnik steep. Before serving the soup, place the warmed cooked fish and cartilage in a bowl, pour in the rassolnik, add sour cream, and sprinkle with finely chopped herbs.