After emigrating from Ukraine to Mexico City, Fany’s great-grandmother Lena added a few Mexican touches to her Ashkenazi Passover menu, such as a “red gefilte fish” served in smoky, chile-spiked tomato sauce.
You can find dried chipotle and guajillo chiles at many well-stocked grocery stores and at Mexican markets. The chipotles are deliciously smoky, but quite hard, so be sure to soak them until they’re fully tender to ensure that your sauce will have the best texture. Guajillos are fruity with a medium heat level; their flexible flesh will soften easily. Toasting both types of chiles in a skillet before soaking brings out all their flavor nuances.
You can make this dish a day in advance. Store the gefilte fish patties and the sauce separately in the refrigerator and rejoin them to gently reheat.
Ingredients
Servings 7
FOR THE SAUCE
- 2 pounds 900 g tomatoes
- 1 or 2 garlic cloves not peeled
- 5 or 6 guajillo chiles stemmed and seeded
- 1 or 2 dried chipotle chiles or canned chipotle chiles stemmed and seeded
- ½ small white onion coarsely chopped
- 1½ teaspoons kosher salt
- 2 tablespoons avocado or vegetable oil
FOR THE FISH PATTIES
- 1 small white onion about 4 ounces/115 g, roughly chopped
- 1 small carrot about 2½ ounces/70 g, peeled and roughly chopped
- 1 pound 450 g skinless red snapper, carp, rockfish, or flounder fillets, any pin bones removed, cut into 1-inch (2.5 cm) pieces
- ⅓ cup 40 g matzah meal
- 1½ teaspoons kosher salt
- Freshly ground white pepper
- 1 or 2 large eggs
- About ⅓ cup 80 ml avocado or vegetable oil
Nutritional Facts
Nutrition Facts
Gefilte Fish in Spicy Tomato Sauce
Amount per Serving
Calories
192
% Daily Value*
Fat
6
g
9
%
Saturated Fat
1
g
6
%
Trans Fat
0.004
g
Polyunsaturated Fat
1
g
Monounsaturated Fat
3
g
Cholesterol
59
mg
20
%
Sodium
1069
mg
46
%
Potassium
714
mg
20
%
Carbohydrates
17
g
6
%
Fiber
4
g
17
%
Sugar
7
g
8
%
Protein
17
g
34
%
Vitamin A
3384
IU
68
%
Vitamin C
22
mg
27
%
Calcium
51
mg
5
%
Iron
1
mg
6
%
* Percent Daily Values are based on a 2000 calorie diet.
Instructions
MAKE THE SAUCE:
- Preheat the broiler. Line a baking sheet with aluminum foil and place the tomatoes and garlic on it. Broil, turning the tomatoes and garlic every few minutes, until tomato skins are blistered and slightly charred and the garlic feels soft to the touch, 10 to 15 minutes. Remove from the broiler and set aside to cool.
- In the meantime, heat a medium skillet over medium-high heat. Add the guajillo and dried chipotle chiles and toast for about a minute on each side, pressing each one down with a spatula so the entire chile comes in contact with the hot pan. (If using canned chipotles, skip the toasting and soaking steps and add them to the blender in the next step.) Transfer the chiles to a bowl and cover with very hot water; set aside to soften for 10 to 15 minutes.
- When the chiles are soft, drain them in a sieve set over a bowl; reserve the liquid.
- When the tomatoes and garlic are cool, peel the garlic and put the tomatoes and garlic in the blender, along with the onion, half of the chiles, and the salt. Puree until smooth, then add about ½ cup (120 ml) of the chile soaking liquid and blend again until smooth. Taste, and if you’d like more chile heat, add more of the soaked chiles. (Discard any you don’t end up using, or reserve for another use.)
- Heat the oil in a large deep skillet or wide saucepan over medium heat. Pour the tomato-chile sauce into the pan and bring it to a boil. Reduce the heat to low and simmer for 10 minutes, adding a few spoonfuls of water if the sauce seems too thick. Taste the sauce and adjust with more salt if needed; cover and set aside while you prepare the fish patties.
MAKE THE FISH PATTIES:
- Put the onion and carrot in a food processor and pulse until finely chopped. Add the fish and pulse until it is finely chopped but not mushy. Transfer the fish mixture to a large bowl and add the matzah meal, salt, a pinch of white pepper, and 1 egg. Mix gently but thoroughly with your hands; if the mixture seems dry, beat the second egg with a fork and add a bit more. The mixture should be moist but hold together when you shape it.
- Dampen your hands with cold water and scoop out about ⅓ cup (50 g) of the fish mixture. Shape into a 2-by-3-inch (5 by 7.5 cm) oval patty and gently place on a clean platter. Repeat with the remaining fish mixture, moistening your hands in water as needed; you should have 12 patties.
- Heat the oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Working in batches if necessary to avoid crowding the pan, add the fish patties and fry gently, turning once, until lightly browned, about 1 minute on each side. Bring the tomato-chile sauce to a simmer and carefully slide the browned fish patties into the sauce. Simmer until they are cooked through, about 20 minutes. Remove from the heat.
- Lift the patties from the sauce and arrange on a platter. Spoon the sauce on top and serve hot.
Excerpted from The Jewish Holiday Table by Naama Shefi and the Jewish Food Society (Artisan Books). Copyright © 2024.
Would love to make the family favourite but….neither the chillies nor the fish mentioned are available in my neighbourhood. All suggestions welcome. We grew with fresh water fish in Winnipeg but here on the Pacific side only salmon is familiar which we do not care for. Love receiving your ALL. Thank you.
You might be able to order the peppers online they are all dried. Otherwise you can try with fresh peppers that you can find and similarly the fish, most should work for this.
A PERFECT MIX OF CULTURES!
Om gosh! I love this beautiful, and wonderfully healthy recipe.
Such a great tip to soak the peppers to be better able to cut them properly.
An additional safety tip: Be very careful not to touch your eyes when handling any kind of hot/chili peppers; and, to thoroughly wash your hands after working with them, before you do any thing else. Use hand sanitizer (with aloe, if you have it) first, before soaping up.
Stay safe. Be well.