Christmas Dishes (Part IV) - Halászlé (Fish Soup)

Dear Readers,

this is the dish, which most Hungarian families have on Christmas Eve. Carp is almost every table's content at this time. Hope you'll like it and/or try it! 

Ingredients:

30 g (2 tablespoon) Hungarian ground red pepper (pirospaprika por)

500 g (1 lb) onion (hagyma)

3 kg (7 lb) carp (ponty)

salt (só)

How to become master of the Hungarian kitchen #21

Scale and wash the carps before gutting them. Then cut into equal-sized pieces, salt, and cover with onions. Put the heads, backbones, tails, and fins with some sliced onions into a pot of water and boil it. When the water reaches boiling point add the two tablespoon ground red pepper and cook it till the onions don’t get tender and light brown. It’s about an hour and a half. Strain the stock over the pieces of fish and boil for 25-30 minutes. Don’t forget to shake the bowl several times. You mustn’t stir it; you can only shake the bowl. It’s important, because the fishes will stay in gross. You can add a few green peppers to the fish, if you have them at home.  Serve the soup in a plate with a slice of bread. Jó étvágyat!