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fish in gingerbread sauce
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Fish with gingerbread sauce (Carp in old Polish gray sauce)

Prep Time15 minutes
Cook Time15 minutes
Total Time30 minutes
Servings: 2 servings
Author: Aleksandra

Ingredients

fish:

  • 2 small carp fillets or other white-fleshed fish

sauce:

  • 1.5 teaspoons light brown sugar
  • 3 tablespoons raisins
  • 1.5 tablespoons lemon juice
  • 2 tablespoons red wine
  • 1 tablespoon butter
  • 1 tablespoon flour
  • 1/3 cup gingerbread cake crumbs 0.9oz/25g
  • 1 cup vegetable broth 240ml
  • 1 teaspoon red wine vinegar
  • ½ teaspoon honey
  • a pinch of gingerbread spice mix
  • salt and pepper to taste
  • to serve:
  • 2 tablespoons flaked almonds

Instructions

  • Add the sugar to a small frying pan/pot, heat over medium heat until dissolved. When you'll see the first bubble on top, add the wine, stir and cook for 30 seconds. Add the raisins, lemon juice, cook for another 1-2 minutes, until the wine is almost evaporated. Set aside.
  • In a medium pot (the fish fillets must fit in it, but it shouldn't be too big) melt the butter, add flour and whisk until combined.
  • Add the broth and gingerbread crumbs. Cook over low heat for a few minutes, blend the sauce until smooth (I used hand/immersion blender).
  • Add the content of the small pan/pot to the medium pot. Stir and cook for 2 minutes until the sauce is slightly thickened.
  • Season the sauce with the red wine vinegar, honey, gingerbread spice and salt and pepper to taste. Try to adjust the sweet-sour flavor to your liking (this will depend on what kind of wine you've used and how sweet your gingerbread cake was). The sauce will taste good but it will be much better after we stew the fish fillets in it.
  • Stew the fish fillets in the sauce - if you have small fillets like on the step by step photos add them both to the pot, if you have wider fillets like on the main photos you can cook 1 fillet at a time. Place the fish fillets in the sauce, cover the pot with a lid and cook the fish over lowest heat for a couple of minutes until the fish is cooked through. If you have thick fillets turn them over and cook on both sides. The cooking time will depend on the thickness of the fish. The fillets should be submerged minimum in half in the sauce. Be careful, the fish doesn't need much time, overcooked fish with be rubbery.
  • Place the cooked fish on a plate, pour the sauce over, sprinkle with almond flakes (you can toast the almonds on a dry pan until golden).
  • Enjoy!

Notes

  • Fish - you can use any fish fillets that you like (except salmon). You can't omit the fish - this dish can not be made vegetarian, it just won't taste that good in my opinion. The sauce is good on its own, but it's really transformed to 'omg so delicious' when you stew the fish in it. Ideally would be to use thin, skin-on fillets (like on the main photo).
  • Gingerbread cake crumbs - I used trimmed edges from these gingerbread squares. This gingerbread cake was not overly so if your gingerbread is very sweet you can omit the additional honey or just add a little more vinegar. Some old Polish recipes call for rye bread and not gingerbread, so you can also try adding that and then add more gingerbread spice and maybe sugar to the sauce (I haven't tried this version but I'm quite sure it would work).
  • You can substitute sugar for more honey (add at the end).
  • How to scale the recipe: you can double all the ingredients and then cook all the fillets at once in a bigger pot. The fish just needs to be submerged in half in the sauce.
  • Make ahead: I would recommend making the sauce ahead and stewing the fish in it just before serving. Store the sauce in the fridge for up to 3 days.

Nutrition

Calories: 343kcal