Zander Satsivi: Fish in Walnut Sauce

Preparing the fish

1. Clean the zander and cut the fillet. Scale the zander, gut it and trim off the fins. Clean the fish very thoroughly of any remaining innards and separate the fillet from the bones. Set aside the backbone, head, fins and large noticeable bones for the broth. Cut the fillet across the fish into large pieces 4-5 cm wide, salt and pepper them and set aside for 10 minutes.

   

Broth and bazhe sauce

1. Make 500 ml of strong broth from the fins, bones, head and tail. As when making homemade fish soup, you can add peeled carrot, onion and soup roots of your choice, a peeled bell pepper, a clove of garlic and 1-2 bay leaves. Simmer over low heat, then strain the finished broth. Don’t salt or pepper the broth.

   Incidentally, besides being very aromatic, a good fish broth sets very well into a jelly.

   

2. Fry the finely chopped onion in butter over medium heat until golden. Zander is not a fatty fish at all, so use butter for the onion rather than fat skimmed from the broth, as is often recommended. Never overfry the onion, or the fish in sauce will have an off taste.

   

3. While the onion is frying, make the walnut paste. Grind the walnuts and peeled garlic in a mortar or chop them in a blender. Separately, grind a little salt and black pepper in a mortar with 1-2 cloves, a pinch of hot pepper and coriander seeds. Mix the ground nuts with the spices and add 2 tbsp wine vinegar or half a cup of natural pomegranate juice (100 ml). You should get a thick paste.

   

4. Combine the paste with the onion and simmer the sauce. When the onion in the pan turns golden, add 1 tsp flour (3 g), stir and fry everything for 2-3 minutes. Thin the nut and garlic mixture with broth and pour it slowly into the pan with the onion. Stir thoroughly, add a pinch of cinnamon and 1 tsp khmeli-suneli. Let the sauce simmer over low heat for 5 minutes.

   

6. Cool the sauce and stir in the cilantro. Take the sauce off the heat and let it cool to room temperature. Finely chop the coriander greens (cilantro) and mix them into the cooled sauce. For a more uniform sauce, you can blend it further.

   

   You can also salt it to taste and add more spices and acid, wine vinegar or pomegranate juice.

   

Fish in sauce

1. Fry the fish fillet. Pat the prepared fillet dry with a napkin, dredge in flour and fry in vegetable oil over medium heat on both sides until golden brown. The fillet must be fully cooked, because the fish in sauce will not be heated any further.

2. Pour the sauce over the fish, let it cool and refrigerate. Place the fried fillet in a deep dish and pour the spicy walnut and cilantro sauce over it. The fried fish in sauce must cool completely and soak up the flavor of the sauce. Only after that should it go into the fridge.

   

   Fish in sauce is served cold, so it is ideal to make it the evening before and serve it the next day. By then the fish is sure to be saturated with the sauce.

   

Serving

1. Serve the fish satsivi cold with fresh herbs, garlic cloves and sliced hot pepper. You can sprinkle it with a pinch of hot pepper. A glass of wine won’t hurt; I still doubt that satsivi is a main course rather than an appetizer.

   

   It looks beautiful when fish in satsivi sauce is served in a ceramic or clay dish, with fresh herbs, a head of garlic, hot pepper pods and pan-baked khachapuri or lavash. This way of serving pleases not only the stomach but also the eye. Don’t deny yourself the pleasure.