Fish Paprikash

Hi all,

A friend told me about his recipe for 'fish paprikash', which according to him is a traditional Croatian dish. To me, the name sounds like it's a jewish dish! The problem is, neither he nor me knows enough Croatian to translate the recipe, so he made up his version, and based on his version, I made my own. I'm going to give you me recipe, and I was hoping anyone would know the origina (jewish?) recipe and could give it, for the interest of 1. seeing whether it resembles our versions and 2. for being able to make the original dish. This is my version.

Ingredients:
1. Pangasius Tilapia filet in chunks
2. onions, in small bits
3. Bell peppers, in chunks
4. a pot of passata di pomodoro
5. the juice of one lemon
6. a spoon of sugar
7. a sniff of cayenne or chilli powder
8. cilantro
9. cumin
10. olive oil

Heat the olive oil in a large metal pan, and fry the onion until sof and golden. Put in the bell peppers and stir-fry. Add the fish chunks, more stir-fry. When the fish is more or less done, add the tomato, the juice, the sugar and the spices. Stir and let simmer on a low fire until the bell peppers are soft and the tastes have fully developed.

This makes a gorgeous dish. Does it resemble to any Jewish dish you know?

My friends version and mine are almost the same, save for that I added the lemon juice and the sugar. In my world, tomato sauces without lemon and sugar are no tomate sauces. I think the cilantro and cumin are his additions - although my mother makes a mean goulash which involves paprika, cumin and lotssss of cayenne, and says it is and original eastern european version.

xx

I think to make it a "Jewish dish", you should change the fish to a kosher one. I believe that "pangasius" is a type of catfish and therefore is not kosher (see Kosher Fish information). It is also called "Basa". The reason I recognize that name is that my husband bought some frozen fish by that name and I thought to look it up. Since we couldn't eat it, we gave it to my cousin who lives in the area when we had her family over for dinner. Try changing the fish to something like Tilapia (which is also a "sustainable" fish).

Oh ok, I didn't know that!
Thank you for telling me I have been eating treif without even knowing it
Tilapia next time, ok. I didn't know pangasius was a 'double bad' fish, as in unkosher and unsustainable. Oups.

Hey, in Vojvodina (northern province of Serbia), where I'm from, we make fish paprikash often! Well, basically, we were under the same, Austrian-Hungarian rule as the parts of Croatia, so it's not unusual to see similar dishes or other living habits here and there! :)

We make it hot (with a lot of pepper and chilli, and of course paprika and cayenne) which I like the most!

And if you need someone to translate something from Croatian to English - give it to me! Will be done in a minute with no problem! ;)

A lot of chilli -ok for next time. Mine is rather sweet-sour because of lemon and sugar, but I like hot dishes and I'll try a hot version next time
Quit the sugar and MORE chilli and cayenn, yeah!

Sarit, could you share an *original* fish paprikash recipe?
I wonder what I'll have to change to make the real stuff

Of course! Here's the recipe from the most popular recipe site in the region! ;)

http://www.coolinarika.com/recept/monostorski-fish-paprikas/ (the simplest)
http://www.coolinarika.com/recept/739955/ (another one)

The recipe is meant for a huuuuge portion (because fish paprikash is usually made outside, in a picnic or so, when you have a lot of people with you), but you can cut off the elements of the dish in a proportional way. The paprikash chiefs say that it has the best taste when you prepare it in this big portions, but you can try to do it for a couple of people - it will be ok! :)

Here's the most simple recipe (and it's not vegan, so the moderator can transfer this part of our conversation somewhere else if needed):

Ingredients:
2-3kg of fish
1kg of onions
250ml tomato juice
3 spoons of paprika (cayenne pepper)
2-3 fresh hot peppers
4-5l of water

1. Put the prepared fish, onion, and hot peppers into the water and 2. then cook it together
3. when it boils, add the tomato juice, salt and cayenne while stirring
4. cook around 45 minutes and it's ready

A little bit different recipe (the second link):

Ingredients:
5kg of fish
4 big onions
5 spoons of cayenne
5 tea spoons of meshed hot paprika
4-5 fresh tomatoes
500ml tomato juice
1-2 fresh hot peppers
salt
500ml white wine (you can skip this if you can't find kosher wine as I cannot)

1. Put the water, tomato juice the fish in a water and cook for 30min, then add fish and cook another 20 min (that's actually the summary of the whole recipe, it took me 5 minutes to understand)

(and this is actually the beginning)
2. Prepare the fish (you can do this the previous day)
3. Put the chopped onion on a little oil, add salt, tomato, 2 spoons of cayenne, stir and stew with a little bit of water
4. add more water and the rest of cayenne, also a little bit of laurel and fish
5. cook for 20-30min
6. 10 minutes before it's done add the wine and hot ingredients
7. Enjoy it! :)

That's it! :)

Wow, that's really easy!!
But I don't think I will be able to contain myself and stick to the recipe: "aww, just a little bit of cilantro won't hurt....it might need some cumin to freshen it up"..that ;)

I just can't imagine such an easy recipe!

Apparently, it's easy like that! All the other versions I've found were similar! I've never made fish paprikash myself, but... Here's the chance! And of course, I'll be adding curry, and a little bit of cumin, and some more hot stuff etc etc etc

For traditional Paprikash (PAPRYKARZ the correct name) you should use smoked mackerels. To rest of the ingredients listed here in the topic people used to add Kasza (Kasha) OR Cooked White Rice.

Of course there is many versions of Paprykarz and I'm talking here about the traditional version.

if you live near the Polish community, find Polish deli and ask for: PAPRYKARZ SZCZECINSKI

Good luck with pronouncing the name:)

Kashaaaaa!!
I love everything containing Kasha.
Not sure we have a Polish community here (I just moved house...and country) but I'll try to find your Polish Paprykarz :)

I'm sure there is a lot of Polish people around. UK is considered one of the States of Poland now :) London is not English anymore, London is more Polish than Warsaw !

For Kasha you can look in your stores under name Buckwheat

Paprikash will be in the big flat can with red label :)

Good luck !

hi Chrisp,

I know kasha, I use it quite often in my own cooking. It is the Paprikash I wasn't sure to be able to find.

That having said... I live almost a day's travel from London... in mid Wales. Not sure we have anything Polish here.

dzienkuye and novidzenie!
(I mean, thanks and goodbye. I don't know how to spell it though ;) )

u were pretty close :) dziekuje and dowidzenia :)

I'm 100% sure you'll find Paprykarz in ANY Polish Market or deli whatever you guys name this in UK :)