Recipe for "wigilia-1"

NAME

     WIGILIA-1 - Fish in horseradish sauce
     This recipe is the first of the 12 dishes that make  up  the
     traditional  Polish  Chrismas-eve meal, which is eaten after
     sundown on Christmas eve.  The Polish  word  for  "Christmas
     eve" is Wigilia (pronounced VI-gee-lee-ah). Its root is like
     the English "vigil": waiting for Christ to be born.  At  the
     end of the Wigilia meal the family goes off to midnight mass
     at church.
     There are usually 12 dishes in a Wigilia meal  to  symbolize
     the  12 apostles, though some families serve 13 because they
     include Christ in their count.  The  meal  starts  when  the
     first  star  can  be seen; this symbolizes the star of Beth-
     lehem. Although The Wigilia is meatless (Advent, the  season
     of  penance,  continues until midnight), it is still festive
     and delicious. The tradition of  Wigilia,  though  centuries
     old,  is  still  current in Poland. There is no fixed set of
     rules for what the 12 (or 13) dishes must be; the  items  in
     the  meal  change somewhat according to location and availa-
     bility of ingredients.  Nevertheless, all of the dishes  are
     traditional,  and  in addition there are many traditions for
     the serving of the meal.  For  example,  some  people  place
     straw  under the tablecloth to symbolize the manger in which
     Christ was born. Most families set an extra place,  for  the
     stranger who might be passing by. This is my family's tradi-
     tional Wigilia meal:
          Fish in horseradish sauce
          Pike Polish style
          Pickled beets
          Pickled herring in sour cream
          Stewed sauerkraut with mushrooms
          Christmas eve kutia
          Almond soup
          Noodles with poppy seed and raisins
          Poppy-seed rolls
          Christmas bread
          Baked apples with red wine
          Marzipan
          12-fruit compote
     With this first recipe you will notice a similarity with  my
     last  name.   Now you know a word of Polish (namely chrzan =
     horseradish ie. "hot stuff").

INGREDIENTS (Serves 6)

          FISH
     2         carrots
     2         stalks celery
     1         parsley root
     1         onion, quartered
     5         peppercorns
     1         bay leaf
     10 ml     salt
     1.5 l     water
     1 kg      fish fillets (carp, sole, pike or similar fillets)
          SAUCE
     50 g      butter
     50 ml     flour
     200 ml    prepared cream-style horseradish
     5 ml      sugar
     1 ml      salt
     150 ml    sour cream
     2         hard-cooked eggs, peeled and sieved

PROCEDURE

          (1)  Combine vegetables, dry seasonings, and water in a
               saucepan  or  pot.   Bring  to  a  boil; simmer 20
               minutes, then strain.
          (2)  Cook fish in the strained vegetable stock 6 to  10
               minutes, or until fish flakes easily.
          (3)  Remove  fish  from  stock.   Arrange  on   serving
               platter and cover with plastic wrap.  Chill.
          (4)  Strain fish stock and reserve  3/4  cup  for  hor-
               seradish sauce; cool.
          (5)  For horseradish sauce, melt the butter in  a  sau-
               cepan,  then  blend  in flour until smooth, making
               what the French would call a roux.
          (6)  Add the cooked fish stock gradually, stirring con-
               stantly.   Cook and stir until the sauce boils and
               becomes thick and smooth.
          (7)  Remove from heat and stir in  horseradish,  sugar,
               salt, sour cream, and eggs.  Cool for 15 minutes.
          (8)  Pour the horseradish sauce over the chilled  fish,
               and garnish with shredded lettuce.

RATING

     Difficulty: moderate.  Time: 1 hour.  Precision: approximate
     measurement OK.  Experiment.

CONTRIBUTOR

     Original recipe passed down through the generations and
     translated from Polish into English (with a few mods) by
     Edward Chrzanowski
     MFCF, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Ontario, Canada
     echrzanowski@watmath.waterloo.edu  or {ihnp4,allegra,utzoo}!watmath!echrzanowski