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Hello everyone,

today in this blog I would like to share with you Czech traditional Christmas Eve dish, which is:

FRIED CARP AND POTATO SALAD

This recipe isn't complicated and I think that even amateur cooks can easily prepare it. We eat it as I have mentioned on Christmas day as diner and it is one of my favorite dish, which is another reason why I have decided to come up with this kind of recipe. 

For those who don't know what CARP is, let me add that it is fish that lives in our ponds and before Christmas you can buy it on the street, in front of malls - alive or dead. Some people still keep the tradition and kill the carp by own hands but it is not my cup of tea, I am not such sadist :-) Anyway, enough of talks, let's cook!

This recipe is for 2 portions.

Ingredients:

A) Fried carp

• 2 carp fillets - if you don't have carp you can use other fish such as cod or you can also use chicken breasts
• flour (all-purpose flour)
• egg
• dry bread crumbs - if you don't have it, you can use chopped crisps
• salt, lemon
• oil (not olive oil)

B) Potato salad

• 4 big potatoes
• 150 g of the peas and carrot (I use frozen)
• 1 egg
• 2-3 sweet baby pickles
• little bit of water from the pickles
• white onion (up to you how much you want to add)
• 5 table spoons of mayonnaise 
• 1 tea spoon of Worcestershire sauce (optional)

Directions:

A) Fried carp

1. Wash the fish properly in the cold water, then dry it.

2. Salt it and also use few drops of lemon. (Tip: I usually place it into the fridge for one hour so that it would absorb the salt and lemon but it isn't necessary.)

3. Take 4 deep plates. In the first plate put flour, in the second one put beaten stir egg, third one is going to be full of dry bread crumbs. What is the fourth plate for? :-) You will simply place there the breaded fish that is going to wait for being fried.

4. Put fish into flour and cover it properly from all the sides, then put it in the egg - little bit salty beaten stir egg also must cover all the parts, use the fork for replacing it to another plate with the bread crumbs. Again the same process like with flour - cover fish properly from all the sides and then place it in the fourth plate.

5. Heat the oil on the pan and let the fish fry from both sides. Remember that there should be oil under the fish because I am sure you don't want to eat burnt fish :-)

6. Fry the fish on middle heat so that fish wouldn't be burnt on the surface or raw insinde.

7. If you don't want to eat oily fish, better use paper napkin, which will absorb the oil from the fish. 

B) Potato salad

1. Boil the potatoes in skin until they are soft. In another pot cook in salty water carrots and peas - again until everything is soft. As for the egg, boil it for ten minutes, since the water starts boiling.

2. Meanwhile potatoes and vegetable is cooling down, cut the onion, pickles and egg.

3. Take a bowl and put everything you cut into it.

4. Peel the potatoes and cut them in little cubes. If the carrot is not cut, cut also the carrot.

5. Add the potatoes and vegetable into the bowl.

6. In the end add little bit of water from the pickles (not too much because of the consistence), salt if needed, Worcestershire sauce (optional) and mayonnaise.

7. Mix it all. 

Note: I would like to recommend you to start with potato salad because it tastes better, if you refrigerate it for some hours ;-)

B O N   A P P E T I T !!!