Happy Passover!

Jess, my husband’s late grandmother, also know as Big MomMom (to go along with her hubby - Big PopPop), had a warm and loving way about her AND a heavy, very heavy, hand with pepper. Her gefilte fish recipe is a great way to doctor up the jarred variety. It features lots, and I mean lots, of freshly ground black pepper.



It’s interesting that with the profusion of hot sauces and different chili seasonings that folks forget the heat that can come from everyday black pepper, freshly ground.

Jesse’s Gefilte Fish (serves 3)

1 large onion, chopped
2 tsps. olive oil
1 jar (24 oz.) gefilte fish
2 carrots, sliced thinly
lots (maybe 1 to 2 tablespoons) of freshly ground black pepper
optional: ½ cup vegetable stock
horseradish for serving

Sauté onion in olive oil until completely soft, at least 15 minutes.

To the onion, add the fish, the juices and the carrots from the jar of gefilte fish, plus the additional sliced carrots. Stir in plenty of freshly ground black pepper. (Add that additional ½ cup of stock to get more juice, if desired.) Simmer, covered, for 45 minutes.

Cool and refrigerate until ready to serve. Place 2 fish pieces on each plate with some sliced carrots. Spoon some juice over. Grind more pepper over the top. Serve horseradish separately.

Note: You can also heat up the fish juices and add broken up pieces of matzoh and serve it alongside the gefilte fish.