Name: Poached Fish with Walnut Sauce or Almond Sauce (Cevizli Balik or Bademli Balik)
Yield: Serves 6
Cuisine: Turkey
Ingredients: 1 whole fish such as carp, salmon, cod, flounder, or snapper, 5 to 7 pounds, cleaned; Salt and freshly ground black pepper; 3 to 4 tablespoons olive oil, or as needed; 1 cup ground almonds; 3 to 4 cloves garlic, minced (optional); 6 tablespoons chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley; ¼ cup water, or as needed; ¼ cup wine vinegar; 3 tablespoons wine vinegar; 6 tablespoons chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley or dill; ¼ cup water; 2 slices day-old rustic bread, crusts removed, soaked in water, and squeezed dry; 10 to 12 black peppercorns; 3 lemon slices; 2 celery stalks with leaves attached, and/or 2 large slices celery root, peeled and sliced; 3 fresh flat-leaf parsley sprigs; 1 or 2 slices day-old rustic bread, crusts removed, soaked in water, and squeezed dry; 1 cup ground walnuts; 2 carrots, peeled and sliced; 1 large onion, halved; 1 cup dry white wine; 4 cups water

Preparation info

Serves
6

Difficulty
Easy

Appears in

Sephardic Flavors

By Joyce Goldstein

Published 2000

About

In the Sephardic community, carp was considered the special holiday fish, especially for Rosh Hashanah, as it represented good luck and longevity. In Salonika, the carp, or sazan, came from a lake the Sephardim called Goyvasidi, a Ladino corruption of Agios Vasilios (Saint Basil), the Greek name for the lake. While the fish could be served very simply, with just the court bouillon reduced to a shimmering jelly or thickened with the egg-and-lemon agristada, it also was sometime