Carp fillet with horseradish sauce and parsley potatoes

Pan-fried carp fillet with crisp skin, served with a horseradish sauce made from soured cream and freshly grated horseradish, plus parsley potatoes. A classic Christmas Eve dinner.

At a glance

• Serves 4
• Prep time: 20 min
• Cooking time: 25 min
• Total time: 45 min
• Calories: 497 kcal per serving
• Protein: 32 g
• Fat: 24 g
• Carbs: 35 g

Ingredients

• 600g carp fillet
• 800g potatoes
• 30g fresh horseradish root
• 150g soured cream
• 1 tbsp lemon juice
• 1 tbsp spelt flour
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 20g butter
• 1 bunch of parsley
• 1 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp pepper

Method

You’ll need: frying pan · saucepan · chopping board · knife · sieve · grater · spatula

1. Peel the potatoes, halve any large ones and cook them in salted water for 20 min until tender.
2. Finely grate the horseradish and stir it into the soured cream with the lemon juice and 1 pinch of salt.
3. Cut the carp fillet into four pieces, season with salt and pepper and dust them in the spelt flour.
4. Fry the fillets skin-side down in the olive oil over a medium heat for 5 min, until the skin is crisp. Turn them and fry for another 2 min.
5. Chop the parsley, drain the potatoes and toss them with the butter and parsley.
6. Serve the carp with the parsley potatoes and the horseradish sauce.

Good to know

In Franconia, Saxony and Austria, carp is on the table on Christmas Eve. Pan-fried as a fillet, it's quick to make and doesn't need a big fish pan. You simply stir the horseradish sauce together cold.

Swaps

Carp → zander fillet or Arctic char. Soured cream → yoghurt. Fresh horseradish root → 2 tsp grated horseradish from a jar (unsweetened, without seed oils). Spelt flour → rice flour.

Cooking tips

Ask your fishmonger to score the fillets, cutting across them at very close intervals: this cuts the fine pin bones so small that they soften during frying.

Storage

Best eaten fresh. Fried fish keeps for 1 day in the fridge, the sauce for 3 days.

Allergens

Contains fish, gluten (spelt) and milk (soured cream, butter). For children, only with careful checking for bones. Suitable in pregnancy if the fish is cooked through.