Carp with Gingerbread — A Family Recipe

Carp with gingerbread and beer sauce is our family recipe. The gingerbread cookie Grandma always added to the recipe is easy to make yourself: use the recipe for honey gingerbread cookies, leaving out the filling.

Wash and scale the carp, remove the head, fins, and innards, then rinse thoroughly again. Cut into serving portions.

Season each piece with salt and pepper to taste and sprinkle with lemon juice.

Grease a baking dish with vegetable oil. Slice the carrots into rounds and the onions into rings. Arrange half the vegetables on the bottom of the dish. Add the pieces of carp. Top with the remaining vegetables.

Add the bay leaves and cloves.

Cover the dish with foil and place in an oven preheated to 220 degrees. Bake the fish for about 15 minutes, until it releases its juices.

Then pour in the dark beer and leave it in the oven again until the liquid comes to a boil. Remove from the oven, take off the foil, and leave in a warm place. The resulting liquid will be needed to make the sauce.

To do this, melt the sugar in a dry frying pan until dark. Add the vinegar (150 ml, or to taste) and the crumbled gingerbread cookie. Pour in the liquid from baking the fish and reduce the sauce to the desired consistency. Add sugar if necessary. The beer sauce should be sweet and sour. Strain.

Arrange the fish pieces, sauce, boiled potatoes, and lettuce leaves on a serving platter. Serve.

Enjoy your meal!