Carp Baked with Mushrooms in Sour Cream

River fish under smetana — the thick, full-fat sour cream of Ukrainian kitchens, closest to crème fraîche on a Western shelf — is a home-cooking staple, and the mushrooms and onion on top push it toward a Polish or Lithuanian bake. The tablespoon of flour stirred into the cream is not there to thicken it: it stabilizes the milk protein so the sauce will not break into curds in the oven.

Water is the enemy

Carp is juicy on its own, which is why the fillet is baked part-way on its own first and the mushrooms are stewed in only a quarter cup of water that you then cook off entirely. Skip that and liquid pools beneath the crust, turning a bake into fish in soup.

Use sour cream of at least 20% fat — a “glass” in recipes like this means 250 ml, roughly a cup — because low-fat versions taste sourer and separate even with flour to help. Cheese mixed with breadcrumbs is an old trick: the crumbs soak up fat weeping out of the cheese, so the top browns evenly and crisply instead of going rubbery.

Button mushrooms can give way to porcini or honey mushrooms, though wild ones should be parboiled first. Score the 1 kg (about 2¼ lb) fillet diagonally and salt it a quarter of an hour ahead — carp’s fine intramuscular bones become almost unnoticeable. Serve straight from the dish with boiled potatoes and dill.

Part of Ukrainian cuisine — 447 more recipes in the section.

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