Baked carp on a bed of vegetables

Ingredients for 6 servings:

• 2 m.-sized carp (approx. 2000 g)
• 100 g butter, well chilled
• salt and pepper
• 30 g flour for dusting
• 1 tsp sweet paprika powder
• ¼ liter vegetable broth
• 2 jars of mushrooms, whole heads
• 4 carrots
• 2 bell peppers
• 2 stalk(s) leeks

Instructions

Working time approx. 1 hour 30 minutes; Cooking/baking time approx. 50 minutes; Total time approx. 2 hours 20 minutes

A lovely family tradition for us, easy to prepare and simply delicious

Gut the carp, sprinkle with plenty of salt, and use it to rub off the slime. Remove any large scales. Rinse the cooked fish thoroughly under running water, pat dry, and then salt the inside. Place 2 cups (whole potatoes work too) on a deep baking sheet and place the carp on top. Now make diagonal cuts in the fish on both sides below the central bone, 4 cm apart. Season with salt and place approximately 0.3 cm thick slices of butter into the cuts. Mix the flour, paprika, and pepper and sift over the meat. Refrigerate the vegetables (you can also change them to your liking), cut them into pieces, and blanch them for about 2 minutes. Save the blanching water. Spread everything around the fish and refrigerate again. Up to this point, everything can be prepared well in advance and even let stand for a few hours. Just before the fish goes into the oven, pour in the vegetable broth (or the blanching water) and mushroom water, season the vegetables with salt (about 1 teaspoon) and pepper, and mix everything together again. Cook the carp in a preheated oven at 200°C for about 50 minutes. Baste the carp with the sauce occasionally and toss the vegetables. Serve with croquettes, creamed horseradish, and lemon slices as a side dish.