Baked carp with castle-style mashed potatoes

Recipe steps

We thoroughly wash the carp and cut it into portions. We dry each portion with paper towels, salt it on all sides and place it on a plate. We drizzle the juice of half a lemon over it and turn it a few times in the juice. The prepared portions are then covered with cling film and left to rest in a cool place for at least 2 hours.

In a baking dish, we pour in rapeseed oil, add sweet paprika, salt, and freshly ground black pepper. Then we mix everything in the baking dish thoroughly with a brush until a red paprika emulsion is formed.

We set the oven to 200 °C. We remove the carp from the lemon marinade and thoroughly dry each portion with a paper towel. We then place them in the baking dish and brush them with oil on all sides. For each portion placed skin side down, we add cubes of butter and a piece of rolled ham. After baking, we get a beautifully crispy crust.

We place the uncovered baking dish in the oven and bake for about 25 minutes. During baking, we regularly baste it with the rendered juices and, if necessary, add a little water.

Meanwhile, we prepare the mashed potatoes. We peel the potatoes, cut them into smaller pieces, and boil them until soft in salted water.

In a pot, we pour in milk, add butter, a broken bay leaf, and two allspice berries. We slice the spring onion into rings and add it to the milk. Then we salt it with one teaspoon of salt and add freshly ground pepper. We start heating the milk, ensuring it doesn’t boil, keeping it just below the boiling point for about 10 minutes.

We drain the cooked potatoes and then mash them with a potato masher. Gradually, we add the milk with the spring onions, from which we have previously removed the spices. Just before serving, we add chopped parsley.

On a warmed plate, we place the freshly baked carp with the skin on top, add the mashed potatoes, and garnish with crispy bacon or ham. Finally, we drizzle the carp with the juices from the baking dish.