OCTOBER 21 • 2021 | 53

W

ith the rainfall of 
late, my mind has 
been on flooding 
throughout history, whether 
the Biblical flood or simply the 
instances in the 
last 60 years when 
I-94 was under-
water at the next 
“500-year flood 
event” that hap-
pened far fewer 
than 500 years 
ago.
And, of course, my mind 
turns to food, and to fish, 
because the rivers running in 
the gutters on the streets in my 
neighborhood might as well be 
running with fish for how deep 
they can get. As someone with 
food allergies, though, I don’t 
eat actual fish. I’ve got a weird 
fake fish made from tofu in my 
freezer that I keep meaning to 
do … something … with, and 
I’ve made dishes that might 
normally use seafood without 
those ingredients, doing my best 
to create a similar flavor result.
Here, however, I have a 
recipe inspired by one in an 

older cookbook gifted to me 
by a good friend: The Spice and 
Spirit of Kosher Jewish Cooking. 
Published by Chabad in 1977. 
It’s very much a crash course 
in running a Jewish home for 
a young woman who’s married 
into a more religious situation 
than she was familiar with, or 
who didn’t have a bubbie to 
teach her the old ways and thus 
is a little lost on how to cook for 
Shabbos. The cookbook con-
tains a wide variety of recipes 
and ranges from very culinarily 
complicated to the occasional 
onion soup packet and cream of 
mushroom soup-based dishes, 
with a lot falling somewhere in 
the strange space in between.
As a dish to use leftover 
cooked chicken, there’s a recipe 
for mock fish; it very closely 
resembles how you might make 
gefilte fish both in flavor profile 
and method. Why not adapt 
this to use a non-meat base 
and create something tasty? 
This looks like a lot from the 
ingredients, but it’s very simple 
and uses a lot of things from the 
garden.

TVP
‘Mock Fish’

TVP “MOCK FISH”

Ingredients

1 ¾ cups TVP (textured vegetable 

protein), rehydrated with 1⅓ cups 

vegetable stock or water

1 cup carrot, grated (about 1 larger 

carrot)

1 cup yellow onion, grated, juices 

drained off and reserved (roughly 

one 3-4-inch onion, maybe less)

3 cloves garlic, minced

1 egg

½ cup matzo meal, plus more if 

needed

½ Tbsp. kosher salt

1 tsp. fresh ground black pepper

1 tsp. sugar (optional, use if you’re a 

Galicianer, who likes it sweeter)

1 Tbsp. fresh parsley, chopped, 

rinsed, and wrung out (save the 

stems!)

 
Cooking Liquid:

3 qts. water

2 carrots, chopped

1 large yellow onion, quartered

1 stalk celery

1 green pepper

4 cloves garlic, smashed

the saved stems from the parsley 

1-2 stems fresh dill

1 tsp black peppercorns

2 Tbsp. salt

1 Tbsp. sugar (again for the 

Galicianers only)

Directions:
Rehydrate the TVP and set 
aside. Chop the parsley well, 
wrap it tightly in a tea towel 
or cloth napkin, and rinse it 
under cold water, wringing it 
out occasionally. Give it one 
final good wring to get all the 
liquid and extra chlorophyll 
out and set aside.
Place the water and all the 
ingredients for the cooking 
liquid, save for the salt and 
sugar, in a large, wide pot. 
Bring to a boil, and when it’s 
beginning to roll, add the salt 
and sugar. (This will save your 
pots from pitting under an 
intense concentration of salt.)
While the water (now a 
“court bouillon” of sorts) 

is heating, turn your atten-
tion back to the mock fish. 
Combine the TVP, grated car-
rot and onion, minced garlic, 
egg, matzo meal, salt, pepper, 
sugar and parsley in a bowl 
and mix well until combined 
evenly. Dose in a little of the 
onion juice as you mix to 
make sure the flavors perme-
ate; pour the rest of the juic-
es into the poaching liquid. If 
it’s too loose of a mixture to 
handle, add a bit more matzo 
meal. If it’s too stiff, add a lit-
tle water or onion juice.
Reduce the poaching liq-
uid to a simmer. Form the 
“mock fish” mixture into pat-
ties about the size of your 
palm, pressing firmly to pack 
the ingredients together. 
Slip these patties into the 
poaching liquid as you make 
them and work quickly to 
make sure they’re all cooking 
roughly at the same rate.
Poach, covered, for 15-20 
minutes, or until the balls float 
and are cooked through. It 
may take longer depending 
on your stove; turn periodi-
cally with a slotted spoon to 
ensure even cooking.
Serve with horseradish, 
mustard, broths, matzo balls, 
pumpernickel, etc., hot or 
cold, to your preference. If 
you’re keeping the mock fish 
in your fridge, you should 
indeed store it in a little bit of 
the liquid that it was cooked 
in, much like matzo balls … 
or gefilte fish, though it won’t 
make a jelly quite the same.
The cookbook would prob-
ably suggest you pour a can 
of tomato sauce over these. 
I’d more likely use them in 
a soup, stew or broth bowl 
type situation, or make a 
creamy, lightly acidic sauce 
to work with the TVP funk 
and the strong onion flavor 
you’re bringing to the table. 
Experiment and figure out 
what tastes good to you. 

FOOD
FROM THE HOME KITCHEN OF CHEF AARON 

Chef Aaron 
Egan

