Falshe fish, lit. “false fish,” is mock gefilte fish made with ground chicken instead of fish. For many Jews of Hungarian descent, falshe fish is a dear and long-held Passover tradition. It harkens back to a time when fish was stored and transported in alcohol for preservation purposes, rendering it chametz and unable to be used for Passover. Getting creative, they came up with a faux version using ground chicken, but seasoning and cooking it exactly like gefilte fish. Although fish is no longer stored in alcohol, falshe fish has retained its place on many a Passover table.

One important thing to remember is that even though it may look and taste like gefilte fish, you have actually eaten chicken and need to be careful to wait the appropriate amount of time before eating dairy.

Ingredients

  • 1 lb ground chicken
  • 1 potato, cooked and mashed
  • 1 small carrot
  • 1 small onion
  • 1 egg
  • 2 tbsp sugar
  • 1 tsp kosher salt

For the cooking liquid

  • 6 cups water
  • 2 carrots
  • 1 onion
  • ¼ cup sugar
  • 2 tsp kosher salt

Directions

  1. For the fish balls, peel and finely grind the carrot and onion in a food processor. Mix with remaining ingredients and refrigerate for two hours or longer.
  2. Add the cooking liquid ingredients to a pot and bring to a boil. Gently roll the fish mixture into evenly-sized balls (wetting your hands in between will help prevent the mixture from sticking) and drop into the boiling water. Simmer for 30-40 minutes.
  3. Serve as you would serve gefilte fish, with slices of the carrots from the cooking liquid and chrein (prepared horseradish).

Yields: 15 fish balls