When our daughters were growing up together as friends and neighbors, it was not uncommon for me to find myself in the Greenfield kitchen of Albert Norman and Anna Morrison. The girls are grown now, but I recently found myself back in that kitchen because, as my daughter said, “If I think of Albert cooking, he’s making matzo ball soup for Passover and Easter, or potato latkes for Hanukkah and Christmas.”
The Jewish holiday of Passover celebrates the story of Exodus, the freedom of Jews from slavery in Egypt. The dishes prepared for the Seder, the Passover holiday meal, carry symbolism, but none as much as matzo.
As the story goes, when Moses was allowed to lead the Jews out of Egypt, they had no time to pack food, including the leavened bread that they were used to eating. On their journey, they could only make an unleavened mixture of flour and water that turned crisp and flat as it baked in the sun.
Out of respect for their ancestors’ sacrifices, many Jews today forgo leavened bread at Passover. The matzo ball, a type of dumpling also named Kneidlach and made from the crumbs of matzo crackers, symbolizes this part of the history of Judaism.
Norman says his mother was the cook in his family and made very good matzo ball soup, but he didn’t start making it himself until he was in college.
“There wasn’t a lot of Jewish cooking in our home,” he said. “Some of the traditional Jewish dishes that were part of my upbringing were latkes, matzo, blintzes and gefilte fish, but mostly we ate the same food everyone else did.”
He prefers using chicken schmaltz (chicken fat) rather than oil to make the matzo balls. “It makes them much more flavorful,” he said. But if you do use oil, use canola oil, but never olive oil, he says. “I also make the matzo balls in a chicken broth, again, for added flavor, but you can use just water.”“
When forming the matzo balls, you don’t want to form them into a firm, round ball,he says. “You want the ball to be a little bit unformed. If they’re too firm, they won’t cook all the way through and they’ll be too gooey.”
Norman says he also likes to make the matzo balls with matzo crackers instead of boxed matzo meal. “If you’re buying the matzo meal, you’re paying a few dollars more for what is essentially crushed matzo crackers.” he said. “And you might have some crackers left over to snack on. I only use Streit’s crackers as they’re the best. His recipe follows on Page C2.
This is a two-pot recipe. One pot is for making the matzo balls; one pot is for making the soup mixture.
The whole process from start to finish takes approximately two hours.
Seltzer water or club soda is used in the matzo ball mixture to help make the balls lighter so they’ll float to the top. It is used in place of baking soda as a concession to not using anything during Passover that would leaven the bread.
For schmaltz:
¾ pound chicken fat and skin, finely chopped into ¼- to ½-inch pieces. (Ask your butcher for the chicken fat.)
1 medium onion, chopped
For matzo balls:
4 large eggs, beaten
¼ cup seltzer or club soda
¼ cup schmaltz or canola oil
1 cup matzo crackers, broken by hand or food processor into a powdery meal
1 teaspoon kosher salt
Freshly ground black pepper
For the soup stock:
3 quarts chicken stock, divided into two soup pots
1 large carrot, sliced into thin half moons
1 onion, chopped into almond-sized pieces
6 to 8 button mushrooms, sliced thinly or use pre-sliced mushrooms in desired quantity (optional)
Garnish:
2 to 3 fresh dill sprigs, chopped
Lemon slices, very thinly sliced
2 small carrots, thinly sliced on the diagonal
In a medium saucepan, combine chicken fat and skin with just enough water to barely cover.
Bring to a simmer over high heat. Lower heat to medium low and continue to simmer, stirring frequently, until the fat has mostly rendered and water has cooked off — about 50 minutes. Chicken skin and fat pieces should be small and starting to crisp.
Add onion and cook, stirring frequently until lightly browned, about 10 minutes.
Strain rendered chicken fat through a fine mesh strainer (schmaltz). Reserve the schmaltz for the matzo balls.
Reserve the crisped chicken skin, fat and onion. These are called gribenes in Yiddish. They can be eaten as a snack with salt, or stirred into chopped liver.
Next, focus on making the matzo balls and soup. In a large mixing bowl, combine eggs with seltzer, and schmaltz (or oil).
In a separate small bowl, stir together matzo meal, salt and pepper. Add dry ingredients to wet ingredients and stir to just combine. Do not over stir.
Refrigerate the mix uncovered for 30 to 45 minutes.
While the matzo ball mixture is in the refrigerator, prepare the stock by dividing the chicken stock evenly between the two pots. Season both with a touch of salt, and bring each to a simmer.
For the soup stock, stir fry sliced carrot half moons, onion and mushrooms in a frying pan until just tender. Add the mixture to the soup stock pot and let simmer on low heat while you prepare the matzo balls.
Remove the matzo ball mix from the refrigerator. Form the mix into 1- to 1½-inch balls. Do not squeeze them into tight balls; keep them lightly formed.
Wet your finger tips in a small bowl of water, and keep them wet each time you form a new matzo ball from your mixture. This will avoid the mixture sticking to your fingers.
Drop balls gently into the second simmering pot of stock that is just for cooking the balls. The balls will sink at first, but then should begin to float to the surface.
When all matzo balls are added, cover the pot and simmer around 40 minutes until the matzo balls are cooked through. Keep them warm in their broth until ready to add to soup stock.
When ready to serve, divide the soup into four bowls. Add two to four matzo balls to the soup and garnish each bowl with carrot slices, one lemon slice and a sprinkling of fresh dill.
Roxann WEDEGARTNER can be reached at roxanndw6@yahoo.com.