Matzo Ball Soup for the Soul

My first experience making Matzo Ball Soup was at a Seder Dinner my friend Steffany hosted a few years ago.  I was so honored to be invited, I went on a mission to find a proper hostess gift in the form of Kosher wine and dessert.  Sadly, living in the suburbs, I was only able to find a couple of bottles of Baron Herzog wine. Good but not great. I did, however, find some coconut macaroons from Katella Deli in Los Alamitos and bought a small container of creamed pickled herring on the advice of a kind deli regular.Score!

First attempt at Matzo Ball Soup

Before Seder dinner, I helped her form some matzo balls before she dropped it into her broth that she had simmered overnight.  It seemed pretty simple: a little bit of fat, a little bit of matzo meal and some water. We read through the Haggadah, my husband being the youngest at the table hid the matzo and we drank many sips of wine.  By the time we had the Matzo Ball Soup, I was starving.

I don't know if it was the warm glow from the wine, the religious spirit uplifting me or just the sheer hunger, but that soup was simply amazing.  This soup, I thought, must be the Jewish version of congee. A simple starch cooked in some broth to make a cure for all ailments.

Dearest Husband, when sick, does not enjoy congee like I do.  Naturally, when he recently got sick and rejected my beloved congee, I offered to make Matzo Ball Soup.  He was unreasonably excited.  Poor sick baby.

Not remember exactly how Steffany made hers, I scoured the internet gathering up all the little tricks of fabulous home cooks.  Schmaltz.  Seltzer water. Dill. Egg separating. It was going to be a little more challenging than I thought.  I set out in hopes of making light, airy and flavorful matzo balls.  Here's how:

Matzo Ball Soup

Finding chicken fat for schmaltz was the most difficult part of this recipe.  I ended up buying a whole chicken and removing the fat and skin from the chicken to render out the fat.  This yielded approximately 2 tablespoons of schmaltz.  If staying Kosher is not an issue, butter or even bacon fat is a suitable alternative to this ingredient.

Matzo meal can also be made from matzo crackers.  It does come already processed into mealy form but if that's unavailable, take matzo crackers and put it in a food processor until it resembles bread crumbs.


Ingredients

• 2 tablespoons shmaltz
• 2 large eggs, separated whites from yolk
• 1/2 cup matzo meal
• 2 tablespoons seltzer
• 1 teaspoon chopped fresh dill 
• 1 teaspoon chopped fresh flat leaf parsley
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 6  cups chicken broth
• 2 chicken breasts, skinless, bone-in
• 1 cup of carrots, diced
• 1 cup of celery, diced
• 1 cup of onions, diced
• 2 dill sprigs 
• 1 tablespoon olive oil

Instructions

1. Bring a stockpot to medium heat.  Saute carrots, celery and onions in olive oil until the onions are translucent.  Pour chicken broth into the stockpot.  Add 2 chicken breasts.  Bring to a medium low boil.

2. In a dry ingredients bowl, combine matzo meal with fresh chopped dill and fresh chopped parsley and salt. 

3. In a wet ingredients bowl, take egg whites and whip until they form soft peaks. Fold in egg yolks one at a time. Fold in cooled shmaltz and seltzer.  Fold in the dry ingredients mixture from Step 2. Be careful not to over work. It seem like the mixture is slightly too wet to hold a ball shape.   Place mixture in the refrigerator for 5-10 minutes.

4. Skim any gunk that might have boiled to the top of the stockpot.  Remove chicken breasts from the broth.  Remove chicken meat from bones and place bones back in the broth.  Shred chicken into desired chunk size and add back to broth.  Add 1 sprigs of dill. 

5. Remove matzo meal mixture from the refrigerator. Form balls into desired size.  I prefer something a little smaller than a golf ball, about 2 bites per matzo ball.

6. Bring stockpot to a medium boil.  Drop balls individually into the soup.  Cover and reduce heat to a simmer for about 20 minutes.  The balls should rise to the top when done.

7. Again, skim any gunk at the top of the stockpot. Remove and discard bones and dill sprigs.  Ladle soup and a couple of matzo balls into a bowl.  Garnish with snips of dill from remaining sprig.

8. Enjoy the warm soothing goodness.

Other Matzo Ball Soup Recipes
Smitten Kitchen - matzo ball soup
Saveur - Matzo Ball Soup Recipe
All Recipes - Oma's Fabulous Matzo Ball Soup Recipe