#gebrochts

You can do this. Yes.

First the soup:  buy chicken necks, backs, wings. Don’t bother boiling anything with a lot of meat on it—it’s the bones and skin make the soup. If you can only get a chicken in 8 parts, pull most of the meat off first and fridge it for later, and then boil the carcass.

Anway, start in cold water, add bones, skin and salt. Simmer very slowly, a really long time. For me, easiest thing is to stick it in a slow oven abut 275 degrees for anywhere from 1 to 6 hours while I do other things around the house.

Water should just barely be bubbling–hardly moving even, but warm enough not to be a breeding ground for icky. It’s important that everything be submerged–drop a heat proof dish into the broth on top of the bones to keep everything under water.

If you have time to make this ahead, chill it, then skim off most of the cold fat, then reheat.

In another pan, saute some veggies and then throw them in the soup near the end. Long cook does not improve them much. Carrots, celery, onions, parsnip are traditional, but use what you like, or what you have, anyway. Deglaze the pan with some water and pour that in the soup as well for color and depth of flavor.

Also, if you want more meat in your soup, cut up the meat you stripped from the bones in step 1, and then poach it lightly in the broth for about 20 minutes near the end.

Near the end, taste and adjust the salt, add pepper, thyme, sage, parsley etc. to taste. Or not.

MEANWHILE (and this is the important part) make matzo balls: in a small bowl beat 2 eggs with 2 TBS oil until really well blended.

Then add 1 tsp salt and 2 TBS water (You can use 1/2 eggshell to measure a tablespoon.) Beat it all smooth before adding in ½ cup matzo meal.

Stir really well, cover, let it sit AT LEAST 15 minutes.

Get a large pot full of salted water boiling and make sure you know where the lid is–you’ll need it. When the 15 minutes are done, start rolling the matzo mixture into walnut sized balls. I use a small cookie scoop to measure them out, and then get my hands wet and hand roll them until they are smooth. Then drop them into the boiling water, [note–drop each one in as you roll it and move quickly so they all hit the water within a short time–don’t try to roll them all out first and then put them in–the early ones will dry out too much] and reduce heat to very low simmer, and put the lid on tight and don’t even think about lifting it to peek for about 20 minutes. IMPORTANT: The water must be boiling before you put them in, and it must not be allowed to get above a simmer after they go in, so use your ears to keep track of what’s going on.  You are poaching an egg gently, not boiling pasta.The lid is important because a matzo ball is partly a steamed dumpling.

When they are done, serve them floating in your soup. (See picture 1.)

If this is your first time doing this, don’t be surprised if you get them too heavy or too loose–the only way to learn the exact measurements is to make a few batches, and pretty soon you’ll know when the mixture “feels right” during the rolling stage. If it’s too dense, it needs a little more water or they come out like lead. If it’s too wet (or the water isn’t boiling) they will fall apart and you’ll get mush. So add some more meal. If you make them too grandiose in size, it’s hard to get them to cook all the way through and you get dry bits in the middle. If the water is boiling too hard, the egg cooks hard before the matzo meal can fluff up, and you get golf balls. (Sounds like I’ve made all of the above mistakes, right?) 

Practice helps.

2 eggs

1 TBs oil

¼ cup chicken stock

1/2 cup passover cake meal

¼ cup potato starch

1/2 cup mashed potatoes

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp sugar

½ tsp baking powder

Mix the wet stuff until blended smooth. Add the dry ingredients together, then add to the wet and mix until smooth, adding extra soup or water if needed to get to pudding-like consistency.

Let sit 15 minutes, then check to see how firm it is—add more liquid/potatoes if necessary.

If the batter is thin like pancake batter, you will get long thin squiggles of spaetzl (like funnel cake strands). If the batter is thick like pudding, you get gnocchi-like little dumplings. If it is thick like hummus, you get something close to matzo balls.

Scoop up a spoonful and drop into lightly salted boiling water. Simmer three minutes and remove from water with slotted spoon. Taste test and adjust batter if needed (salt? Sugar? Too thick? Too thin?)

When you have it the way you like it, drop spoonfuls into the water and simmer until they all float (about three minutes). Do not crowd the pot. Remove from the water with slotted spoon and then do the next batch.

Set the first batch into a pot of warm sauce while doing the second and third batches.

Tomato sauce is fine, but brisket gravy also works, or just a whole lot of sauteed mushrooms & onions & wine.

A milchig version could easily be done with water or milk instead of the chicken soup, and could go with marinara, or plain butter, or cheese, or pesto, or alfredo sauce—basically anything that would be good on pasta. Anything that would be good on pirogies would also work: try sauteed onions and sour cream with black pepper.

Slice manischevitz yellow cake, fresh strawberries, lightly sweetened whipped cream

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