The Quintessential Matzo Ball – Knaidlach Bliss for Your Passover Seder

Passover for me is all about the traditional Seder meal. In addition to being a significant holiday on the Jewish calendar, Pesach, known as the festival of unleavened bread, is quite simply the Jewish epicurean mother-lode — our Mt. Everest, the Semitic Powerball-winning meal ticket.

It is perhaps the one holiday more than any other in the Jewish faith that is so closely associated with symbolic and traditional foods. The holiday is celebrated in the home with an elaborate meal and special service, the Seder, where a vast array of Jewish delights is featured.

Born and raised Jewish, I choose to remain so mostly for the food.  Jewish cuisine is one of the most powerful weapons in our retention and conversion arsenal. Who can resist the allure of the simple, yet luscious blintz? When it comes to schmears, what could possibly rival Bubbe’s chopped liver? Show me a man that can bypass the dessert buffet at an Oneg Shabbat (literally ‘Pleasure of Sabbath,’ this has come to be associated with a hosted buffet of snacks and beverages after a Sabbath service) groaning with ruggelach and bourekas, and I’ll show you someone whose roots don’t extend back to a schtetle in Poland.

Passover delivers all the gastronomic goods and then some including Brisket, Kugel, Gefilte Fish, Charoset, and of course, Matzo Ball Soup.

No dish is more emblematic of the spring holiday than Matzo Ball soup. A traditional Passover starter from Long Island to Los Angeles and across the globe, this soup kicks off more Seders, and perhaps creates more debate, than any other dish.

Let’s set the record straight regarding this discussion. What I am talking about here is the Matzo Ball half of the Matzo Ball soup equation. The soup is simply a delivery system for the ethereal, light, fluffy pillows of steamed goodness that, when married with a bit of boiled carrot and flecked with hot Hungarian paprika, take me right back to Bubbe’s kitchen of my youth.

Now don’t get me wrong, the broth must be made from actually boiling a chicken steeped with the appropriate aromatics and contain NOTHING from a box, can or compressed “cube” of something labeled boullion.  I’m simply leaving the soup discussion for another day in order to fully focus directly on the Matzo Ball, the holy grail of the Jewish Kitchen.

What exactly is a Matzo Ball and how can you, dear reader, achieve the Promised Land that awaits your mastery of the knaidlach?

First off please recognize that while ingredients are important when it comes to preparing Matzo Balls, it is in the preparation that most Matzo Ball battles are won or lost.

In its most basic form the Matzo Ball combines matzo meal (coarse or finely ground matzos), eggs, water, fat (more on this in a moment) and salt and pepper. The ingredients in proper proportion are combined, allowed to rest, shaped and then boiled or steamed.

Here is where the first argument begins. Depending on personal preference, one may choose to infuse their Matzo Balls with additional ingredients varying from freshly chopped herbs (some swear by dill) to grated onion to whole prunes stuffed into the center of the dough. I am a purist and like my “floaters” absent any peripheral accoutrements other than a bisele (a tiny bit) of onion and herbs.

Now, a word about the choice of fat. The preferred fat of Jewish chefs in the know is schmaltz or rendered chicken fat. This should be in abundance after making your soup assuming you didn’t use the aforementioned cubed bullion or an equally poisonous substitution for an actual chicken.

Now before the health police raise hell about the artery clogging properties of saturated animal fat, know this: The amount of fat used is very small and the difference in taste and texture is very large so quit kvetching and just get over it, use chicken fat. Use olive oil if you must, but be aware that I will know the difference.

Room temperature eggs, fat and water beaten together provides the wet base for the matzo meal and allow for better absorption yielding a fluffier and lighter end product. Combine the meal gently into the wet mix and don’t over mix or you’ll end up with chewy, dense and tough “cannon balls.”  This is NOT what you are after. The desired texture upon combining your ingredients is that of slightly stiff mashed potatoes.

Some recipes call for resting the dough, refrigerated, for up to five hours. I’ve always felt 30-60 minutes was adequate.

I prefer to shape the dough by hand. In this way I can become one with the Matzo Ball – See the ball, Be the ball. Balls shaped slightly smaller than a golf ball, precooked, will yield nice fluffy floaters more than twice that size. They need to have enough volume to take a starring role in your soup bowl.

Once shaped and rested, the dough is plunged into boiling liquid–I prefer the soup itself–and covered, allowing the Matzo Balls to boil until done, usually 20 to 25 minutes.

Jews are a proud people with centuries of tradition. The cornerstone of all our traditions it seems is connected to the power of the nosh. Obscure holidays like Purim gain exalted status because of a special cookie called the Hamantashen, a tri-cornered stuffed pastry shaped to resemble some bad guy’s hat. Chanukah, the Jewish festival of light, elevates the lowly tuber into a potato art form with the latke.

I’ll trade ‘em all in for one good Passover meal as long as it has wonderful Matzo Ball soup.

Note:  Passover in 2011 will start on Tuesday, the 19th of April and will continue for 7 days until Monday, the 25th of April. Note that in the Jewish calendar, a holiday begins on the sunset of the previous day, so observing Jews will celebrate Passover on the sunset of Monday, the 18th of April.

Recipe:
The following tried and true recipe is from my virtual foodie buddy, Ali Waks. Ali was raised in NYC on Matzo Ball soup and Bialys. She is currently the Marketing Maven for Delicatessen, Philadelphia’s only modern Jewish Deli specializing in traditional deli favorites with a twist. Ali is a frequent contributor to www.food52.com.  She has recently begun plans for a contemporary Jewish cookbook and a series of modern Jewish cooking classes. You can reach her at: mykitchencoach@gmail.com. Delicatessen: www.delicatessenphilly.com

Bubbemeisses Matzo Balls
Makes about 16 matzo balls

5 Eggs (good fresh farmer’s market eggs are best)
1/4 cup  schmaltz *
1/4 cup chicken stock or water
1 tablespoon finely chopped fresh herbs (parsley, dill, chives, or any combination of the three)
2 tablespoons finely grated onion (use a micro-plane with the very smallest holes, you want the onion to disintegrate)
1 teaspoon kosher salt, plus additional
A pinch or two of freshly ground white or black pepper
1 cup matzo meal

Whisk together all the ingredients except the matzo meal. Add the matzo meal and blend well with a fork, or better yet clean hands.

Cover bowl tightly with plastic wrap or if you’re my Bubbe, wax paper, and refrigerate for at least 40 minutes up to an hour.

Set a large pot of well-salted water (it should taste like the ocean) or chicken stock to boil.

Remove the batter from the fridge and use your hands to form it into smooth, even balls the size of a walnut in its shell. Keeping a bowl of cold water next to you is a good idea: dip your hand in the water then roll to avoid sticking.

Drop the matzo balls gently into rapidly boiling water or stock.

When the water or stock returns to a boil, cover tightly and lower the heat to medium. Cook, covered, for 20 minutes; matzo balls will float and appear light and fluffy when done.

Store matzo balls separately from your soup if you are making then ahead, and reheat them in the soup at a gentle simmer; this will keep them from falling apart, leaving matzo ball schmutz in your soup.

*Schmaltz/chicken fat- Where to get schmaltz? Some supermarkets in Jewish neighborhoods carry it in the freezer section. Or you can make your own, which is a whole big tsimmes, but very rewarding at the end. Or you can skim the fat from your soup using one of those gravy separators. If you’ve made the soup ahead of time and refrigerated it, just scoop the congealed fat from the top. If you want to go crazy you can use duck fat, which is often available in fancy food stores.

Michael J. Solender

Michael J. Solender is a recent corporate refugee whose opinion and satire has been featured in The Richmond Times Dispatch, The Winston-Salem Journal,and Richmond Style Weekly. His weekly Neighborhoods column for The Charlotte Observer has appeared since 2008. He is a frequent ...
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