Can We Talk Matzoh Balls?

Matzoh Balls – They’re Not Just for Passover!

Over the last decade, I have made in excess of 1000 Matzoh Balls. We make about 100 every Passover. We make them the day before, the day we call “Cooking Day.” We make 2 per person 34 X 2 for Passover dinner, plus we have them for lunch on cooking day, for a midnight snack, and lunch the following day. And matzoh balls are not just for Passover, we enjoy them throughout the year when we get the the urge to liven up the chicken soup. As the self-proclaimed Queen of The Matzoh Ball, I’m going to share my tips on producing the fluffiest and tastiest of matzoh balls!

MATZOH BALL RECIPE

I use boxed Matzoh Ball Mix which has baking powder in the mix. Or you can use Matzoh Meal and add baking powder and salt.  The ingredients in baking powder are generally: Corn Starch, Bicarbonate of Soda, Sodium Aluminum Sulfate, Acid Phosphate of Calcium. Since it contains corn starch (corn cannot be eaten during Passover), a baking powder with this ingredient would not be Kosher for Passover. For the holiday you would need to find a Kosher-for-Passover baking powder usually made with potato starch, or buy a Matzoh Ball Mix that does not include corn starch and is labeled Kosher for Passover.

• 1 packet matzoh ball mix (I like Manischewitz)
• 2 large eggs (not jumbo)
• 2 T. good-tasting olive oil
• 1 t. finely chopped dill
• 1 t. finely chopped parsley

A carton of Matzoh Ball Mix usually contains 2 packets, each  2 1/2 oz. packet makes about 9 balls. Even though we make 100 balls, we do not double the recipe, we make each batch separately ensuring plenty of room for the balls to expand when cooking. We do, however, have several batches cooking on the stove top at once.

In a small bowl blend eggs with olive oil. Stir in dill and parsley. Add the contents of one packet and blend with a fork. Chill in refrigerator for 15 minutes. Meanwhile bring a large pot of water to boil (the larger the better). Do not add salt as there is salt in the mix and adding salt to the water makes for very salty balls.

Wet your hands and roll chilled batter into balls (slightly smaller than a golf ball). Gently drop the nine balls into the boiling water. Cover tightly, turn down the heat to medium-low. This is one of my secrets: do not turn the heat all the way to simmer. I think with medium-low heat, agitation from the boiling water with lots of room in the pot helps create fluffier balls. And every matzoh ball expert knows, DO NOT OPEN THE LID DURING COOKING, as the steam and pressure also helps make those light airy dumplings. So, as we say, NO PEEKING!

Now with this size ball (making about 9 per packet) it will take about 30 minutes to cook all the way through. The boxed mix package says to simmer for 20 minutes, but that is only long enough if you make smaller balls, say 12 per packet, so keep cooking! Now, once thirty minutes has passed, you need to check if the balls are done. Remove one from the pot and cut it in half. The entire center should be light like the outside of the ball, not darker in color. Have you ever been served dense matzoh balls? Called sinkers? I suspect that is because the chef did not test the batch before removing from the pot. If the center is not cooked, continue cooking for another five minutes and test again. The testers make great snacks so be sure to make extra when deciding how many balls you need to cook for your party.

Remove the fully cooked balls with a slotted spoon and cool in a dish or pan in a single layer. Once room temperature, the balls can be covered tightly and refrigerated over night as we do for Passover. If you are serving matzoh ball soup right then, simply add your balls to a bowl of soup and enjoy. Do not cook your matzoh balls in your chicken soup, as this will give you a very cloudy soup.

SERVING MATZOH BALL SOUP ON PASSOVER

Also on cooking day we sauté thinly sliced leeks in schmaltz and blanch thinly sliced celery and carrots cut into matchsticks. We store these vegetables separately  in plastic bags. During the Seder, the large pot of chicken soup is reheated over low heat. When we are ready to eat, we turn the soup to high heat and add two matzoh balls per person to the big pot. By the time we’ve finished our first course of gefilte fish, hard boiled eggs, beet salad, matzoh, horseradish and haroset, the matzoh balls are heated through and the soup is ready to serve. Serve immediately to prevent the soup from becoming cloudy.

To serve the matzoh ball soup, we lay out all 34 soup bowls.We add a small amount of leek, celery, carrot and chopped parsley to each bowl. Then ladel in soup with 2 balls per bowl.

Jack likes to add matzoh to his soup!

After the soup course, you can TEXT your friends to tell them about the
AWESOME MATZOH BALLS you just ate!

If you have never made a matzoh ball soup, I hope you will try it soon! You probably have eggs and olive oil on hand, so simply pick up a box of matzoh ball mix at the market and serve them with your next batch of chicken soup or vegetable soup! And feel free to contact The Queen of The Matzoh Ball if you have any questions!

The 8-day Passover holiday ends at sundown tonight.
We hope you had a wonderful Passover!