I usually use about two eggs to two or three boards of matzo...but that would feed one person....we like it with cottage cheese on the side and Sriracha Hot Chile Sauce on the brei itself...heavenly!
We are not from the sweet matzo brei eaters!
This is no fail...tried and true....the matzo balls are so easy it defies belief and delicious....
for the soup...
1 3+ pound chicken (or 5 lbs of chicken parts or backs and necks)
2 or 3 large onions
5 stalks of celery (use the leaves too if you have them)
8 carrots (I use the whole 1 lb bag of organic carrots)
1 parsnip
1 small turnip (optional)
1 or 2 small zucchini
1 bunch of Italian parsley
1 bunch of dill
3 whole cloves of garlic
Salt to taste
Wash chicken in cold water and place in a large pot. Peel onions and place whole in pot. Wash celery and cut stalks in half and place in pot. Peel carrots wash and place whole in pot. Peel parsnip, wash, cut into pieces and place in pot. Wash zucchini and cut into 4 pieces and place in pot. Peel garlic and place in pot. Cover all the ingredients in the pot with cold water. There should only be about an inch of water above all the ingredients. Do not use too much water!!!
Bring the soup to a boil and skim any foam off the top. Wash the parsley and the dill and place on top of the soup. Cover the pot but leave the cover slightly askew. Add salt to taste. Simmer for about three hours. Remove the chicken and veggies from the soup. Strain the soup through a strainer. Slice the carrots and add to the soup. You can use the cooked chicken for something else or shred the meat and add it to the soup. Serve with cooked small noodles such as orzo or egg barley. This soup will cure colds, flu, and just about anything that ails you.
Keep the noodles separate from the soup or else they will "suck"up all the broth. Put a portion of noodles in the bowl and then ladle soup over top. This soup is also great with Matzo balls.
I always used a Joan Nathan recipe for Matzo Balls and I was very happy.
In a pinch I have used Manishevitz Matzo Ball Mix which is really pretty good...but these are beyond easy and wonderful...you could season them with some cayenne pepper...go wild...they are a blank canvas...
Matzo Balls...
adapted from Claudia Roden'sClaudia Roden's recipe (from "The Book of Jewish Food: An Odyssey from Samarkand to New York").
2 eggs, separated
1/2 cup matzo meal
1 teaspoon salt
Beat the egg whites until stiff. Fold in the lightly beaten yolks, as well as the matzo meal and salt until well amalgamated. Cover and chill in the refrigerator for 30 minutes.
In a pot of well-salted boiling water, roll dough into 3/4-inch (2-cm) balls and simmer in the water for 20 minutes.
The recipe also gave the option of adding a little ground ginger or finely chopped parsley to the dough -
Enjoy....your boyfriend will love the soup and you!
Go out and buy Croyden House Matzo Ball Soup Mix and follow the directions. That's Croyden House, not Manischewitz, not Streich's...you can't go wrong. The flavour is the best and the Matzo balls are always fluffy. Runs about $ 2.50 USD a package............
@ Hillary - for sure! always boil matzoh balls in the soup! they taste better, and who wants to wash another soup pot?
supposedly the trick to light and fluffy matzoh balls is seltzer? does anyone know anything about this?
You're such a great girlfriend! I think it's so nice that you're trying to make him matzo ball soup.
A piece of advice I have is to make the matzo balls IN the soup, not in separate water. Make them up from the matzo meal (Manischewitz sells a good matzo meal for matzo balls) and then let them cook in the soup broth. That way they take in flavor and they're fluffy! Shhh...it's my mom's secret :)
Hillary
Chew on That
i like to add grated onion, ginger, nutmeg, and parsley to mine...
I'm of the "I like hard matzoh balls" camp, actually. To me, if they're fluffy, they're annoying. Therefore, I use the recipe on the package, then add extra matzoh meal before sticking them in the fridge.
However, what I do to make them tasty is this: add in an awful lot of celery salt, a good handful of marjoram that I crush right in my palm, before dumping those in the eggs, and a little basil, treated the same way. If you want them to be REALLY good, instead of using water to add to the batter/dough, use chicken soup. (BTW, if you use bouillon, I advise Carmel's brand of chicken bouillon, it's like having Bubbe's soup, if not quite as good.)
I also roll them into balls with my hands, to add to the density.
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