Most Flavorful Matzo Ball Soup
No one in my family will say no to matzo ball soup, the ultimate comfort food served a few times a year at the holiday table. There are so many ways for making a good matzo ball soups too, hard ones, soft ones, floaties, sinkers, etc. Mine started from the box of Manischewitz matzos. The ingredients are simple: matzo meal, lots of eggs, fat, and salt. From there, everyone makes up their own version.
Our family recipe evolved first to whole wheat sinkers which were met with vehement oppositions from certain quarters. We finally settled on the perfect matzo balls from the NYT’s “Matzo Ball Soup a la Mexicana” created by a food editor whose name is Priya Krishna. A few of my own tricks are also used in refining this recipe: 1) Grind your own matzo meal from whole matzo, looking for a crumbly mixture rather than a fine grind. The resulting matzo balls have a nubbly texture which is more interesting for my palate. 2) Let the wet matzo batter sit in fridge for a long time, several hours at least, to soften the rough matzo meal . 3) Don’t skim on the salt but follow the recipe so you don’t overdo it. 4) Use an appropriate amount of leavening—I prefer baking soda and baking powder rather than seltzer water for precision. It has to be just right, not too fluffy, not too hard. 5) Take matzo balls out of the cooking liquid as soon as they are cooked. Don’t let them sit in soup too long as you will lose the flavor by next day. I suggest slightly undercook the matzo balls you don’t plan to serve on the same day, and reheat them in chicken soup to preserve the flavor.
Ingredients:
1 1/4 cup matzo meal (6 sheets of roughly ground Manischewetz matzo yields a little over 1 1/2 cup of matzo meal. Five sheets of matzo will probably yield 1 1/4 cup)
2 1/2 tsp Diamond kosher salt
1/2 tsp of baking powder
1/2 tsp of baking soda
1/4 tsp ground pepper
5 large eggs, 3 of them separated
1/3 cup graded onion
1/4 cup chicken, duck fat or canola oil, or a combination (I skimmed fat from the chicken soup and added more canola oil to make up 1/3 cup of total fat)
1 jalapeño pepper, chopped fine
3 tbps of minced herbs such as chives, parsley or dill
Instructions:
Prepare chicken soup as desired (Cooks Illustrated has my vote—more on that later)
Break up matzo sheets and grind in food processor until mostly find but some crumbs remain
Blend in salt, baking power, baking soda, and black pepper
Mix fat with 2 eggs and 3 egg yolks, then mix in with dry ingredients and minced herbs and jalapeño pepper
Beat egg whites until stiff peak forms
Fold egg white and matzo mixture together, and let it sit in fridge for 4-5 hours (longer is also ok)
Bring large pot of salted water to boil and scoop out matzo balls with ice cream scooper or tablespoons into boiling water, using cold water to wet your hand to prevent sticking
Let water come back to boil first, and then gently push matzo balls around with a wooden spatula so they don’t stick to the bottom
Matzo balls will float to the top and fluff up as they cook, about 30 minutes
Add cooked matzo balls to prepared chicken soup and cook together for 5 minutes before serving