Matzo Ball Soup

I was craving matzo ball soup and J. didn’t want to go to the local deli. As an alternative, I suggested that we make our own. Having known many people who consume matzo ball soups on a regular basis, J. claims that nobody makes them from scratch and that we may end up with a mess. Since I am always up for a challenge, I conducted some google searches on potential recipes. As I suspected, it really is not rocket science and we have most of the ingredients anyway.

Ingredients

• matzo (3 pieces, we happened to have the Manischewitz brand)
• 2 tbsp chicken broth
• 2 tbsp vegetable oil
• 2 eggs
• optional, to taste (Italian seasoning, dry parsley flakes, garlic powder, black pepper, whatever you like from the spice rack)
• more broth to cook the matzo balls in
• other soup ingredients like protein or vegetables (we used chicken sausages in this case)

Directions

1. ground up matzo into crumbles. we broke up the matzo sheets and put them inside a plastic freezer bag. then used the bottom of a pan to mash it up. 
2. in a mixing bowl, mix eggs with broth and oil.
3. add dry matzo meal bit by bit into the egg mixture
4. add optional spices and ingredients (I would add some fresh scallion or parsley if I had them). mix well with a fork
5. boil broth/soup base in a soup pot
6. once soup boils, wet hands a bit, scoop out some matzo mixture with spoon, shape into a round ball in hands, and then drop in boiling soup. repeat for more matzo balls. I made around 7 or 8 but they weren’t all evenly shaped. (and that’s what you call home-made)
   
   
7. add other soup ingredients
8. lower temperature so the soup is not boiling too much, but simmering. the matzo balls should float when they’re done. leave simmering for 15-20 min so they soak up the soup
9. place a couple of matzo balls and soup in a soup bowl and serve

Taste Note
Delicious! Glad I didn’t add extra salt because between the broth and sausages and salted matzo, the matzo balls were quite flavorful. Totally impressed by my resourcefulness but always offering helpful advice, J. says next time we can leave them cooking for 5 minutes more because the center is not 100% soaked through. I really think it’s a matter of preference. Besides, I won the challenge with flying colors, so am quite happy about it. On a side note, I may have caused the local deli to lose our business (at least the matzo ball soup, I doubt I’ll ever take them out of business since they have awesome pastrami sandwiches). Next time, I want to try more vegetables in the soup and fresh herbs in the matzo balls.

Reference:
http://www.cookingforengineers.com/recipe/177/Matzo-Matzah-Ball-Soup