Platt Discovery Cottage

matzo ball soup

February 9th, 2010

I’m still in the chapter on making stock and what you can do with the stock you’ve made.

The next recipe was Matzo Ball Soup.  Interesting.  It’s actually very straight forward.  However, I’m not shopping in the right parts of town as none of the first three grocery stores I went to carried Matzo meal.  Finally, the one a block from my house had it.  I don’t normally shop there, but I thought I’d give it a try as I got desperate.  Good thing!

Then, no one had something called “schmaltz” which Martha Stewart thought I should easily get from my butcher.  Nope.  They thought that was just a silly request. 

When I struck out there, rather than continuing to search all over town, I just made my own.  It’s quite easy, so I’m surprised Ms Stewart didn’t have a side bar explaning how to do it.  In fact, it seems like a superflousous purchase.

All you do is melt chicken fat.  Really.  I just cut some off the chicken before making the stock for the soup and voila!

All the solid bits went into the organics bin and the clear liquid went into the matzo balls.  I only needed a small amount.

After letting the matzo ball mixture sit in the fridge for a short while (in addition to meal and schmaltz, it had whipped egg whites, egg yolks, and parsley), I took it out and got ready to shape them before putting adding to the broth.

However, meyhem insued and this is what I ended up with.

Not sure how these things happen.  This is the largest bowl in a set I got at Williams Sonoma.  Heartbreaking.  After my husband broke my large Denby bowl (wedding gift) which we used every night for salad, I’m running short on large bowls around here….

I did manage to save the mixture and proceeded to make the soup.  It was delicious.  Fuss didn’t like it because on his first bite he swore he got a bit of ceramic in his mouth from the broken bowl.  ~sigh~

I can totally see why some people consider this comfort food!

Enjoying the journey,  Amanda

Entry Filed under: Cooking