Cooking Lesson #599: Mrs. Adler’s Matzo Ball Soup

…from the Perspectives’ Kitchen

How you doin’? Who is Mrs. Adler? Lea Adler was non-other than Steven Spielberg’s mother. Before she passed, Lea owned the Milky Way kosher restaurant on Pico Boulevard in West Los Angeles. Here was a lady in her 80s and 90s who loved to “work the floor” at the restaurant. We became great friends and from time-to-time Perspectives helped her and her husband with new recipes.
 
Although Lea closed the restaurant during Passover when she and the family checked into a resort hotel where the food was kosher for Passover, she had a killer matzo ball soup. It starts by long-cooking a great, rich chicken soup. After simmering for 2 hours remove the chicken to cool and strain the soup.  Next separate the chicken meat from the bones and skin (discard) add the chicken and the remaining carrots and celery and cook for another hour. That way you can enjoy perfectly cooked vegetables with your matzo balls.
 
Prep time:  45 minutes (soup and matzo balls)
Cook time:  3 hours
Yield:  6 to 8 servings
 
Ingredients 
1 whole 3-pound+ chicken, cut into pieces
2 medium yellow onions, quartered
4 celery stalks, cut into 1-inch pieces
4 carrots, cut into 1-inch pieces
1/2 teaspoon whole black peppercorns
4 fresh parsley sprigs
1 teaspoon kosher salt
 
Additionally
2 celery stalks, cut into 1-inch pieces
2 carrots, cut into 1-inch pieces
 
Directions

1. Place the first six ingredients into a pot and cover with cold water.
2. Bring the water to a boil, skim off residue that rises to the surface of the soup.
3. Simmer the soup, partially covered, for 2 hours.
4. Add salt to taste.
5. Strain the soup, separate the cooked chicken to cool, then place the soup back in the pot.
6. Remove meat from the bones, discarding the skin and bones; place the chicken meat back in the soup.
7. Add the remaining celery and carrots; simmer for 1 hour.

                                                              Matzo Balls
                                     Make, cook and cool the matzo balls while the soup is cooking.
 
Ingredients 
1-1/2 tablespoons vegetable oil (or chicken schmaltz—that’s cooked chicken fat)
2 large eggs, slightly beaten
1-1/2 cups matzo meal
1/2 ounce kosher salt
2 tablespoons chicken stock
 
Directions

1. Blend the vegetable oil with the eggs.
2. Mix matzo meal and salt together.
3. Add matzo meal and salt to the egg mixture and blend.
4. Add the chicken stock and mix, but don’t overmix.
5. Refrigerate for 30 minutes.
6. Remove from the refrigerator and roll into 1/2-inch diameter balls.
7. Drop matzo balls in 1-1/2 quarts of slightly boiling salted water. 
8. Cook for 30 to 40 minutes.
9. Remove from heat and let cool.
10. Now you’re ready for the soup.

Putting all together—Place 2 or 3 matzo balls in a soup bowl and pour hot chicken soup over them.  Serve hot.
ChefSecret:  What is chicken schmaltz? After cooking chicken, whether roasting or boiling, you’ll see a yellow tinged thick layer of fat rising to the top. Skim this off and let it cool until ready to use. You can also take the raw fat off the chicken and simmer it for an hour or so. Some stores make it easy and sell prepared chicken schmaltz.

Quip of the Day:  The IRS Assigns an Agent to Audit a Synagogue. The agent sits down with the rabbi and starts asking his interview questions.

"What do you do with the crumbs left from the matzos?" The rabbi replies, "we save them up and when we have enough, we send them to the matzo factory and they send us back a free matzo ball."

"Ok, then, what do with all the candle drippings?" The rabbi replies "well, we save them up and when we have enough we send them to the candle factory and they send us back a free candle."

At this point the agent is getting a little frustrated. "Well, then, what do you do with all the foreskins from the circumcisions?" The rabbi replies "The foreskins? We save them up and when we have enough, we send them to the IRS and they send us back a little prick like you."
                                                                                                                                     Lea would have loved this joke!
 
Alternative Matzo Quip 
One day Joe Biden went out to dinner with a Jewish friend. The friend recommended a kosher place nearby.

They arrived and Joe’s friend ordered them both the house specialty—matzo ball soup. The waiter brought the bowls and Joe looked at the soup suspiciously, but his friend urged him to try at least one taste.

​So, he took a bite of matzo ball and slurped some soup and clearly liked it.
After Joe was finished, he said, “Mmmmm, that was good! But tell me, do you Jewish folks eat other parts of the matzo, or just the balls?”
 
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Do you have a question or comment? Send your thoughts to ed@perspectives-la.com. All recipes and cooking tips are posted on our website https://www.perspectives-la.com/covid-19-survival-guide.
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To you and everyone dear to you, be strong, be positive, stay well, stay safe and be kind. Take a breath and count your blessings, and if you have a little extra to share with others, please consider donating to Feeding America and/or American Red Cross.
 
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                                                                            ©PERSPECTIVES/The Consulting Group, LLC, 2023

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