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04/19/2005 Archived Entry: "Great New Matzoh Balls"

I just made Audrey Cohen’s letter-perfect matzoh balls.

Audrey, you may remember, a couple of week’s ago won the Anita Kaufman Foundation’s chocolate dessert contest to benefit epilepsy awareness. The recipe for her luscious chocolate-cinnamon babka is already in my Maven’s Diary . When I met her at the Highlawn Pavilion in West Orange, New Jersey, where the benefit was held, she also slipped me the recipe for her matzoh balls. It’s a very peculiar recipe that calls for beating egg whites until stiff, beating in the egg yolks, then folding in the matzoh meal. Naturally, Shirley bragged about how good they are, and, knowing that I have limited experience freezing matzoh balls, she told me that they freeze perfectly. “I freeze two in a baggie. Defrost when ready to use,” she wrote on her printed recipe.
Small world: A week later I conducted a class at Harriet Lembeck’s (New School) Wine Center, and Audrey Cohen’s daughter’s husband’s mother (maybe I have that backwards) was in the group. “She is the most fabulous cook. Not just a great baker of babka,” she said. Naturally, I ran home and looked at that recipe again.
The matzoh balls, hot from the pot and even fully cooled, are firm but light, and keep their round shape – not all light matzoh balls do. They’re gorgeous. I put too much salt in the boiling water – be careful, they already have enough salt in the batter – but otherwise the flavor is great. I don’t miss the bit of fat -- chicken fat -- that I usually put in my matzoh balls. I know that’s hard to believe. The whole recipe was hard to believe, but it is magic. I’ve always said that matzoh balls are one of the mysteries of the universe.

I wish had some chicken soup to put them in. I would not, however, as Audrey suggests, use “soup stock” to cook them in, unless it really is stock, which is to say a very thin broth. If you want to dilute your chicken soup by half and use it, then do, but it will be too cloudy to serve at the table.

“Fluffy” Knadel
(Light Matzoh Balls)

Makes 24 balls somewhat larger than a golf ball
(You can make them larger and fewer)
(The recipe can be halved – 3 eggs, ¾ cup matzoh meal)

Did you ever realize that the word knadel (sometimes spelled knaedle, and other variations), which means matzoh ball, is related to gnocchi , the Italian dumpling, and nockerle, the Austrian. The word is also related to knish. All are from an Old German root that means “lump.” Thought you’d like to know.

6 eggs, separated
1 ½ cups matzoh meal
1 teaspoon salt

In a clean bowl, with a hand-held electric mixer, beat the egg whites until they hold firm peaks.

Quickly beat in the egg yolks.

Fold in (do not beat or stir) the matzoh meal and salt. Make sure all the matzoh meal is well incorporated. Let stand 5 minutes.

Using a spoon and moistened hands, scoop up heaping tablespoons of batter, then roll them into ball about the size of a walnut.

As they are formed, place the balls into a large pot three-fourths full of boiling, lightly salted water. When all are formed and in the pot, cover the pot and boil vigorously for 45 minutes.

Remove the matzoh balls from the pot with a slotted spoon. Serve in hot chicken soup.