My Favorite Matzo Balls
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Serves: 6
 
Ingredients
  • 4 large eggs
  • 2-3 TBs. chicken fat (if you did not collect enough fat from your chicken broth, use vegetable oil for the rest)
  • 1 cup matzo meal*
  • ½ cup seltzer or club soda
  • 1-2 TBs. fresh parsley or dill, or a combination of the two, finely chopped, plus more for garnish
  • Lots of kosher salt and freshly ground pepper to taste
Instructions
  1. In a large mixing bowl, beat the eggs well with a fork. Add the chicken fat or oil, matzo meal, chopped herbs and salt and pepper and stir together using a wooden spoon. Pour the seltzer over the mixture and stir in gently.
  2. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and refrigerate the mixture for several hours.
  3. Bring a large pot of well-salted water to boil. A very large Dutch oven, if you have one, is better than a stock pot for this purpose because there is more surface area on the top for the matzo balls.
  4. To form the matzo balls, first wet your hands in cold water to prevent the batter from sticking. Scoop up a small handful of batter and form it into a ball about the size of a ping-pong ball. The matzo balls will double in size when cooked. You should have at least 12 matzo balls.
  5. Gently place the matzo balls in the boiling water and turn the heat down so the water is boiling but not vigorously so. Cover and cook for 30 minutes or until the matzo balls are cooked through.
  6. While the matzo balls are cooking, reheat the chicken broth. Feel free to add some nice bite-size chunks of carrot, shredded chicken or, if you are not observing Passover, egg noodles. To serve, pour a little broth into a soup bowl and add one or two matzo balls. Garnish with chopped parsley or dill. Eat the soup greedily while discussing how your grandmother’s matzo balls were really much better.
  7. Leftover matzo balls keep well, but refrigerate them separate from the broth, or else they will start to disintegrate. You should, however, reheat the cold matzo balls in broth.
Notes
*Matzo meal is nothing more than very fine dry bread crumbs made with matzo. They can be used just like dry bread crumbs in many recipes, and make a great coating for chicken or veal cutlets. (adapted from Joan Nathan’s Jewish Cooking in America)
Recipe by The Domestic Front at http://www.thedomesticfront.com/matzo-ball-soup-and-cooking-for-passover/