"Life Coaching for Analog Deities" - Matzo Ball Soup
Deities Anonymous #3
EXCERPT: “And are you perfectly you?”
“Not even close.” Lea wondered what her perfect self might look like.
“You’re closer than you think,” Mary nodded to Lea’s other side. Then she turned to where Joshua was chatting with his son about maybe coming out of retirement to help in the deli.
Lea looked at Cal. Every chance he had, he touched her. The small of her back after holding open a door as if to guide her through. A brush of his knuckles when he passed a platter of the glorious spread Mary had put on. Having pillaged through matzo ball soup, brisket, and a green salad so fresh that it could only have been grown in Mary’s own garden in Heaven, they had finally slowed down over the crisp apple strudel and mirror-glazed chocolate cheesecake—both looking so good that she’d eaten a slice of each. Even now, though he was talking to Saint Peter and Michelle to his other side, Cal had rested one hand lightly on Lea’s forearm.
She’d never been so intimate with a man before. The fact that she had neither kissed nor slept with him was something they were going to have to fix in short order. In fact…
Lea reached out and rested a finger on the underside of his chin. She slowly turned his head on the pivot of his neck until he faced her. Then she offered a mere suggestion of a tug on his lower jawbone.
He didn’t need more.
NOTE: For Passover’s Seder dinner, my grandmother always made her matzo ball soup. Plain broth and giant matzo balls so dense that we kids were admonished to never drop one on the floor, because it might break through all thirteen stories below her New York City apartment. My recipe has evolved a little bit since then.
Active time: 30 minutes / Cook time: 1 hour / Total time: 1-1/4 hours
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Ingredients for the Soup
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Ingredients for the Matzo Balls
A Bit of Zing |
Instructions for the Broth
- In a large Dutch oven, sauté all vegetables in the oil until onions are soft and transparent (5-8 minutes).
- Add chicken breast, broth, water, pepper, and dill. Bring to a boil then simmer covered for 30 minutes.
Instructions for the Matzo Balls
- In a bowl, whisk eggs and oil. Add all the other ingredients, except water, and mix well. Add water and mix well. Refrigerate 30 minutes (can be several hours if you want to make it ahead).
Instructions for the Soup
- Shred the chicken and return to the broth.
- Form the chilled Matzo mixture into balls. (Some like them small, like 1/2”…feh! I make mine about 1”, they will then expand a lot as they cook. Wonderful!)
- Bring broth to a boil. Plop them into the boiling broth, cover, lower the heat and simmer for 10 minutes without removing the lid.
- Dump in the egg noodles and re-cover quickly. Cook until egg noodles done (about 10 more minutes for dried).
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| Replete with Matzo balls, this is a happy Jewish comfort soup any day of the year. | Not my grandmother’s soup. |
