Feeling the chill? Here’s an easy matzo ball soup to beat the winter snow

Michael Solomonov has developed a legion of fans for his superb, heartfelt cooking at the Israeli restaurant Zahav in Philadelphia in the US.

The chef, who was born in Israel and began his cooking career at a bakery there, has won the James Beard Award for Outstanding Chef, while Zahav was named the best restaurant in the US in 2019.

However, there’s one Jewish specialty that gave Solomonov trouble: matzo ball soup.

“Just because I’m a Jewish chef doesn’t mean I was born with a natural talent for matzo balls,” he writes in Zahav: A World of Israeli Cooking.

He recalls an event early in his career when he was hired to cater for an upscale Passover dinner.

“I put foie gras matzo balls on the menu. I cooked hundreds of dollars worth of foie gras, using the rendered fat in the matzo ball mix and then stuffing each ball with a little nugget of the liver.”

The result?

“The matzo balls fell apart and ended up in the garbage can.”

Since then Solomonov has perfected the art of the matzo ball, the oft-maligned yet never-skipped staple of Passover dinners. The trick, he says, is not to try to recreate them as a luxurious item. Instead  it’s to make the plump matzo rounds hold together and taste delicious. H adds a spoonful of baking powder, an old-school trick that helps keep them light and cohesive. He also throws in a pinch of cinnamon.

The roasted garlic adds a pungent, caramelised sweetness to the chicken soup. It’s a trick more people should adopt when they need a bowl of instant comfort. And those matzo balls? They’re marvellously fluffy, with a firm bite. But their real genius might be the hit of cinnamon, which gives them a soft spicy sweetness and amps that comfort factor even higher.

MATZO BALL SOUP WITH GARLIC

Serves 4

Ingredients

4 black garlic cloves

4 peeled fresh garlic cloves

1/3 cup vegetable oil

2 quarts chicken stock or chicken broth

2 carrots, sliced

2 stalks celery, sliced

1 tsp kosher salt

2 large eggs

2 tbsp schmaltz (rendered chicken or goose fat), at room temperature, or vegetable oil

½ cup matzo meal

½ tsp baking powder

Pinch of ground cinnamon

Chopped fresh dill for serving

Method:

1. If using fresh garlic, heat the 1/3 cup vegetable oil to 176ºC. Add the peeled garlic and cook until golden brown, two to three minutes. Transfer to paper towels to drain.
2. In a large saucepan, combine the stock, carrots, celery, black or fried garlic and salt. Bring to a simmer and cook for 30 to 40 minutes, until the vegetables are tender. Discard the garlic.
3. Meanwhile in a medium bowl combine the eggs and schmaltz or vegetable oil and stir until blended. Add the matzo meal, baking powder and cinnamon and mix well. The mixture will thicken as it sits. Using wet hands, pull off golf ball-size pieces of the dough and shape into rounds. You should have 8.
4. In a lightly salted pot of boiling water, cook the matzo balls for 25 to 30 minutes, or until cooked through (cut one open to be sure).
5. Ladle the broth into soup bowls and add two matzo balls to each bowl. Top with dill and serve.

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