What else could I do? I’ve been sick and miserable and while the antibiotics have helped enough to actually get me out of bed, a full cure was impossible without my own home-made chicken soup. It’s my version of Jewish penicillin.

As it happened, we roasted a chicken on Friday night. There was quite a bit of chicken left on the frame. So Owen brought up the huge pot I never use because I can’t lift it. It has a “strainer” insert, which makes it easy to remove the chicken carcass. We put in a couple of gallons of water, turned it up to a light rolling boil. I didn’t add anything and simply turned it off late last night.

Today, I removed the carcass and strained off the fat. I added green onions and let it cook for an hour, then fished out the remains. I then added half a chopped onion and half a chopped yellow pepper. I threw in oregano, basil, thyme, rosemary, sage, 2 teaspoons of powdered garlic, 4 tablespoons of dry soup stock in 3-1/2 cups of water, and about 1/2 tablespoon of kosher salt. The soup tasted good.

I then made the matzoh ball mix, or as we have always called them, “knaidelech.”

Matzoh Ball Recipe

1 cup matzoh meal
4 beaten eggs
1/4 cup olive oil or if you aren’t worried about kashrut, melted butter
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
3/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 cup icy water or very cold seltzer

You can double this amount or add another 50% if everyone is hungry.

Melt the butter (you might as well use the bowl you’re going to use for all the ingredients) and set it aside.

Beat the eggs.

Add the cold water to the eggs and beat until well mixed. Add the oil, the nutmeg and the matzoh meal to the egg/water mixture and stir with a wooden spoon until it’s thick and pasty. Put in the refrigerator until you are ready to eat. This mixture needs at least an hour in the fridge before you boil it.

Back to the Soup

Meanwhile, keep the soup simmering on very low. I also added about a quarter of a cup of dry Japanese rice wine and a dash of soy (medium) sauce. Oh, and about a pound of diced raw chicken to the soup to give it a bit more heft. Owen is allergic to carrots, but normally, I would add them too.

When you’re ready to eat, turn the heat up under the soup until it’s at a low rolling boil. Roll up each ball — about the size of a ping-pong ball — and drop them in the soup.

Let them cook 15 minutes.

Whatever ails you, this will cure you.

Categories: #Food, #Recipes, Anecdote, Cooking

Tags: #Photography, chicken soup, Jewish penicillin, Marilyn Armstrong, matzoh balls, recipe