Delicious and Simple Passover Chicken Soup and Meal

This chicken soup with kneidlach, matzah balls, was the most delicious and super easy to make soup.

Before the Passover Seder, my main cooking contribution was to bring two types of kneidlach, regular and vegan kneidlach. This time when I boiled the kneidlach I used Chicken Broth.

First I prepared the kneidlach mixture, since it's supposed to sit in the fridge for a couple of hours. Click Kneidlach.

Chicken broth is also, so simple to prepare. All I had to do was to boil the cleaned chicken until just cooked, not until crumbling and disintegrating in the liquid. Then I removed the chicken and refrigerated it.

When you're ready to make the kneidlach, boil the chicken stock and either roll the kneidel mush into balls, or just get two spoons ready to "drop" ball like pieces into the broth/stock.

While the broth/stock is boiling carefully drop/add the kneidlach. When all the "mush" is in the broth/stock, cover and lower the flame, so that it just simmers for about 40 minutes.

After they cool a bit, remove the kneidlach and refrigerate or freeze if you won't be using them for more than a few days. Or you can make a large quantity and just freeze some.

I brought them all to my daughter's for our family seder, but afterwards she gave me leftovers to take home. When serving at the seder, those who wanted kneidlach got them added to the soup she had made.

Yesterday I made a wonderful meal with the chicken and the stock and the kneidlach, plus my all time favorite oven-roasted vegetables.

To turn the stock/broth into a delicious chicken soup, I cut an onion, a couple of carrots,a parsley root and parsley leaves. I put them plus the kneidlach in the pot, added the stock and covered it. After the soup began to boil, I lowered the flame to simmer for about 40 minutes.

I carved the chicken and took two pieces, added some diced onion, seasoning and olive oil to another pot, covered and cooked on a low flame.

We had an amazingly delicious lunch. It was very easy to make. The soup was rich and didn't have a drop of salt.

Cooking Up a Storm for The Kiddies

We set up a second table in order to accommodate the clan yesterday. There were chairs out for all but the youngest, who's under a month old. Just because I'm no longer in the Passover Seder business doesn't mean that I'm neither hosting nor cooking for them. Not only did I have everyone over for our traditional family Pesach food, but I served on real plates. And I even washed up all the dishes, pots and pans afterwards.

Photo by Yisrael Medad,
Yes, the husband

The highlight of the menu was Savta Brei, a calorie laden dish that can be described as "latke-coated matzah" fried in olive oil. Basically, it's just a matter of taking onions and potatoes, grating (you can use a blender or food-processor) them together, mix with eggs, matzah meal, salt and pepper. Yes, just like classic raw potato latkes. Heat some oil in the frying pan, then take matzah, coat with the mush and fry well on both sides. Serve it with applesauce and/or sour cream, just like you'd do with potato latkes.

I'm not quite sure that anyone ate them besides my children. Since the frying went really slowly due to the lack of a good gas stove, I baked up some of the mush as oven latkes. But my husband was overjoyed to have the traditional holiday food of his family. The latkes were more popular with the younger generation and the in-laws.

For my children, I decided to serve one of their childhood Passover treats,  Instant Chocolate Pudding. It had been decades since such a dish had graced our table. As an extra adventure, the grandkids were introduced to what was once the most necessary Passover kitchen tool, the eggbeater. Some of the older ones took turns trying to mix the chocolate pudding with it.

I think everyone had a good time. There was just one almost disaster. The folding table began spontaneously folding mid-meal. Luckily I was sitting at the end and held it up until my son-in-law reopened it. Nothing was lost, especially not weight. We will have to resume our diets after Pesach.

The farewell blessing was:

"Next year in a new kitchen."

Gd willing, speedily in our days...

Vegan (Eggless) Kneidlach, Matzah Balls, A Great Success

Our family now includes a vegan, that's someone who doesn't eat any animal products at all-- including eggs! We want her to feel very welcome, so I decided to try to make her Kneidlach for the Passover Seder, since I was making the regular kneidlach for the rest of the family, at least those members who are willing to eat the classic Ashkenaz delicacy. My daughter had made her a whole variety of Chanukah "Latkes" for that holiday get-together. Since that daughter was our Passover Seder host, I took on the challenge to make Vegan Kneidlach.

I based it on a recipe I found on the internet, the Edgy Veg,  Vegan Matzah Balls. But of course I tweaked it quite a bit. I also cooked them in simple, but rich Vegetable Soup.

Here's the official recipe copy/pasted, but I've crossed out and substituted what I had changed:

Ingredients

• 2 just over 1 1/2 cup matzo meal, unsalted
• 1 cup seltzer water
• 4 tbsp coconut oil olive oil
• ½ 3/4 cup potato starch + 6-12 tbsp water to make a starchy goop
• 1 tsp pinch salt + to taste
• ½-1 tsp a bit pepper
• 1 tsp dried dill
• 1 tsp dried parsley

Instructions

1. In medium size bowl combine the matzo, salt, pepper and herbs with a whisk spoon until combined. Set aside.
2. In another bowl, mix the potato starch and water together until you get a thick, starchy goop.
3. To this potato starch goop add coconut olive oil and seltzer and gently mix until combined.
4. Add the matzo meal and seasonings and mix until it all comes together.
5. This mixture should not be sticky. If its too dry, add a spritz more of seltzer, and if it’s too wet, add a little more matzo meal. You should be able to mix it you’re your hands without having it stick to all your fingers.
6. Cover the bowl and refrigerate for an hour.
7. After an hour, form the dough into balls and add them to your boiling soup broth.
8. Lower the heat to a simmer, and cook the balls for 25-30 minutes.
9. After your matzah balls are cooked, you can serve them with broth right away 3-4 per bowl of soup.
10. If you are serving the soup later, remove the balls from the soup to prevent sogginess, and store them in a Tupperware storage container.*
11. When you are ready to serve the soup flash boil the balls in broth and serve.

* We were pleasantly surprised to discover that the Kneidlach I had missed in my attempt to remove them all from the hot soup were perfectly formed and had survived well in the soup. My daughter just added the Matzah Balls to the soup bowl when serving soup. She did the same with the classic ones made with eggs for the Chicken Soup, since some of the family does not enjoy Ashkenaz foods.

Here are the photos:

The mix was very firm 

They were easy to form into balls

The matzah balls looked lovely in the soup, but they don't expand and get all "fluffy" like egg-based kneidlach.

Here they are in their storage container. 

After mixing, I put it in the refrigerator and made the Vegetable Soup. And that soup will be another blog post.

Our vegan said that they were delicious and took the leftovers home with her!

Easy TNT Never-Fail Knaidlach, Matzah Balls

I discovered this super easy, never failed me yet, TNT tried and true  Matzah Ball recipe when I was newly married a gazillion years ago. I use olive oil when making it on Passover and vegetable/soy oil during the year. It's best cooking it up in the soup, chicken or even vegetable soup, but when I bring them to my daughter, I just cook them up in lightly salted water. This time the water also had a pinch of pepper.

Way back when, every good housewife had a little Recipe Box of handwritten index cards, I wrote this one:

3 eggs
1T water
2 Ts oil
1 tsp salt
dash pepper
1/2 c מצה meal

mix thoroughly
-in fridge several hours
shape into balls
drop into boiling soup or water

Here are pictures from this year when I quadrupled the recipe:

I'm just bringing the Matzah Balls, since my daughter is hosting and making the Chicken Soup.

****

This, how to double-spoon drop for making Kneidlach, is from last year, when I was cooking on gas, which gives a more powerful flame than the electric stove I'm using this year. Gd willing, next year I'll be back to cooking on gas, or at  least a more powerful stovetop.

Stove Top Passover Cooking, Good All Year, Too

On Passover I have to cook my chicken and beef on top of the stove, because I don't kasher the oven for Pesach. I do have a small Passover oven which I keep parve for all the baked vegetable dishes etc. At this point in life, I'm not in the market to buy one of those ovens for chicken. First, there's no room and second I look at my life/age and say:

"For  just a few weeks use, it really isn't worth it."

also:

"We've survived so long without one, we will survive ad me'ah vi'esrim until 120 perfectly well fed, too."

The CPA daughter in me looked at my 60th birthday as

"OK, now you've hit the halfway point in the  me'ah vi'esrim 120. Oops!"

So, yesterday I did the messy cooking, the fleishig/meat stuff for the last of Passover, 5776, 2016. And here are some photos and instructions aka recipes. And why do I call these "instructions?" That's because one isn't to OCD trying to measure and count and follow exactly. I never know how long it will take to cook or how much exactly of anything I will add etc.

Chicken "Bottoms" with Parsley, Carrots, Onions and a Dash of Wine

In Israel, the bottom part of a chicken is the favorite, and I bought a couple of packages for the holiday. When cooking stovetop, it is best not to make too much at once. Four rather zaftig bottoms fit perfectly in this low pan. They were joined as you can see by carrots, onions, parsley, pepper, paprika and the wine that Eliyahu Hanavi didn't drink. Any wine can be used or nonne, too. I cooked it covered on a low flame until when poked and prodded it seemed completely cooked.

Beef Braised with Onions, Garlic and Ripe Tomatoes 

First I seared the beef in hot olive oil with the chunks of onion and garlic. Then I added the gorgeous red tomatoes and about a half a cup of sweet wine. I lowered the flame and covered it.  I also added about half a cup of water, nothing else. I let it stew for a couple of hours. You may need a bit more liquid, but my pot is a good one.

Two Baby Chickens with with Parsley, Carrots and Onions

Rami Levy was selling these tiny chickens on Tuesday when I was working. I wish I had bought lots more, but there's a limit as to how many I can carry. They fit perfectly in the pot side-by-side, and were cooked the same way as the "bottoms."

These recipes are easy, healthy and good all year round. And, of course, they are strictly kosher!!

Quick Passover Kosher Cooking Carnival

I had been planning on posting this Pesach/Passover edition of the Kosher Cooking Carnival last Wednesday, while finishing my Pesach preparations at home. But, as John Lennon so famously said:

"Life is what happens while you are busy making other plans."

Or the Jewish saying:

"Man plans, and Gd laughs."

Yes, as many probably know, since I've been blogging about it non-stop and writing on facebook, my father died last Tuesday morning Israel time. He and my mother are now together in their adjoining graves, which they purchased in 1959.

My father's death put a hold on my KCC planning, and then Passover stopped the shiva, and now it's Chol Hamoed, and we still have to eat, so I decided that I'd do a very quick Kosher Cooking Carnival and hope I didn't lose any of the posts people sent me.  I try to keep track and organize KCC on facebook, and you're invited to sign up there. I will just list a whole bunch, ok a few, post titles I think you'll find interesting, without naming the blog or site.

I'm pretty sure that this selection of Kosher for Passover recipes will suffice for a basic KP menu, at least in an Ashkenazi home.  I'd appreciate your feedback. Unlike most editions of the Kosher Cooking Carnival, this time I accepted even older posts, not just recent ones, because I wanted it to help everyone cook for Passover. All the recipes are tasty and usable and servable all year long.

Please visit them, comment and share, thanks. Also, of course, please send out the link to this edition of the Kosher Cooking Carnival!!

Easy-to-Make Kneidelach, matzah balls, for soup
Unleavened "Passover" Pound Cake
Chocolate Matzo Mousse Cake
Pesach/Passover recipes (vegetarian, dairy, fish)
One "Pot" Bake and Serve Meal!
Flourless Chocolate Cookies
Easy as 1-2-3 Macaroons
Spatchcocking a chicken for Pesach: the secret to moist, juicy, kosher chicken
A Pesach breakfast favorite
Pesach Banana Cake (pareve, non-gebrokts)
Easy, Tasty and Impressive Eggplant Recipe
Gluten-Free Chocolate Chip Cake
Caramelized Onions and Three Cheeses Frittata
The Secret of Gefilte Fish

Li'ilui nishmatam, may their souls be elevated:

Shifra bat Chaya Raisia

Alexander Ziskind ben Tzvi Hersh

Kosher KP Food for 52Frames

For this week's 52Frames challenge/theme we had to photograph Food, Extra Credit for a "favorite recipe." So I made a "one pot meal" version of my baked vegetables by adding pieces of chicken breast.

"One "Pot" Bake and Serve Meal!"
This is one of my very easy "one pot, bake and serve" recipes. Add chunks of chicken breast, onion, squash, pumpkin and whatever else you want, like mushrooms, cauliflower etc into a baking pan. Add a bit of oil and bake in a medium to hot oven until the chicken looks done and the vegetables are soft. For a vegetarian option, leave out the chicken.

Give it a try, and tell me how you made it and how well and tasty it came out.

This week, I just had the one shot. I haven't had time to spend on photographing various foods. Yes, it's almost Passover, and this recipe is good for Passover, strictly kosher for Passover, as well as for all year long. No Kitniyot (legumes,) no "Gebrochts," which if you don't understand the term, you don't have to worry, no chametz etc.

Easy, Tasty and Impressive Eggplant Recipe

This past Shabbat we had a guest who is on a "no nightshades diet," so I had to separate the nightshade vegetables from the others in cooking and also in the salad. I have a number of friends who find their lives better sans nightshades. One of them wrote a bit of it up for me awhile ago:

A Jewish Grandmother : Here it is! The First Person Anti-Arthritis By Not Eating Nightshade Vegetables Report

Since I did have eggplant and other nightshades to cook, and my husband expected to eat them, I cooked them separately. As you can see here, I took the eggplant, sliced it and placed slices of tomato and fresh garlic. Then I poured a bit of oil on top, wrapped them well in foil and baked them until soft, in a pan, so the juices wouldn't drip all over.

It was very easy to make, impressive to serve and delicious, too. Also Kosher for Passover!!

Jewish Kosher Food Bloggers, Foodies etc: Announcement

I'm planning a pre-Passover Kosher Cooking Carnival here on this blog and want links to your favorite Passover food posts, or your recipes, tips etc. which I'll post giving you credit (as per your requested way of identifying yourself, including nom de plume of your choice.) Please email me to [email protected] with KCC as subject, thanks.

Recipes can have short stories/background pieces about the foods and experiences. So, let's get started before we're too busy cooking, and our kitchens look like this!

Please share this request around, thanks.

Last Chance to Use Up Last Year's Matzah!

There's a custom not to eat matzah or matzah products/foods for a month before Passover, and since Purim is a month before Passover, and Purim is in a few days...

I checked the matzah box, which lives from year to year, and it's changed from year to year, on a shelf between the kitchen and dining area. There were only six pieces left, so I made my husband two matzah breis. One was for Seudat Shlishit, the third Shabbat meal, and the other he'll take to work for lunch tomorrow.

Over the year, I gradually try to use up the matzah by making matzah brei, and I must admit that this almost empty giant box shows that we've done a good job this year. Israeli matzah comes in 2 1/2 kilo, that's over five 5 pounds boxes. They are boxes, and I say that because there used to be paper wrapping which got holey very quickly.

Matzah Brei Recipe (serves 1 or 2, depending on whom)

• 2 pieces of Israeli matzah, which is a bit 1/3 smaller than American I think
• 2 eggs (3 if you're using the larger American matzah)
• medium size bowl
• 1/2 cup of water, though I've never really measured
• oil for frying
• covered frying pan

Directions

• break the matzah into the bowl
• add water
• add eggs
• mix and let sit for at least 10 minutes
• heat oil in frying pan
• add matzah mush, spread out on hot oil
• cover, then lower flame
• when it looks solid, flip over to cook the other side
• turn off heat after 3-5 minutes
• wait another 5 minutes before serving
• "travels well" if wrapped in foil and cooled in fridge. 

Most people like it served with something sweet, like jam or honey or spreading cheese or cut fruit.

Low Carbohydrate "Savta Brei," Great Reviews

For the first time possibly ever, my cousin and her husband came over for lunch without the kids. We are all empty-nesters with adult and married kids. In recent years we've taken one-day trips by ourselves during Passover and Succot, but they had never just come for lunch.

I decided to do a new version of the old menu I'd serve way back when, when they'd show up with all of their kids on Passover. That's based on my legendary "Savat Brei," a dish only my mother-in-law ever made. I've never seen such a recipe any place but in her culinary repertoire. Simply described, it's Chanukah potato latkes spread on both sides of a matza and fried. I call it "Savta Brei," because she called it "Matzah Brei," and Savta is the Hebrew for Grandmother, and my kids called her "Savta."

Decades ago, when I'd host my cousin's clan and we were all much younger and slimmer, I'd make the "latkes mush" out of grated or blenderized potatoes, onions, eggs, matzah meal, salt and pepper. But now that my cousin and I are the "savtot," plural for savta, I decided that we'd be better off with a new streamlined low carbohydrate version.

Squash, carrot, celeriac and onion

I substituted low carbohydrate vegetables, squash, carrot, celeriac and onion for the potatoes. Instead of hand-grating, I used the blender and a few eggs.

Then I mixed, adding, salt, pepper and matzah meal until it wasn't too runny. I heated up olive oil (the only oil I buy for Passover--but any vegetable oil can be used) in the big frying pan, coated both sides of the pieces of matzah with the mush and fried, turning over when cooked.

I served it with yogurt, but you can also use sour cream, apple sauce or even jam or honey if calories and sugar aren't your problem.

Of course, we can't ignore the fact that this does include matzah and matzah meal, but it did make a fun and filling meal and less/fewer glycemic carbohydrates than the traditional potato version. And of course we served it with a fresh salad.  My guests loved it! The "mush" can also be baked into a kugel. I then add a bit of oil on top before baking. And the "mush" can also be fried or baked into "latkes."

My Ancient Blender

I have a blender which was bought in 1974. I've used it very few times considering all of the decades I've had it. It's my Passover Pesach blender. I bought it for grating potatoes and onions the year my husband did his basic training service in the IDF. The grating was his job, and considering that for three (ending up being four) months I was the only parent for our two daughters then aged a year and two and a half, I was not going to take over that chore for Passover cooking.

In those days there was a special discount store, Shekem, which had a supermarket and department store including electrical appliances. Soldiers' families got coupons to use there, and considering that in 1974, my husband's army "salary" was the same as an 18 year old got to buy a bit of nosh, we needed that discount.

1974 was also decades before discount shopping stores, like Rami Levy had come to Israel. There also were hardly any supermarkets. Most shopping was in a small, local grocery store and the shuk, open market for those who could get to one.

my Moulinex blender

This one came with a small "coffee bean grinder" which my husband uses for grating the horseradish root for the most powerful "chrain" you can ever imagine. I use it for making kugels and "Savta brei."

Passover! Pesach! פסח!

Yes, it's Passover! Pesach! פסח!

As is our custom, we turned our kitchen into its Pesach mode the day (night) before the great search aka Bedikat Chametz. That gives me an extra day to cook and makes the most sense, since switching after the "search" used to mean that I'd be doing an all-nighter on my own before even attempting the cooking.

Now even though we're not hosting the seder (only one in Israel) I did some cooking. I'll be bringing the kneidelach (matzah balls,) geffilte fish, kugel and some vegetables. All of these recipes are TNT tried 'nd true. Since I made too much geffilte fish, I froze some. I'll probably freeze at least one of the kugels too. I also cooked a chicken while I was at t he stove for us to eat during the week.

Today my husband will make his traditional charoset  and chrain*. That's his contribution.

Yesterday, in order to clean out the freezer, I ate all sorts of strange foods. I hope I haven't put on too much weight. At least I gave away the half loaf of delicious whole-wheat rye bread which I gorged on two days ago.

*horseradish- ground in the coffee-grinder part of our old/ancient blender mixed with a bit of vinegar.

Passover Cooking

I've been wracking my brain to remember what I'd been planning on blogging. I just thought of one topic about how nice my neighbors are, but that can be blogged about anytime. Since this Pesach is almost over, I'll stick with a more timely topic, Pesach or Passover Cooking.

Here are series of photos I took when cooking for Shabbat Chol Hamoed when we had the kids over, and I needed lots of food. Click under pictures for the recipes.

Historic moment, quinoa on Passover.  Checking 3 times

My husband and nephew making charoset

Savta Brei, half-cooked

Savta Brei ready to eat

eating baked geffilte fish
same ingredients, just baked instead of boiled

kneidelach

vegetable kugels out of the oven

vegetables for kugels

40 year old blender, only used on Pesach