Matzo balls are a Jewish comfort food made by mixing matzo flour with eggs, oil, and seasonings to form a sticky dough that is shaped into balls and cooked in boiling liquid. They are commonly served at Passover and can be made at home or bought from Jewish delis. Matzo meal is derived from traditional Jewish flatbread and is often used as a binder in various dishes. Matzo balls are traditionally cooked in chicken broth and served in matzo ball soup.
Matzo balls are a type of dumpling made by mixing matzo flour with eggs, oil, and seasonings of your choice to form a sticky dough that is shaped into balls and cooked in a boiling liquid of your choice. These filling dumplings are considered by many to be a form of Jewish comfort food and are also commonly served at Passover, as they can be made in accordance with Passover dietary rules. Many Jewish delis sell matzo balls, and they can also be easily made at home; some people make a big batch and freeze them for warming.
Before diving into matzo balls, it can help to know a little about matzo meal. The matzo meal is derived from matzo, a type of traditional Jewish flatbread made from flour and water. The bread is left unleavened to commemorate the Jewish people’s flight from Egypt, when people were unable to let the bread rise before cooking it because they were in such a hurry. Unleavened bread is traditionally eaten at Passover, and some Jews enjoy eating matzo throughout the year.
Matzo is eaten on its own at Easter, but can also be incorporated into recipes. The most common way to use matzo is to grind it into a coarse meal which is known as matzo meal. The meal is often included as a binder in various dishes and forms the basis of matzo balls.
To make matzo balls, cooks mix matzo flour, salt, pepper, eggs, and oil to form a sticky dough. Other ingredients can also be added to taste, such as onions, though cooks must be careful to keep their matzo balls Kosher for Passover. The traditional oil of choice is chicken fat, although cooks can use any type of oil available if they prefer a less fatty version of this classic Jewish food.
Once the dough has been mixed, the cook’s hand shapes it into balls with wet hands to prevent the dough from sticking. The balls are dropped into boiling water or broth and left to cook; they naturally puff up as they cook and tend to be thick unless leavening agents such as baking powder are added. These yeasts cannot, of course, be used during Passover, as leavened foods are not allowed during this Jewish holiday.
The most classic way to eat matzo balls is in matzo ball soup, in which case the dumplings are served in the chicken broth in which they are traditionally cooked. Vegetarians can enjoy a variation cooked in vegetable stock, of course.
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