Last year I wrote about meeting competitive eater Eric “Badlands” Booker at Coney Island. Badlands once held the matzo ball eating record, gobbling 30 matzo balls in 5 1/2 minutes. That’s pretty badass, and fairly disturbing, considering how matzo balls are like sponges that expand in the gut.
Even more disturbing: Joey Chestnut broke the record in 2008, polishing off 78 — 78!! — matzo balls in 8 minutes. It’s a miracle he didn’t pop like a Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade balloon crashing into a light pole.
I won’t even begin to attempt challenging the record — cause, you know, I’d die — but making a matzo ball soup? That I can handle.
This recipe for matzo balls comes from Epicurious.com, and it’s a keeper; simple and straightforward with no funky ingredients like chicken fat or lard. Here’s what you need:
4 eggs, separated
1 tsp salt
2 tsp grated onion
2 tbsp melted butter
3/4 cup matzo meal
7 cups stock (vegetable or chicken)
I used Streit’s matzo meal — the box only contained a half cup of meal, so I adjusted the other amounts accordingly (went with 1 tbsp of butter).
First step is to beat the egg whites until stiff. In a separate bowl, whisk together the yolks, salt, onion and butter. Fold in the egg whites, then fold in the matzo meal.
Not a pretty sight — in fact, downright unappetizing. You want to cover this up with plastic wrap and refrigerate for an hour.
After an hour the mixture’s ready to be rolled into balls. Here’s where I got concerned. The balls were awfully goopy and I was sweating with mochi-making flashbacks and visions of them disintegrating into a mealy mess upon hitting the boiling stock.
But, what do you know, they held together!
Now you want to turn the heat down to low, cover, and simmer for 30 minutes.
I like my matzo ball soup chunky, so I added diced carrots and egg noodles. And voila! Matzo ball soup.
I don’t know why I had so little faith in the recipe, but I was completely surprised with the result — soft, light, fluffy matzo balls, not at all like the leaden cannonballs I was bracing for.
I ate four matzo balls tonight. Somewhere, Badlands and Chestnut are laughing their asses off.