I am bookmarking the everloving shit out of that link.

Great recipes, but, ugh, that website is hard on the eyes.

Yes please for the matzo ball soup recipe!! Om nom nom!!!

I warned you... this is looong...(and sarcastic!)

sylvia estelle's (chicken) matzo ball soup (real soup from my jewish mom)

ok, here it is, and generations of old withered dead jewish women are turning in their graves. i'm going to let the cat out of the bag and give you the family jewels ... i mean soup. here it is, the "jewish penicillin," the specialty of every family worth their weight in matzo. it occurred to me that i have been watching my good jewish mom make this soup, and then making it myself for yonks, but had never written it down, never measured it out, never even found a good recipe online the way the "family" makes it. i think this is probably true for most jewish families. there's matzo ball soup, and then there is that weird watered down - dare i say it - white-person-ized - (*gasp! dad would be angry as he is a roman catholic*) way of making it. when you drain off some of the fats or take out the onions or pulverizing poor defenseless carrots, you're ruining a piece of art man, and that aint riiiiiiiiight. and adding thyme or dill? YOU WANT TO MAKE ME YATCH? (i'm being dramatic, i've often enjoyed other people's matzo ball soup flavored with thyme or dill. if you're partial to it, i suggest you add a pinch or two of either (not both) around soup step 9, but no more than a pinch or two to ensure the soup doesn't get overpowered.)

oy vey! because soup is as much art as it is science. what i'm giving you is the science of it, but you have to remember it takes a bit of art (drink) along the way. what i mean is that you'll have to taste, prod, and love your soup to get it just right.

first, a few things to remember, and i don't mean any of these lightly:

* this is not campbells chicken soup. campbells soup is good, i'm happy to eat it, but nothing campbells makes will make you taller, stronger or better looking than mom's soup. and i can't say that it makes a winter flu feel better like my mom's matzo ball soup.

* this soup is not to be undertaken lightly: it will take you hours, serious hours to make, and it actually takes overnight to become perfect.

* this soup is not for the weak of heart or squeamish - not to sound like a horror movie, but if you young buck endeavor to make the almighty soup, you will be sticking your hands in chicken, mushing up chicken with fingers to feel for small bones, and ripping up chicken skin, wading in schmaltz. and if you ever flub and boil or simmer your soup, you will go straight to hell, do not pass go, do not collect $200. jews don't believe in hell, but there you are. you will still burn in the endless flame of purgatory with some woman named esther telling you endlessly about her son-in-law and the pain in her kishkas.

#....#

serves: 10-15 servings - i think. it makes a lot of soup. you have to make a lot of soup at once to ensure the body of the soup. really good for freezing. will keep for about 6 months in freezer... give or take a month or two.

time: about 9 hours. yes, you heard me NINE HOURS. i told you this soup was a commitment. by the time you're done, you've entered a serious relationship with it, gotten married to it, and are talking about having kids.

#....#

you will need:

1 pot large enough plus lid to boil your mother-in-law linda in. 8 quarts plus (over 12 is overkill). you need plenty of room.

5 1/3 quarts cold water. oy, not freezing, no ice, ice-smice, just cold enough from the sink, don't be a schmuck.

just short of 4 lbs chicken - say 3.3 lbs to 4 lbs - and here's the art: dark meat works best, so use dark meat you schmoe! legs with thighs, the bone and the skin. you must, must, must have the bones and the skin and the fat. without the bones and the fat plus skin, you will be making soup that tastes like water. what white meat? you tried to make soup but you maybe just poached that chicken, eh? about white meat: it's ok to use a little but white meat is drier than dark and this will affect your soup. you can use a whole chicken, but why put yourself through that kind of heartsickness? the rinsing, the deboning, alright already! best to follow my advice and get yourself four nice meaty legs/thighs with the bone still in and the skin. bones and skin, not just meat. do you catch the hint? bones and skin. one more time: bones and skin. here's what i did last night: 3.4 lbs of legs (3) and a large (white meat) breast/rib cage (about .5 lbs) - (*shrugs*) eh! meat was expensive this week and we had the breast with ribcage in the freezer. again, it's art and heh! everything is negotiable. sue me.

1 lbs carrots - peeled and sliced to about an inch and 1/2 thick each. you want the big mature ones really. however, due to modern science, they now have those fresh pre-skined baby carrot bags of the needed weight and they're thin and range about 2 inches each. these are fine, not as good, but just be sure to rinse them first.

6 mature celery stalks. clean and cut into 1/2 to 1 inch slices.

5 middle sized yellow boiling onions, without the brown outside peel and cut off the ends for god's sakes! two whole and 3 of them halved. you can use 6 or 7 if you really like them and they're a bit smaller.

7 1/2 teaspoons to 9 teaspoons of salt plus pinch - mostly to taste. salt will make the soup though and pull the flavor out of the chicken.

2 pinches black pepper

1 manischewitz matzo ball mix box. matzo balls - ah the matzo balls. now, you could make them from matzo, pulverize it, add the various whoo-haws, oil, egg, sweat, salt. but jews since the 19th century have been using manischewitz mix, so what's so good about you that you can't, eh? do yourself a favor and use it. if you make it home made, you're really only skipping the 'crush matzo' part.

bar of soap and a clean towel - why? because you're handling chicken in all ranges of being cooked. clean hands and clean surfaces make good soup. don't forget you can get sick from raw chicken and any surface/item it touches. i mean it, you'll be washing your hands after every step - EVERY STEP - and clean hands mean you love your family, existence, unicorns, bunnies, stoats and the soup.

1 weight of the world - you know, in case you're not enough of a martyr after reading this recipe.

#....#

manischewitz matzo balls - you can make either the night before or at the very end.

2 eggs & 2 tbsp oil (vegetable) per 1 packet in box (2 in box). they suggest a packet makes about 15 matzo balls, but these will be too huge! 1 packet makes about 20 matzo balls for me and should for you. use a teaspoon to help you measure (about 3/4ths of a tsp is correct) and they will expand in the boiling water.

just follow the instructions and you'll do fine. hint: keep hands wet and cool and your matzo rolling will go smoothly.

matzo balls will be very tender when done, but need to drain. draining on paper towels or brown paper is not good as they will stick. either let them drip dry in very dense plastic colander, flat (not wire) rack or on plate and just keep trickling out the water. these can sit overnight after drained in refrigerator if covered. do make sure however you drain well but be careful: matzo balls fall apart easily.

do not add matzo balls until after soup is made. they will just have to wait. if they complain, send them in to see what uncle stevie is doing.

#....#

the soup:

1. wash hands thoroughly, and wash hands between each and every following steps!!!! (extra !!!!)

2. in large pot put 5 1/3 quarts cold water, chicken (rinsed), pinch of salt, and put on lowest heat possible. cover with lid. low low low flame, barely there flame - remember, this is a long distance run, not a sprint. in order to get soup you have to suck out all the marrow of life and the flavor of the chicken. let heat/cook for about 2 1/2 hours - but you will not take the pot off heat until end of soup - just keep it on entire time steps 2-7 on low heat. stir.

3. stir every half hour with a large mouthed spoon - i'm not partial to wood spoons for this as they're porous and I feel can taint the flavor a bit. after the first hour, throw in first three teaspoons of salt and first pinch of pepper. make sure you don't simmer, boil or have any heat other than the very lowest minimum.

4. 1hr 1/2 in: broth should be forming and you can see the fat pooling. chicken should be poached all the way through (if not, give another half hour or so). meat will pull easily from bones. when this happens, scoop out 1/2 of the chicken and put in bowl (re-cover pot) - let stand and cool enough until you can handle it (about 10 minutes). (don't turn off soup pot!)


5. when chicken in your bowl has sufficiently cooled, this is where you pull off meat from bones. ALL MEAT, not that which you can just easily reach. best to have another medium sized bowl and plate for the bones nearby. you have to use your FINGERS and feel for every last bit of fat and pull out every last little bone so people don't choke. pull meat into bite-sized or smaller pieces. discard all bones and cartilage... and see that broth in the bowl where the meat is? pour that back in too. (that's good stuff!)

5a. REGARDING SKIN: you have a choice here: i like "dirty soup" or the soup with the skin, as i think it's yummy and better for sickness days - therefore i tear the skin up also. however, some people really dislike the skin, so instead of tearing into small bite-sized pieces, you can pull off the skin in large strips for later skimming off the soup top. you will still need to cook the skin but have to decide what you want. choose wisely young jedi, and may the force be with you.


6. take out rest of chicken into your bowl and dump deboned chicken with skin back in (re-cover pot). repeat step 5 (& 5a) and dump that chicken in. skin will float so you'll notice that you'll be able to take skin out later (later!!!) if you choose to.


7. add 3 1/2 teaspoons of salt. add pinch black pepper.


8. add first two whole onions (not the halved ones).


9. stir (re-cover pot). let cook another 1/2-hour stirring occasionally until onions are soft and cooked through.


10. add carrots and celery and remaining halved onions. add another teaspoon of salt and pinch of pepper. stir. (re-cover pot) let cook 1 hour, stir every 30 minutes.



11. stir, taste. if your soup tastes a little thin or too weak (remember, this isn't campbell's soup' so it won't be fake colored or thickly flavored), add another half teaspoon to teaspoon of salt and stir. let sit on low low heat another 10 minutes and taste. it should be fine now, but if not, add another teaspoon of salt and stir.

*****take soup off heat now*****

12. here's where you can take out the skin if you choose to. (then) add matzo balls and lightly stir as matzo balls will break up if you agitate too much. re-cover pot and let stand for at least 1/2 hour (40 minutes is best - the pot won't cool significantly because it's dense. you just want everything 'sitting and greeting each other'). during this the the matzo balls will soak up the flavor of the soup.


13. enjoy with salt/pepper to taste (in your bowl, not the pot!). remember, this soup gets better the day after. and it's perfect for freezing. we always freeze a few bowls the day after for later keeping.

14. whine about how much you slaved over said soup. complain about pain in your hip. you worked hard, you deserve it!

one last bonus recipe: my french canadian grandmother's peas. this is a MUST at our Thanksgiving, Xmas and Channnukacha celebrations:

grandma bertha's peas
(you don't get more french canadian than this i think, and yes, my grandmother's name was bertha... heh.)

prep time: about 5 minutes.

this is a fab side dish for any large meal like baked stuffed turkey/chicken and the like. traditionally it's served in my house for every 'all family' together meal like thanksgiving and xmas, etc. also it's fab if you're feeling really down and you can make some warm biscuits with it to sop up the very delicious, but very fattening butter cream sauce. it's also a great way to get people who don't usually like veggies to eat them up like candy. to date, i haven't found one person who didn't really enjoy this.

ingredients
for every 15oz of peas (one large can and this works really fab too with green beans, french cut or otherwise. it does not however work with corn or carrots! trust me, i tried it!)
it's one half pint (maybe a bit less) of heavy cream
and two tablespoons of butter.
pinch of salt & pepper to taste


1. drain peas/green beans of water
2. pour into small sauce pan and add enough heavy cream to submerge 75% of peas in pan.
3. add butter.
4. heat slowly until peas are hot. do not boil! you do not want to scorch the heavy cream. keep stirring occassional to make sure you don't boil over heat and mix items thoroughly but do not mash or break vegetables.
5. add salt and pepper to taste.
6. enjoy! mmmmm

easy right? i told you so... but very very very good.

oooh nice link, those are some interesting recipes