Around the Shabbat Table Read Online Free PDF

backs are fine for making chicken stock, they are too fatty and lack the requisite clarity of flavor for a soup meant to be served solo. It may seem extravagant to use a large hen for soup—after all, the cooked chicken cannot be served later as an entree (you’ve already extracted all the flavor from it). However, the meat is perfectly good for chicken salad, sandwiches, Fried Onion and Chicken Kreplach , and Dayenu , or served cut up in soup. Or prepare Chicken Latkes: combine coarsely shredded or chopped chicken with sautéed onions (garlic and mushrooms too, if desired), eggs, fresh herbs, and matzoh meal or soaked and drained challah. Season well, form into little cakes or drop by heaping tablespoons into hot oil. Fry over medium-high heat until golden-brown on both sides.
    2.To compensate for the often anemic taste of today’s chickens, I add lots and lots of earthy, aromatic vegetables to provide the soup with strength and character.
    3.It’s a struggle, but I resist the temptation to use a lot of water. And if the soup tastes too watery when I’m finished, I reduce it as much as necessary, even though it pains me to see the fruits of all my labor just boiling away.
    4.Long, slow cooking will extract every bit of flavor from both chicken and vegetables. Using a huge stockpot—a 20- or even 24-quart size, far larger than the contents would warrant—and a tiny flame, so there is no danger of the soup boiling, I cook it for at least four hours, and more often overnight.
    5.To prepare the chicken, I remove every bit of fat and some of the excess skin, since they don’t add any flavor and later I’ll just have to discard the grease they produce.
    6.Skim, skim, skim. Froth and scum taste bitter and look terrible.
    7.To prevent the precious flavors from evaporating, after I have finished skimming the soup, I cover the surface with a layer of the green part of the leeks used in the soup. If I have no leeks, I use the outer leaves of a mild lettuce.
    8.And lastly, I never bring the soup to a boil. That roiling bubble action traps fat and scum beneath the surface, bonding them to the liquid, so that the soup becomes clouded, murky, and impossible to clarify. Instead, I let it simmer gently for the entire cooking period, “smiling,” as the French say of the tiny bubbles that open and close along the edge of the pot. (Boiling the finished soup—strained and defatted—to reduce it is, of course, another matter.)
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    TWO CLASSIC MATZOH BALL RECIPES
    yield: 6 TO 8 SERVINGS
    Featherweight matzoh balls so delicate they quiver when you sigh—these are not the stuff our dreams are made on. My family prefers matzoh balls with a rich flavor you can really taste, buttery and light-textured, but not so fluffy you might as well be eating scrambled eggs. I’ve experimented with many slight variations, including my grandmother’s addition of club soda, and for years relied on the standard, back-of-the-matzoh-meal-box recipe that called for a few tablespoons of broth stirred into the batter. This recipe, using slightly more of the flavorful fat and no liquid at all, is our hands-down favorite. On the very rare occasions when we have any left over, we enjoy them heated up with a bit of broth or sautéed (chill them before frying so they don’t fall apart) and served as a side dish, with or without gravy.
    4 large eggs
    1 recipe Olive Oil Schmaltz (see Cook’s Note) or 6 tablespoons Poultry Schmaltz or, less desirably, 6 tablespoons mild olive or avocado oil (the fat should be at room temperature)
    4 teaspoons grated onion
    1 cup matzoh meal (you can substitute up to 1 ⁄ 4 cup finely ground skinned almonds for an equal quantity of the matzoh meal)
    1 teaspoon baking powder (optional; see Cook’s Note)
    Kosher salt
    Freshly ground black pepper
    Up to 4 tablespoons finely minced fresh herbs (dill, chives, parsley, or a combination) and/or 2 pinches of ground