CHICKEN SOUP WITH MATZO BALLS
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CreativityTranscript
00:00 Okay, we're going to make chicken soup with matzo balls.
00:07 I like to call it "chick-sa" soup.
00:10 Chicken soup, easy enough for chick-sas.
00:13 I always thought that making matzo balls, that you had to be a grandmother, that you
00:16 needed like a lifetime of studying.
00:19 It's actually not hard at all to make delicious matzo ball soup.
00:24 You do not need to be a grandmother and you do not need to be Jewish.
00:28 Let me show you how it's done.
00:29 The first thing that we need to do is make a good chicken broth.
00:34 Making chicken broth is very easy.
00:36 The basis to any broth is onion, carrot, celery, and something green.
00:44 So here are our onions.
00:47 Onions are delicious whole because this papery skin actually has a lot of flavor.
00:52 And I'm a little lazy and I don't like to chop.
00:54 You don't need to chop.
00:55 Put them in whole.
00:58 Carrots in the pot.
01:01 Some celery.
01:02 Some dill.
01:03 A little parsley also.
01:05 Parsnips.
01:06 Bay leaves for flavor.
01:08 And a few whole peppercorns.
01:10 We're going to fill it with water.
01:13 The flavor of chicken soup comes from chicken bones.
01:18 So I personally love to use chicken necks because they're very inexpensive and very
01:22 flavorful, although sometimes you can't find them at the market like I couldn't today.
01:26 So instead we're going to use the next best thing, really bony, really flavorful, our
01:31 wings.
01:32 So here's our chicken wings and they're just going in the pot.
01:35 So we're just going to turn it on to a medium high flame.
01:38 Let it come up to a boil and then turn it down to low and let it simmer for a good hour
01:44 and a half to two hours.
01:46 Okay, now we're going to make the infamous matzo ball.
01:48 You are going to see how easy it is.
01:51 It's easy.
01:52 So we're going to start by cracking four eggs.
02:01 Then we're just going to whisk our eggs.
02:06 Nice good pinch of salt and we're going to add fresh ground pepper.
02:11 A lot of it.
02:12 You want these matzo balls to have a little bit of kick.
02:15 So we still have some parsley left over from our chicken broth.
02:18 Rip off some leaves.
02:20 And we're also going to use some celery leaves right from the celery.
02:24 Take off these leaves.
02:25 They're super flavorful, more flavorful than the celery stalks themselves.
02:31 And we're just going to chop them up.
02:33 We're going to take these fresh herbs and sprinkle them in.
02:42 Now we're going to add a cup of matzo meal and we're just going to whisk it around.
02:48 You can see that it's beginning to thicken up.
02:52 The trick to matzo balls is put a little schmaltz in your balls.
02:56 Schmaltz is Yiddish for chicken fat and we are going to use duck fat.
03:04 We're now going to add another trick which is a little bit of dried ginger.
03:08 These are not going to be Asian tasting matzo balls.
03:10 The ginger just adds a freshness.
03:12 So we're going to use about a quarter teaspoon of dried ginger.
03:15 This is two tablespoons of reduced chicken broth.
03:21 Stir it all together.
03:22 I'm going to cover this with plastic wrap and put it in the fridge for at least three
03:28 hours or overnight.
03:30 All right, so I've taken the matzo ball mix out of the fridge and now it's time to put
03:36 together a cheater's chicken broth.
03:39 That means that I'm going to be adding some water to this pot.
03:43 I'm also going to be adding some boxed organic broth.
03:47 Now let's face it, boxed broth, even if it's organic, does not taste fresh.
03:53 We have to make it taste fresh.
03:55 So I'm going to add a little bit of carrot, just a little bit of parsley, a little bit
04:00 of celery and voila, cheater's chicken broth.
04:03 So now we have our cheater's chicken broth at a boil and we are going to add some salt
04:09 to it and it's time to throw in the matzo balls.
04:14 I like them messy.
04:16 You're going for a ball that's about an inch and a half wide and just toss it in there.
04:22 A rustic look tells your guests that they're eating something that's homemade.
04:30 Okay, these matzo balls have been cooking covered for 50 minutes.
04:37 They are ready for us, so we're just going to go ahead and put a couple in here and then
04:46 spoon a few ladles of hot broth right on top.
04:51 If your chicken broth doesn't seem to have good flavor, it's because you have not added
04:56 enough salt.
04:57 I am telling you the truth.
04:59 Add salt to your chicken broth.
05:00 Now we're going to cut into this matzo ball.
05:04 It's delicious.
05:09 It tastes like grandma.
05:10 Honestly, I deserve an award.
05:14 So there you have it.
05:16 Matzo ball soup, easy enough for shikzas.
05:18 Enjoy l'chaim.
05:19 [music]
05:29 (upbeat music)