HIGH HOLIDAY SOUP

It takes four hours to make this soup but it is simply delicious. That’s because there is a secret ingredient, one I remember because I ‘d never heard of anyone else using it in their matzo ball soup.

Grossmutter, Clayton Barnett’s rotund, German grandmother, called it knuckle bone soup.  I can still see her in a house dress and old, comfortable shoes standing in her kitchen chopping and stirring. She never wrote down her recipes. She used ‘a little bit of this and a wooden spoonful of that. ‘ With me, she tried to be more precise.

I’m sharing these because next week is the first of the Jewish high holidays and I thought maybe you’d like to have two authentic Rosh Hashanah recipes. Here they are just as she cooked them.

Matzo Ball Soup : (Sometimes she called this marrow bone soup)

Use a big split knuckle or soup bone and put it in a 2 quart pot that you fill three quarters full. Bring to a boil and boil until the foam comes to the top. Then skim off the foam.

Add the leaves of a bunch of celery

Some cabbage (I estimate she cut off about 1/3 of a head)

1 large onion quartered (skin left on)

1 garlic clove

2 carrots, cut into chunks

a handful of fresh parsley

canned stewed tomatoes

and . . .(drum roll) . . .a handful of green string beans (the secret ingredient)

Simmer 4 hours

Strain, salt to taste, chill, skim off fat and reheat to  cook the matzo balls in.

Matzo Balls

2 eggs beaten until foamy. Add a pinch of salt.

1 t chopped parsley

1/4 t nutmeg

1/4 t paprika

2 heaping T firm Chicken fat (or 3 T liquid fat)

Roast a little chopped onion in fat

add 3 T hot soup (above)

add enough matzo meal so it is medium in texture-not stiff

Put in icebox and chill

Roll into balls (whatever size you want. I try and make them about 1″ or so around. They puff up when cooked.)

When ready, add balls to soup and cook 25 minutes with lid on-on very low heat. Don’t peek.

Enjoy and to all those reading my blog, may your year be filled with joy and blessings.

                                                                                                                                                     Life: As fragile as a cobweb