8 days of fried food

Tonight is the third night of Hanukah. Over the past few days I've been making Hanukah-themed papel picado, the Mexican festival paper cut-outs. I was inspired by this post I found via The Crafty Crow, and have really enjoyed snipping away as I watch TV (now with only one eye, since I am still recovering from the insect attack referred to in my last post). I put them up in our front window and they look lovely and festive.

Every night so far we've been celebrating Hanukah with - naturally - the lighting of the candles and much spinning of dreidels. Plus a couple of tiny gifts for the kids, and some chocolate coins.

Today we bought a whole bag of dreidels for K to give out at school along with instructions for how to play the dreidel game (you can find instructions here if you need them). The mini dreidels look so cute with all their different colours.

I didn't grow up in an observant family, so until recently I had no idea that it was customary to eat fried food on Hanukah. Fried food! For eight days! Now that's a tradition worth keeping. My son is a big fan of latkes, and we are all glad of an excuse to eat the sugared jam donuts (see below) that are sold in Jewish bakeries at this time of year. But why stick to the Jewish dishes? Hot chips are hard to resist, as are pancakes. Then there are all those delicious Asian foods - spring rolls, pakoras and samosas. Mmmmm...

With one Jewish and one Anglo-Australian parent our children are not short of festivals and celebrations, and at this time of year we have a bit of an overload. Five more days of Hanukah to go, plus, over the next two weeks, all the end-of-year parties (playgroup, school, kindergarten) and a couple of birthday parties. And then there's Christmas... oh boy. If you've read this far, Chag sameach! Now go get yourself some fried food.

What the heck is a matzo ball?

 

The other day I was chatting to one of our neighbours while our children played footy in the street. As mothers often do, we discussed our fussy eaters and what we were planning to cook for them that evening. I told her I was making kneidlach - otherwise known as matzo (or matzah) balls - and she asked me what matzo balls are made of. 'They're made of matzo meal,' I answered, but not being Jewish, she had no idea what that was. 'It's crushed up matzo,' I said, 'kind of like breadcrumbs.' But what is matzo, she asked, puzzled. I ended up explaining that if you got a pack of table water crackers and smashed them you'd probably have something closely resembling matzo meal. And that these balls are quite easy to make, and, served in a bowl of soup, are one of the few things that we all love to have for dinner.

Our Friday night dinners are special, because that's when we celebrate Shabbat with blessings and a delicious (hopefully) family meal. Kneidlach/matzo balls (usually served with chicken soup) are a very traditional Jewish food. Being vegetarian we have them in a somewhat untraditional way, with minestrone. And this unusual combination is really, really good.

Every Jewish woman who cooks kneidlach has her own way of preparing them, but the ingredients don't vary much: eggs, oil, water, matzo meal, seasoning. My grandmother's recipe included two tablespoons of boiling water ('it MUST be boiling!'); the recipe I use specifies cold (I suspect it makes no difference). So, adapted from The Spice and Spirit of Kosher Jewish Cooking (which has three recipes - 'easy', 'fancy' and 'special'), here is how I make kneidlach:

Beat two eggs lightly, then add two tablespoons of oil (I use extra virgin olive oil), two tablespoons cold water, a pinch of salt and a few shakes of pepper. 

Stir in about 3/4 cup coarse matzo meal (I have no idea what anyone uses the fine matzo meal for, but don't buy it). The mixture should be a bit runny, so you freak out and think 'I will never be able to make these into balls!' Add a bit more matzo meal if it's dripping-off-the-spoon runny. 
  
Cover, and refrigerate for 30 minutes (longer is OK too. Sometimes I leave them in the fridge all day before cooking them at night and they turn out fine). 

The mixture will now be much thicker. With wet hands, roll little balls the size of walnuts. I get about 17 or 18 from this recipe, but you can make a smaller quantity of larger ones if you prefer. They do expand a fair bit when boiled.

Cook in a large pot of boiling water for 40 minutes, then remove with a slotted spoon. You can then put them straight into a soup, or let them cool before refrigerating or freezing them (they freeze very well). 

Here is K's bowl of strained soup with kneidlach. If you have a fussy eater, statements such as I DON'T WANT VEGIES IN MY SOUP may be all too familiar. We're hoping he'll grow out of it, because what sort of vegetarian doesn't like vegetables? R, pleasingly, has hers with plenty of vegies. And extra cannellini beans. 

Shabbat shalom!