Chicken soup has long been venerated in the Jewish home as a traditional and indispensable part of a festive meal, not to mention its medicinal value. The Jewish cook's repertoire would be incomplete without it. Since some consider matzo balls an integral part of chicken soup, I have also included my favorite recipe for kneidlach.
Clean and rinse chicken and place it in a 5- or 6-quart soup pot with all the remaining ingredients, except water and sugar. So far so good.
Add water to the pot until the level reaches 2 to 3 inches from the top. Cover and bring to a boil on a medium-to-high flame. Then simmer on a low flame for 2 to 2 1/2 hours. After 1 hour of cooking, add sugar. This "spoonful of sugar" will not only help the medicine go down, it will also make it taste wonderful. Once the soup is done, remove the parsley and dill and discard. Taste and correct seasonings if necessary.
If you are going to be serving the soup immediately, skim the fat with a spoon while it is cooking. If you cook the soup a day or two ahead of time, an easier way of skimming the fat is to allow the soup to cool after it is cooked and then chill thoroughly in the refrigerator. The fat will congeal on top of the soup and can be easily removed. Reheat the fatless soup and savor!
To serve: Before serving, remove the meat, cut it into bite-sized pieces, and return it to the pot. You can now dish up a hearty soup with both vegetables and meat.
"Light" and "fluffy" are the most frequently used adjectives to describe kneidlach, and these are no exception!
Beat eggs with a fork, add water or broth, oil, salt, and pepper and mix thoroughly.
Add matzo meal gradually, mixing as you go, until all the ingredients are well acquainted with each other. Refrigerate for 30 minutes or until it is thick enough to be shaped into balls.
While you're waiting, fill a 4-quart pot 2/3 full of water, add 2 teaspoons of salt, and bring it to a boil.
Slightly wet or oil your hands to prevent the kneidlach mixture from sticking to them. Take a rounded tablespoon of the dough, form a ball, and drop it carefully into the boiling water. Repeat until you have used all the dough.
Cook for 20 to 30 minutes, then remove the balls from the pot with a slotted spoon. Add the cooked kneidlach to soup and bring it to a boil.
Variation: If you enjoy light and fluffy kneidlach, prepare the recipe as is. However, if you prefer the heavier kind (affectionately known in our home as "baseballs"), use 3 eggs instead of 5, and replace 1 cup of the matzo meal with 11/2 cups of bread crumbs. Add this to the egg mixture, along with the remaining 1/4 cup of matzo meal, and follow the same directions as above. This will change both the consistency and color of the kneidlach.
This unusual name refers to the soup's thickness: so thick you need a knife and fork to eat it! Don't worry, it just seems that way; you'll still need soup spoons. The basic recipe is a dairy version, followed by a meat variation.
Before rinsing peas, sort and throw out any stray stones (they don't add any extra flavor) and those drier-than-dry peas. Rinse in a sieve or colander and set aside.
Melt margarine at a medium temperature in a pareve pot; add celery and onion and saute until slightly browned, about 10 minutes. Pour in water, add the split peas, potatoes, seasonings, and bouillon cubes. Bring to a boil over a medium-to-high flame; immediately reduce heat to low-to-medium and simmer for 1 hour or until the peas are mushy. Be careful not to cook the peas at too high a temperature. Split peas clump together on the bottom of the pot and can burn easily. Therefore, stir frequently to prevent your soup from meeting an untimely end.
Once the peas are cooked, fish out the bay leaf and puree the soup in batches in a blender or food processor. (If your blender is dairy, then you can cook this in a dairy pot from the beginning.) Pour each batch into a dairy pot until the entire soup is pureed. Add half-and-half and warm over a medium flame until thoroughly heated, about 5 minutes. Do not allow the soup to boil or burn; remember to stir often.
Before serving, combine sour cream and mint or parsley, and garnish each bowl of soup with a dollop. If you are trying to cut down on calories and/or fat, omit the sour cream and just garnish with chopped mint or parsley.
Meat variation: Saute 8 sliced hot dogs in 2 teaspoons of oil until browned, about 5 to 7 minutes; remove hot dogs and set aside. Saute celery and onion in the hot-dog drippings. If they stick to the pot, add 1 tablespoon of margarine or oil. Cook soup as directed, but in a meat pot. Omit all dairy ingredients. If you have a meat blender, food mill, or food processor, puree soup and return it to the meat pot; if you do not own a fleishig appliance, then mash everything together with a large fork. Add the hot dogs and reheat thoroughly.