Conference turris::cooks

    They're just flour and water - "poor bread" indeed!  Ones that you try
    to make at home won't be kosher for Passover, though, if that is a
    concern.  You probably can't get your oven hot enough to cook them fast
    enough that they don't come out to be cardboard-like (which most of the
    hand-made shmerah matzohs we use for the seder usually are anyhow!),
    but if you can make pitas successfully, you can give it a try.  What
    you do is, heat the oven or broiler to as high a temperature as it will
    go.  Put the flour in the bowl of a food processor.  As soon as you
    start adding water, set the timer for 18 minutes - that is how long you
    have before the flour officially becomes "leavened", so the matzohs
    have to be DONE by then!  Mix as fast as possible, roll out as fast as
    possible, striat using a pattern-marking wheel (what I used, the few
    times I tried this stunt!) or similar, and stuff in the very hot oven.
    Remove when the timer goes off, and you will probably have: CARDBOARD.
    
    It is a reasonably amusing pre-Passover exercise for kids, anyhow.  My
    nieces and nephews make them in religious school every year.  Since
    that school is run along very strict lines, the kids are warned that
    the cardboard-like things they made have to be eaten (or tossed...)
    before Passover.
    
    /Charlotte

        Ones that you try
        to make at home won't be kosher for Passover, though, if that is a
        concern.
    
    Why?  Just curious.  (Is there such a thing as kosher-for-passover
    flour that you could use?)
    
    D!

        Charlotte,

        Thanks very much for the instructions!  I'm going to try it.

        If I wanted my matzos to be kosher for Passover, what would I
        have to do additionally?  (Or could I do it?  Is this something
        that only a rabbi or other specially designated person can do?)

        -Naomi

    Yes, there is special flour.  I think it is mostly a matter of how the
    wheat and the flour is stored, to make sure that it never gets moist.
    And of course you need to use utensils that are reserved just for
    Passover - not a holiday for which I own a special rolling pin, even
    though we do kasher the house for the holiday and use kosher dishes
    that spend the rest of the year in the attic (we do not keep kosher the
    rest of the year, so this is a major effort!).  You'd need to ask a
    rabbi, or a Jewish bakery, for more details.  The places that bake the
    hand-made matzohs seem not to be open at all for anything except to
    bake them right before the holiday - I guess that insures that no one
    will mess up and contaminate any of the utensils.  You wouldn't want to
    eat the handmade matzohs as a regular thing - they are almost always
    real cardboard, though it depends on how damp it was the day they were
    baked.  Mine were actually pretty good last year.

While we're at it! 

I was looking for a recipe for matzo balls.  I've been using the mix,
and find it a little salty.  Anyone have a favorite they can share?

Thanks,
Rachel

    I follow the recipe on the box of matzo meal.  It's the same as recipes
    in my Jewish cook books, btw.   Just eliminate the salt if you want - I
    do and don't notice the difference.  You can buy matzo meal in the
    Jewish foods section of most supermarkets.
    
    One trick some "balabustas" (supreme housewives) claim makes them
    fluffier is to use seltzer water instead of plain water.
    
    Handle the dough as little as possible so it doesn't get tough.  The
    size you make is your choice.  Remember they puff up really big when
    you cook them.  I usually make a ball the size of a walnut which ends
    up being golf ball size.
    
    To get the chicken fat, no problem.  I make the chicken soup the day
    before, then refrigerate it.  I can readily skim off enough fat from
    the top of the bowl.  I don't recommend omitting the fat in the soup or
    the matzo balls - it is just not the same.  When you trim the chicken
    before simmering, leave SOME fat.  I've been over-zealous and regretted
    it.  A traditional nickname for chicken soup is Golden Coins, referring
    to the golden disks of fat floating on the soup.  A much-admired
    quality from a time when many Jewish people never had enough to eat and
    meat was a delicacy.
    
    To serve, ladle the strained soup into a serving plate.  Add several
    chunks of the carrots cooked in the soup from the start, and one or two
    matzo balls.  Parsley garnish optional.
    
    If you have extra matzo balls to use later, put them on a plate or pie
    pan, cover tightly with plastic wrap, and refrigerate.
    
    Leftover matzo balls are good sauteed in a little margarine, onions
    optional.  Nice as a side dish with sliced meat.
    
    Laura

    From the Manischewitz box:
    
    2 TB melted fat or oil
    2 large eggs, slightly beaten
    1/2 cup Manischewitz matzo meal
    1 tsp salt if desired
    2 TB soup stock or water
    
    Blend fat and eggs together.  Mix matzo meal and salt.  Add matzo meal
    and salt mixture to egg and fat or oil mixture and blend well.  Then
    add soup stock or water and mix until uniform.  Cover mixing bowl and
    refrigerate for 15 minutes.  [You can refigerate several hours if you
    want.]  Using a 2 or 3 quart pot birng 1 1/2 quarts of water to a brisk
    boil.  Reduce flame and into the slightly boiling water drop balls
    approximately 1 inch in diameter formed from mixture in refrigerator. 
    Cover pot and cook 30 to 40 minutes.  Have soup at room temperature or
    warmer and remove matzo balls from water and place in soup pot.  When
    ready to serve, allow soup to simmer for about 5 minutes.  Recipe makes
    about 8 balls.
    
    NOTE:  You can make your own matzo meal in a food processor, but just
    be careful to keep the consistency even and appropriate.  It should be
    like cornmeal.