I had this crazy notion to make matzo ball soup dressed up as Italian Wedding Soup, figuring careful selection and combining of ingredients might result in a very tasty soup, seasoned Middle Eastern Jewish style, not Italian style, and using cured (corned) beef (it is easy to make, see the Food Nirvana recipe) for making meatballs. My resulting recipe is a scratch recipe where you make the matzo meal, the matzo balls, the meatballs, the chicken, the Hawaij (huh-wah'-age) seasoning and finally the wedding soup. As it turns out, this is clearly a teaching recipe, given the detail provided. You can, of course, cheat a bit and buy some of the ingredients, like matzo meal and Hawaij seasoning, and perhaps use regular ground beef instead of ground corned beef for the meatballs, though I strongly recommend using ground corned beef for the flavor it imparts to the soup.
I decided to check the Internet to see if possibly anyone else had the same crazy notion as me ... only to discover that, yes, some other folks do make it ... each in their own way and none like mine. That suits me fine. No two recipes are even remotely alike, and I include some ingredients that are clearly unique in my version of this soup.
My version combines the flavors of corned beef and (deli) pastrami with a Middle Eastern spice mixture (Hawaij) in a chicken broth base, using small matzo balls instead of Acini de Pepe, which is the tiny type of pasta pieces used in conventional Italian Wedding Soup. I did notice that none of we recipe creators decided to use Parmesan or any other cheese. But we all use chopped escarole.
This recipe is fairly complex due to the multiple steps, and you have to allow for three to four hours of preparation time to be certain you have enough time to make the soup. But don't be daunted by the detail or the required time. The detailed recipe procedure teaches less experienced cooks a lot about food processing and flavoring that will be very useful in making or creating a lot of other recipes. Be patient, learn the techniques, and smile for many years as you apply them creatively to making many great dishes.
First make the matzo crackers/meal, then the matzo balls, then make the corned beef meatballs, then the Hawaij seasoning, then the cubed chicken breast, and finally the wedding soup. Put the extra unused portion of the Hawaij seasoning into an 8 ounce canning jar and close the lid tightly, label it, then store it in a dark, cool place. That way you won't have to make Hawaij the next time you make this soup or various other Middle Eastern dishes.
For the record, some of the directions I found for making matzo crackers, etc., from the Internet, were simply wrong. They had to be put there by ugly intent. Follow my directions and all will be well. Due to oven differences it is smart to keep focused on the goal of having crisp but not burnt matzo crackers. In short, stop the baking process when you have crisp crackers that can readily be turned into meal. The directions I provide address only the results using my oven, and I varied baking conditions and times to find what worked best.
Okay, let's start by making matzo crackers and then the matzo meal ...
Matzo Meal:
This simple and easy recipe will save you time and money, rather than you having to buy overpriced Matzo Meal at the supermarket. But, the price of the electricity to make this matzo meal is higher than the cost of the food ingredients! And, to be candid, this step in the recipe is the most laborious, so if you are going to cheat then this is where to do it.
Ingredients:
4 cups of all purpose flour (or the flour, or flour blend/mixture, of your choice)
2 cups of room temperature water
1 tsp. of sea salt or kosher salt
Directions:
Set your oven temperature to 500 degrees F. Move an oven shelf to the middle of the oven. Put flat baking stones together on that shelf. Pre-heat the oven for 30 minutes to allow the baking stones time to get close to the right temperature. Change the setting to convection 500 degrees F and continue heating for ten minutes.
If you don't have baking stones then bake the crackers on an 11" x 17" baking sheet. Also, you can choose to use two oven shelves and bake two batches on baking sheets at the same time, which will save a lot of time.
Mix the water and salt, then mix that with the flour in an electric mixer bowl, on medium speed for three or four minutes. Divide the dough in half and do each half separately using the next instructions. Let the dough rest for two minutes then knead it using the electric mixer with the regular beater on medium speed for two additional minutes. If the dough is sticky then add one tbsp. of flour and mix for two minutes and let the dough rest for two minutes. If necessary, repeat adding flour and mixing and letting the dough rest. Why did we let the dough rest? So the gluten in the flour would develop and act as a binder and make the dough workable instead of crumbly.
Put the dough pieces on an 11" x 17" sheet of parchment paper on a wood cutting board and make two 12" long tubes of dough. Use a pastry cutter and each tube into 12 roughly equal size pieces. Set the dough pieces and parchment paper aside and let the dough rest for five minutes. Then put three of the dough pieces on a different sheet of parchment paper, equidistant from each other and from the edges of the parchment paper.
Press down with the heel of your hand to flatten the dough pieces to about 1/4" thick, dust them lightly with flour, then roll out the three flattened pieces of the dough using a rolling pin, until they are very thin, no more than 1/16th of an inch thick.
Open the oven and put the parchment paper with the rolled out dough pieces on to the oven stones, by hand.
Bake the dough for three minutes on the flat stones, then open the oven and turn the dough pieces over with tongs, and bake for an additional three minutes. Then remove the parchment paper and matzo crackers from the oven and let them cool on a wood cutting board. If you have crispy crackers then the baking time is good. If the crackers aren't crispy everywhere then return them to the oven for an additional baking time of two minutes for each side. Repeat as necessary until you know exactly what total baking time to use for the rest of the batches of crackers.
Reuse the parchment paper for the next batch of dough pieces.
Repeat the rolling, baking and cooling steps for the remaining pieces of dough.
Turn off the oven.
Break up/tear the 24 crackers into small (about 1") size pieces and spread them on the baking sheet. You might notice that some of the pieces are semi-soft instead of crispy, so read on ...
Put the baking sheet back into the oven while the oven is cooling, for thirty minutes. Then remove it, let the crackers pieces cool and then smash the (finally) dry pieces of matzo crackers in a gallon Ziploc® freezer bag, about a third of the total amount each time, using the flat side of a kitchen mallet. Note that you want meal consistency, not powder. Alternatively, you can try using a food processor to make the meal, and that may or may not work depending on the unit you own. Also, grinding machines that turn grains into flour at home can be used on a coarse setting.
So, what about the fact you have everything from powder and every size in between, up to pieces about 1/4" on a side? Is this a problem? Commercial matzo meal is fairly uniform in size. Answer: For this recipe your results are just fine.
Put the matzo meal into a one quart canning jar and put a lid on it.
Proceed to the next recipe step now to make the matzo balls.
Matzo Balls:
Ingredients:
2 cups of matzo meal
1/3 cup of water
3 jumbo eggs, whisked
4 tbsp. of chopped fresh parsley
2 large shallots, ends cut off, peeled and very thinly sliced, 1/16th inch thick
8 ounces of deli pastrami lunch meat slices, diced into 1/2" squares (buy Boar's Head® black pastrami if you can find it)
2 tsp. of kosher salt or sea salt
2 tbsp. of canola oil
Directions:
Saute the thin shallot slices in the canola oil in a small skillet on medium heat until they are translucent, then remove the skillet from the heat.
Beat the eggs in the electric mixer bowl on medium low speed for two minutes.
Add the matzo meal, salt, chopped parsley, pastrami pieces and sauteed shallot pieces to the bowl and mix those ingredients together on medium speed using the electric mixer for three minutes. Use a spatula to scrape down the inside surface of the mixing bowl.
Add the 1/3 cup of the water to the mixture in the bowl. Mix well on medium low speed for three minutes. You now have a thick, chunky batter.
Dispense the batter into a large soup or cereal bowl.
Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and refrigerate the batter for 4 hours or up to overnight to stiffen the batter.
Dust your hands with flour, as needed, to keep the matzo ball batter from sticking to them while you are making the balls in the next step.
Form small matzo balls (5/8" diameter) using roughly two teaspoons of batter per ball. The mixture will be very dense, and that is okay. Roll each one in between the palms of your hands. Put them on parchment paper on a large cutting board.
Add all of the matzo balls to two quarts of lightly boiling chicken broth in a two gallon pot, in small groups, keeping the matzo balls separated from each other until they are made wet by the broth so they don't stick together.
Cook the matzo balls for 20 minutes at a low boil.
Remove the matzo balls using a slotted spoon and put them on a wood cutting board.
Cut the matzo balls in half with a sharp knife and return them to the chicken broth.
Set the pot of chicken broth and halved matzo balls aside for later use in the wedding soup portion of this recipe.
Now proceed to make the corned beef meatballs:
Corned Beef Meatballs:
Ingredients:
1 lb. of raw lean corned beef, cut into 1" cubes and ground fine using an electric meat grinder or stand mixer with a grinder attachment, and the 1/8" diameter holes die
1 cup of matzo meal
2 jumbo eggs, beaten
3 tbsp. of chopped parsley
1 tsp. of kosher or sea salt
2 tbsp. of olive oil for the meatballs
1 tbsp. of canola oil or olive oil to be spread on an 11 x 17 inch baking sheet
Directions:
Set the oven temperature to 325 degrees F.
Lightly grease an 11" x 17" baking sheet with the one tbsp. of canola oil or olive oil.
Beat the eggs using an electric mixer on medium low speed for one minute, then add the salt, the parsley and the olive oil and mix on medium speed for three minutes.
Add the ground corned beef gradually and then mix for three minutes on medium speed. Scrape down the inside of the mixing bowl with a spatula and continue mixing for two minutes.
Add the matzo meal to the mixing bowl gradually while mixing. Then mix for three minutes and scrape down the inside of the mixing bowl with a spatula and mix for two more minutes.
Dispense the meatball mixture into a soup bowl.
Form the meatball mixture by hand (as you did with the matzo balls) into small meatballs about 5/8" to 3/4" in diameter.
Place each meatball on the baking sheet in rows (7 rows by 9 columns), spread evenly and not touching. When done you should have about 63 meatballs.
Bake the meatballs for 20 minutes, then remove the baking sheet from the oven.
Turn off the oven.
Set the meatballs/baking sheet aside.
Now make the Hawaij seasoning:
Hawaij:
Ingredients: (this recipe makes enough Hawaij for multiple uses)
1 1⁄2 tbsp. of black peppercorns
1 tbsp. of cumin seed or 2 tsp. of ground cumin
1 1/2 tsp. of coriander seeds or 1 tsp. of ground coriander
1/2 tsp. of ground cardamom
4 whole cloves
1 tbsp. of ground turmeric
Directions:
Put all of the Hawaij ingredients except the turmeric and any other ground spices into a small frying pan & dry fry (no oil required) with stirring for three minutes on medium heat, but do not let the spices burn or turn dark. Also, do not inhale the potent scent of the hot spices as it makes breathing difficult.
Dispense and then allow the mixture from the frying pan to cool on a saucer, then grind it to a powder using a Magic Bullet® mixer. This will take about one minute. Per the last step, do not inhale the dust from the grinding and mixing operation.
Add the turmeric and any other ground spices and mix well, again using the Magic Bullet® mixer briefly, then label and store the Hawaij in a sealed container like an 8 ounce canning jar, and store it in a cool, dark place.
It is finally time to make the wedding soup:
A Jewish Variation of Italian Wedding Soup:
Ingredients:
4 quarts of chicken broth (use the broth set aside from making the matzo balls, plus two additional quarts of chicken broth)
4 large heads of escarole, bottoms cut off and discarded, and the leaves separated, washed in cold water, drained and then chopped roughly into 2" by 2" pieces
4 large cloves of garlic, ends cut off, peeled and minced
The baked corned beef meatballs
The boiled, halved matzo balls
1 1/2 pounds of cooked boneless, skinless chicken breast halves, cut into 1/2" cubes (see the directions below)
1 tbsp. of sea salt or kosher salt
3 tbsp. of Better Than Bullion® Roast Chicken flavor seasoning
4 bay leaves
2 large red (sweet) bell peppers, cleaned and diced roughly into 1/2" squares
3 large carrots, ends cut off, surface peeled, and that waste discarded, then the carrots are shaved into 4" strips, and then cut into 2" long very thin slices, using a potato peeler and then a sharp knife
1 tbsp. of Hawaij seasoning (More can be added later if wanted.)
3 tbsp. of fresh lemon juice
Directions:
Pre-cook the chicken breast halves in two quarts of lightly boiling water for 20 to 30 minutes, then rinse them in cold water and rub off any gunky white albumin, then dice the chicken into roughly 1/2" cubes on a cutting board. Set the chicken cubes aside.
Reheat the saved chicken broth and halved matzo balls in the 2 gallon pot, along with the two additional quarts of chicken broth, to a low boil on high heat.
Add the minced garlic, sea salt, Better than Bullion® Roast Chicken seasoning, bay leaves, diced red bell pepper, shaved carrot pieces and the Hawaij, then stir briefly and cook for ten minutes at a low boil on low to medium heat.
Meanwhile, cut the baked corned beef meatballs in half on a wood cutting board.
Add the halved corned beef meatballs and the cubed chicken breast pieces to the soup pot, then stir the soup and cook at a low boil for ten minutes.
Add the chopped escarole gradually, pressing it down into the broth gently with a large spoon, bring the soup to a boil on high heat, and then cook the mixture for ten minutes on medium low heat, covered with a lid. Then turn the heat to low.
Stir the soup briefly and ladle a small amount of broth into a cup, then let it cool enough so you can taste it. Taste the broth and add more Hawaij seasoning (one or two teaspoons) to the soup pot if needed/wanted and stir the soup.
Add the lemon juice, then stir briefly.
Turn off the heat and cover the pot with a lid.
Before serving the soup you may want to remove and discard the bay leaves. (Good luck finding them!)
Pre-warm your soup bowls in a 180 degrees F warming oven.
Serve the soup hot along with glasses of a chilled white wine like Pinot Grigio or Sauvignon Blanc, plus glasses of ice water. Some crusty bread or rolls, with butter, might be enjoyed.
You may want to have a small bowl of Hawaij on the table for guests who want additional seasoning. Also provide either kosher or sea salt, though I doubt you will need it.
Enjoy! Amehaye, Paisano! Yes, you will truly enjoy this Jewish Variation of Italian Wedding Soup with complex flavors and unique ingredients.