Matzo Balls

    This is a story about soup.  Matzo ball soup.  My grandmother, Nan, made the best matzo ball soup.  I was an awkward sixth grader with a crush on the popular boy in class when my grandmother offered to teach me how to prepare my favorite soup.
    "I'll teach you how to make floaters, not sinkers," she assured me. The key to a successful matzo ball was its density, and Nan knew how to create a light, fluffy ball.  She wanted to pass on the secret to me.  I needed something to cheer me up, something like a secret recipe.  Maybe she thought it would make me feel special if I knew how to make it myself.  The social order in sixth grade was changing.  New alliances were forming and it worried me.  I'm talking about my friend, Lizzy Richman.
    Over the summer she must have grown five inches taller and curvy.  She towered over most of us.  I noticed her slouching her shoulders and wearing loose shirts.  Despite her efforts at modesty, she had some new admirers: all the boys in the class.
   Eliot Friedman noticed and chose her to be on his team when we played dodgeball at recess.  She was his third choice after Russell and Stephen, his best buddies, so we all knew Lizzy's standing had changed.
    Of course it could have been her height, which can be an advantage in dodgeball.  Lizzy was a giraffe compared to the boys.  Whether it has her cleavage or her height, Eliot was paying attention to Lizzy.
    Then came the day that I stood in front of the pack during dodgeball and it was Eliot's turn to throw.  The ball sailed directly into my face, as if it had radar.  The blood leaked out of my nose and stained my t shirt. Eliot ran over to me and looked concerned.  Not just concerned, but actually worried. About me.  Eliot Friedman was worried about me.
   An aide brought me to the nurse's office.  She phoned my mom and I lay on the bed and thought about Eliot with tissues stuffed up my nostrils.
    I went home early, my nose stopped bleeding, and I practiced what I would say to Eliot in the morning.
    It could have been otherwise, but the next day at school, I didn't exist for Eliot Friedman.  Lizzy, however, was third pick for his team.
    In the larger scope of life, kids get tossed around, embarrassed and, sometimes, humiliated.  Noses bleed.  Feelings get hurt.  Soup can help.  Knowing how to make soup by yourself can really do wonders.
  Although she meant well, my mother's soup was a salty, watery mess.  She tried but she didn't understand matzo ball density. Also, she didn't make homemade broth but relied on a can of College Inn chicken broth.
  Nan knew how to make soup.  She made the broth from scratch and her soups tasted like they had  simmered for hours.  They did in fact simmer for hours.  Nan's soups comforted upset stomachs, colds, fevers and even melancholy moods. Disappointment too.
   Nan taught me how to make matzo ball soup. For this I am grateful.  Did it solve all my problems at school?  No, but it balanced out some of the disappointment.
   Nan even explained the part that really counted in the endless debate about matzo balls: heavy or light?   Another way to phrase this is: floaters or sinkers?  The secret was so simple I wanted to laugh.  Nan looked like she was revealing a great mystery when she told me: "You have to boil the matzo balls in a large pot of water with the lid on. Thirty minutes, minimum. That is it. No more and no less.  Then you add them to the chicken broth."
   Who cares?  There is something that elevates a soup when a matzo ball is fluffy and light. It makes you feel better when you drink it.  A soup can just be a soup or it can have healing powers.


Matzo Ball Soup

5 Cups homemade chicken broth
4 carrots, thinly sliced.
2 stalks celery, thinly sliced.

matzo balls
2 T vegetable oil
2 eggs, beaten
1/2 C matzo meal
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
3 T chicken broth
chopped parsley for garnish.

In a bowl, whisk the oil and eggs.
Combine the matzo meal, salt and pepper with the egg mixture.
Add 3 tablespoons of chicken broth and mix.
Cover and refrigerate for 15 minutes.
Boil large pot of water.
Form the matzo dough into balls about 1 inch wide and drop them into the boiling water.
Simmer, covered, for 30 minutes.
In another pot, heat the chicken broth to medium heat and add the carrot and celery.
Serve with chicken broth and chopped parsley.