Matzo Ball Soup
Ingredients
For the soup:
- 1 onion, peeled and halved
- 1 to 2 leeks, white and pale-green parts only, chopped in half crosswise
- 4 to 5 carrots, peeled and roughly chopped
- 3 parsley roots with parsley leaves, peeled
- 7 to 8 celery stalks, peeled and roughly chopped
- 6 chicken drumsticks, bone-in, skin-on
- 6 chicken wings, bone-in, skin-on
- 1½ tablespoons kosher salt
- 1 bunch fresh dill
For the matzo balls:
- 1 cup matzo meal
- 4 eggs
- ¼ cup chicken broth
- 3 tablespoons olive oil
- ¼ teaspoon onion powder
- ¼ teaspoon garlic powder
- 1½ teaspoons kosher salt
- 1 pinch white pepper
Matzo Ball Soup
Ingredients
For the soup:
- 1 onion, peeled and halved
- 1 to 2 leeks, white and pale-green parts only, chopped in half crosswise
- 4 to 5 carrots, peeled and roughly chopped
- 3 parsley roots with parsley leaves, peeled
- 7 to 8 celery stalks, peeled and roughly chopped
- 6 chicken drumsticks, bone-in, skin-on
- 6 chicken wings, bone-in, skin-on
- 1½ tablespoons kosher salt
- 1 bunch fresh dill
For the matzo balls:
- 1 cup matzo meal
- 4 eggs
- ¼ cup chicken broth
- 3 tablespoons olive oil
- ¼ teaspoon onion powder
- ¼ teaspoon garlic powder
- 1½ teaspoons kosher salt
- 1 pinch white pepper
Ella Osias’s family lived very modestly in 1920s Bucharest, the Romanian capital. Her mother said that with the birth of each child, she simply added more water to the soup pot to stretch the soup. By the time Ella, the 10th and final child was born in 1930, the soup was already watered down, but they made do, Ella’s daughter Hariette Skidelsky shared with us.
Along with her mother and three of her siblings, Ella survived World War II in hiding and made her way to a displaced persons camp. Here, she met her future husband. One day, he was tasked with passing out chocolate bars to children under 16 in the camp. Ella came to claim one. A debate ensued about whether she was actually younger than 16 and a connection was made.
Together, they made their way to Palestine by boat, Hariette explains. In her new life, Ella started to cook, developing her own recipes for hearty soups and Romanian dishes salata de bef, which means beef salad but is in fact made with chicken and potatoes in the family.
Ella brought the recipes with her when the family immigrated via a cargo ship to the United States in 1959, when Hariette was just four years old. Here, Ella opened a “shmata” or women’s clothing store on Orchard Street on New York City’s Lower East Side. Since she was at the shop much of the time, she enlisted her Dominican housekeeper Elena Anderson to help prepare her recipes including matzo ball soup, which was served when company came and on Passover.
When Hariette was a young bride and preparing to host Seder for the first time, Elena, who had become a member of the family, came over to help her make the famed matzo soup as her mother worked. Ella called throughout the day, checking in on her recipe. Was this added or that added, she asked Hariette, who assured Elena was following her recipe and tradition and that the soup smelled delicious.
As guests gathered around the table, everyone was told to save room for Ella’s acclaimed soup. Once it was served, Hariette’s mother and sister raced to add salt and pepper to their bowls. Something was amiss. The soup was tasteless — but got rave reviews from Hariette’s in-laws. After the meal, Ella asked Hariette what had happened to her soup. In the kitchen, they found two pots on the stove, one for matzo balls in water and the other a rich broth — left untouched. Hariette had served the matzo balls in water, but without her mother’s signature broth.
“I never [hosted] after that,” Hariette says. “I wasn’t trusted.” But the tale of her failed version of Ella’s soup still holds an important place in the family’s Seder tradition. Each year, the story is retold right alongside the Exodus out of Egypt.
Hariette will share a version of this story at Schmaltzy: Nasty Women at the 14th Street Y on November 18. The event is sold out, but to join the waitlist, please email hi@jewishfoodsociety.org
Hariette’s son is currently writing a book on Ella’s life.
