FEATURED JOBS
Comments (1)On Passover, Jews all over the world will sit down to their Seders and read the story of the Israelite’s dramatic journey from Egypt. The Seder uses symbolic foods of various colors and textures, such as, the matzo, shank bone, and Haroset to create sensory images in the retelling of the story of freedom.
However, anyone who has “slaved” over a stove in preparation for a large Seder knows that the defining food of Passover is…the matzo ball.
Don’t be fooled by the matzo ball’s humble appearance. Though it’s bland in color, one dimensional, and sometimes misshapen, any cook worth their weight, knows that taste and texture of the matzo ball is what really sets the overall tone for the Seder. The bearer of this task annually agonizes whether their matzo balls will be light, fluffy, or, in some cases, dense enough. Will they hold together, or fall apart?
These questions plagued my Bubby every year as she stood over her stone ceramic cauldron making matzo balls for all. Next to the pot, would be scores of discarded empty egg cartons. She would deftly crack each egg into a mixing bowl and mix it with the perfect proportions of matzo meal and salt. But, if my Bubby were alive today, I wonder what her reaction would be, to a vegan, a.k.a. eggless matzo ball.
See, my five-year old has a serious egg and nut allergy, two ingredients that are the building blocks of Passover cooking. The Passover Seder is a virtual landmine, fraught with foods made with eggs and/or nuts. This always leaves me scrambling for creative options, so, I vowed to make future Seders more vegan friendly and thus, began my mission to perfect the vegan matzo ball.
My research led me to a recipe, which is available in Isa Chandra Moskowitz’s cookbook, Vegan with a Vengeance. Her recipe promised light, fluffy and eggless matzo balls, however, the key ingredient was tofu. While some people may eat tofu on Passover, the more traditional observers refrain from this type of legume. So, my quest continued.
My first recipe involved flax seed and water in lieu of eggs. Mixing water with flax seed, releases the fat in the seed thereby creating a binding agent. It works well in chocolate type goodies such as brownies and banana breads, unfortunately, not with matzo balls. The water turned muddy as the matzo balls fell apart releasing an unusual aroma throughout the house which most definitely did not smell like “Passover” with Bubby at the helm.
Disappointed, but not discouraged, my next recipe was a combination of oil, water and baking powder. Normally, this type of egg replacer works perfectly in pancakes and muffin type breads made from flour, but I soon realized that my go-to egg replacer could not possibly work in matzo balls. Matzo meal, which is ground matzo, does not react identically to flour, which is why so many Passover recipes call for an abundance of eggs to aid in the binding and leavening of the cooked/baked product.
Matzo meal gives a denser texture than ordinary flour, and therefore needs real eggs to create the desired consistency of the matzo ball we have all come to adore. These matzo balls didn’t even have a fighting chance. They fell apart as soon as they hit the water.
Feeling a bit foolish, I tried to think of an ingredient that had a similar consistency to tofu, since it seemed to work so well. One night, while eating dinner, it hit me…potatoes. I often used them to make creamy like soups, why not a matzo ball? I blended boiled potatoes, parsnip, matzo meal, and oil in the food processor and sure enough, I made dough! I was ecstatic. I dropped them into boiling water, and they actually held together.
It was another Passover miracle; Moses had nothing on me. I was quite impressed with myself.
After they cooled, I tasted my masterpiece. It wasn’t light, or fluffy, rather, more dense and a little gummy. I didn’t make matzo balls I made gnocchi! Or should I say, Matzgnocci.
My Italian ancestors would have been so proud…too bad they all came from Poland. I eagerly gave one to my discerning five-year old who deemed them as, “too sticky.” The rest of the family consumed them with tomato sauce and parmesan cheese.
While my experiment failed in a matzo ball way, I feel that my attempts captured the true spirit of creative cooks everywhere. Sometimes, when our initial creations don’t work out as planned, they can evolve into something, different, or better. This mentality can be quite liberating, actually, and liberation is what Passover is all about.