Read Online Around the Passover Table by Jayne Cohen - Free Book Online
Authors: Jayne Cohen
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for a few extra minutes before serving.
Try flavoring the soup with some of the pale celery leaves, chopped, instead of the dill. Or boost the lemon taste with some grated lemon zest. You can substitute an equal amount of fresh fennel for the celery and proceed as above, garnishing with a few fennel fronds. Or make Spinach Avgolemono: youâll need only 8 cups broth. Omit the celery, and simply stir 2 cups fresh spinach leaves, shredded, into the broth, and simmer until wilted.
The soup is also excellent reheated, as long as you avoid high heat, and very good cold, too (when served without the matzoh balls).
Artichoke Soup with Light Herbed Matzoh Balls
yield: About 8 servings
When visiting food markets, I always go for the artichokes. I cannot munch on them raw, and I rarely have a kitchen on my travels where I could prepare them. Instead, Iâve dried big-hearted, long-stemmed beauties and graceful amethyst babies from produce stalls in California, Brittany, Provence, and Rome (the foreign-born smuggled, well wrapped and hidden beneath a pile of laundry).
At home the bouquets of fat artichokes slowly unfurl, revealing spiky fluff centers colored vivid Crayola orchid; the smaller ones spill out of purple glass bowls, alone or mingled with pomegranates, and line my dressed-up table.
So I was in artichoke heaven one warm spring evening at the height of the season in the Roman ghetto, home of the famed carciofi alla giudia (artichokes Jewish-style: the flattened whole vegetable, fried up crisp and golden-brown, then sprinkled with coarse salt). We had enjoyed a dinner at the kosher La Taverna del Ghetto featuring artichokes (in addition to the fried ones, we ate a salad of raw artichokes and a pasta topped with artichokes, bottarga, and tomatoes) and zucchini flowers (the blossoms stuffed with striped bass and fried, and tagliarini with zucchini flowers, grouper, and tomatoes). Outside the restaurant, on the ancient Via Portico dâOttavia, the tall white flowerpots that usually sported colorful potted plants now overflowed with massive amounts of decorative artichokes, in every size and spectrum of greens and violets. At some storefronts, fabulous beasts and other dazzling topiary creations fashioned of artichokes stood guard.
Back in my own kitchen, Iâve logged countless hours cleaning and cooking fresh artichokes from local greengrocers and even a farmer at the Union Square Greenmarket, who occasionally coaxes them to grow in the cool clime of Pennsylvania.
But I confess I keep a box or two of frozen artichokes in my freezer. They are wonderful in savory matzoh brie, and pureed, they do very nicely in this creamy-tasting soup crowned with these exceptional featherweight matzoh balls full of herb garden flavor.
FOR THE SOUP
3 tablespoons mild olive oil
4 medium-large leeks (white and tenderest pale green parts only), washed well, patted dry, halved lengthwise and thinly sliced crosswise
3 tablespoons chopped shallots
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
2 chopped garlic cloves
Two 9- or 10-ounce packages frozen artichokes, thawed, patted dry between layers of paper towels, and cut into small pieces
7 to 8 cups chicken stock, preferably homemade , or good-quality, low-sodium purchased
2 to 3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
2 teaspoons grated lemon zest
3 tablespoons coarsely chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley, plus additional for garnish
3 tablespoons snipped fresh dill, plus additional for garnish
2 tablespoons coarsely chopped fresh mint, plus additional for garnish
FOR THE MATZOH BALLS
4 large eggs, separated
2 teaspoons finely grated onion
2 tablespoons finely snipped fresh chives
3 tablespoons finely snipped fresh dill
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 cup matzoh meal
MAKE the soup: in a large nonreactive Dutch oven or lidded casserole, warm the oil. Add the leeks and the shallots, salt and pepper lightly, and sauté, stirring, over medium heat, about 7 minutes, until
Try flavoring the soup with some of the pale celery leaves, chopped, instead of the dill. Or boost the lemon taste with some grated lemon zest. You can substitute an equal amount of fresh fennel for the celery and proceed as above, garnishing with a few fennel fronds. Or make Spinach Avgolemono: youâll need only 8 cups broth. Omit the celery, and simply stir 2 cups fresh spinach leaves, shredded, into the broth, and simmer until wilted.
The soup is also excellent reheated, as long as you avoid high heat, and very good cold, too (when served without the matzoh balls).
Artichoke Soup with Light Herbed Matzoh Balls
yield: About 8 servings
When visiting food markets, I always go for the artichokes. I cannot munch on them raw, and I rarely have a kitchen on my travels where I could prepare them. Instead, Iâve dried big-hearted, long-stemmed beauties and graceful amethyst babies from produce stalls in California, Brittany, Provence, and Rome (the foreign-born smuggled, well wrapped and hidden beneath a pile of laundry).
At home the bouquets of fat artichokes slowly unfurl, revealing spiky fluff centers colored vivid Crayola orchid; the smaller ones spill out of purple glass bowls, alone or mingled with pomegranates, and line my dressed-up table.
So I was in artichoke heaven one warm spring evening at the height of the season in the Roman ghetto, home of the famed carciofi alla giudia (artichokes Jewish-style: the flattened whole vegetable, fried up crisp and golden-brown, then sprinkled with coarse salt). We had enjoyed a dinner at the kosher La Taverna del Ghetto featuring artichokes (in addition to the fried ones, we ate a salad of raw artichokes and a pasta topped with artichokes, bottarga, and tomatoes) and zucchini flowers (the blossoms stuffed with striped bass and fried, and tagliarini with zucchini flowers, grouper, and tomatoes). Outside the restaurant, on the ancient Via Portico dâOttavia, the tall white flowerpots that usually sported colorful potted plants now overflowed with massive amounts of decorative artichokes, in every size and spectrum of greens and violets. At some storefronts, fabulous beasts and other dazzling topiary creations fashioned of artichokes stood guard.
Back in my own kitchen, Iâve logged countless hours cleaning and cooking fresh artichokes from local greengrocers and even a farmer at the Union Square Greenmarket, who occasionally coaxes them to grow in the cool clime of Pennsylvania.
But I confess I keep a box or two of frozen artichokes in my freezer. They are wonderful in savory matzoh brie, and pureed, they do very nicely in this creamy-tasting soup crowned with these exceptional featherweight matzoh balls full of herb garden flavor.
FOR THE SOUP
3 tablespoons mild olive oil
4 medium-large leeks (white and tenderest pale green parts only), washed well, patted dry, halved lengthwise and thinly sliced crosswise
3 tablespoons chopped shallots
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
2 chopped garlic cloves
Two 9- or 10-ounce packages frozen artichokes, thawed, patted dry between layers of paper towels, and cut into small pieces
7 to 8 cups chicken stock, preferably homemade , or good-quality, low-sodium purchased
2 to 3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
2 teaspoons grated lemon zest
3 tablespoons coarsely chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley, plus additional for garnish
3 tablespoons snipped fresh dill, plus additional for garnish
2 tablespoons coarsely chopped fresh mint, plus additional for garnish
FOR THE MATZOH BALLS
4 large eggs, separated
2 teaspoons finely grated onion
2 tablespoons finely snipped fresh chives
3 tablespoons finely snipped fresh dill
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 cup matzoh meal
MAKE the soup: in a large nonreactive Dutch oven or lidded casserole, warm the oil. Add the leeks and the shallots, salt and pepper lightly, and sauté, stirring, over medium heat, about 7 minutes, until
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