What good is a Jewish blog without at least some nominal discussion or reference to food?
Even though we are approaching Shavuout, I had a craving for matzo ball soup, the same kind my grandmother used to make for me. Eating soup in the early months of springtime appeals to me just as much as in the winter. The only problem is that if you take a peep at my shelves, you’ll understand why I decided to blog about my kitchen. There’s the matzo ball mix package and the matzo meal I bought from the Kosher supermarket down the street before Passover including the falafel mix from Israel – all with gluten contained products.
But with no grandma to invade my kitchen, I have to create my own Jewish kitchen.
Back in the pre-gluten days, Grandma served the soup in white porcelain bowls, always with one thick, big matzoh ball and lots of heavy chicken broth. My brother and I sipped the soup with gusto. When I wanted to break the heavy silence, I slurped. My mom would always say, “This soup is out of this world” as she collected the plates.
My grandmother made her soup from a recipe in her head and never wrote it down. Sometimes she would add plain white rice. The broth always left us so full. We could never understand why there were so many meat and chicken dishes afterwards.
I am sure the ingredients of gluten were minimally used when Grandma made her soup, only a bit differently. I think she used just a decent amount of matzo meal but the awareness of gluten wasn’t as prevalent as it is today. As I see it, the health risk behind using gluten-products for many types of Jewish cooking dishes are not any different than non-Jewish cooking products. But I could be wrong.
I once tried to ask her what she did to the soup that made it so delicious but she hardly talked as she cooked in high heeled pumps, back towards me in a dark house dress. The kitchen was her space.
I can’t help though but wonder still, what Grandma put in that soup.