Fried matzah balls?

[jbsegal]

We had a thought last night during 2nd seder for this year's implementation of the 'pork-and-dairy on matzah' tradition I have. (I keep pesadik. I don't keep kosher.)

So, the original thought was: matzah balls made with bacon fat instead of with chicken fat, stuffed with cheese, and fried like arancini.

My later thought is to actually stuff them with bacon and cheese.

So, do people think that this might work? I'm a bit dubious because you boil matzah balls to not only cook, but to hydrate them, and unlike with cooked risotto, cooked matzah balls can't really be crumbled and re-formed.

But I really want it to work!

Hm. Maybe make the MB mix light on eggs (or not?), cook, crumble, add _more_ egg, and make the balls, roll in matzah meal (maybe?), and fry?

Opinions?

(I don't believe that MB batter, formed around cooked bacon & cheese, and then boiled (and then maybe pan-fried?) would work. Do yo disagree?

Comments

[emp42ress.livejournal.com]

I don't see any reason boiling wouldn't work. It just becomes a filled dumpling at that point, and that's pretty normal.

[tamidon.livejournal.com]

the last option sounds just fine to me

[tamidon.livejournal.com]

maybe steaming them?

[nancylebov.livejournal.com]

Very hypothetical, but maybe cheese-filled matzoballs rolled in bacon and fried?

[donnad.livejournal.com]

How about baking them like you would regular meatballs? The pre-cooked bacon inside may provide enough fat to give you the moisture you need.

[awfief.livejournal.com]

In fact, I have a recipe for Cheese Balls (basically meatless meatballs) that uses eggs, bread crumbs and parmesan cheese (lots and lots of parmesan cheese, the round bits, not actual shredded cheese).

You basically make it like matzah balls (no fat, though, the eggs are enough). So certainly you could do that but use matzah meal instead of bread crumbs. And if you wanted you could put crumbled bacon in it.

And if you really want, dip it in cheese.

[kimberlogic.livejournal.com]

I just have to ask (since I wasn't there) - who is "we"?
I'm curious about who thought up this crazy concoction.

[jbsegal.livejournal.com]

I came up with the bacon fat, Jeff came up with the arancini/cheese expansion. :)

[weegoddess.livejournal.com]

I assume that this is kosher bacon? ;-p

You might want to bread-crumb the matzah balls before you deep-fry them. Then you get yeast, dairy AND meat.

I'm having entirely too much fun with this. J always had a bacon double-cheeseburger on his way to seders at home. Gotta love Tradition.

[jbsegal.livejournal.com]

No breadcrumbs. Matzah meal, maybe. I actually am _reasonably_ serious about keeping pesadik. I mean, I don't actually buy KlP food, and I've decided the Kitniyot rules are bullshit, but Wheat/Barley/Oats/Rye/Spelt, and yeast, I avoid.

[pekmez.livejournal.com]

For your idea, I think you definitely need to boil the matzoh ball, and I think you could get away with forming them around a tiny bit of cooked bacon and cheese. Or maybe formed around a tiny bit of cheese, and studded with bacon throughout? Then I'd pan fry it in butter with extra seasoned matzoh crumbs around the outside.

But based on what *I* just had for dinner, I have the perfect thing for your tradition *some* year: fettucini in carbonara sauce - that's egg, bacon fat, and heavy cream.

Fettucini you might ask? Yes, I just made it: 1c matzo cake meal, 2 eggs and a yolk, 3 tbsp water, 2 tbsp olive oil, and a pasta maker. :)

I've never thought about sharing this tradition creatively, but my boring ham and cheese sandwich photographed nicely one year: http://picasaweb.google.com/abbe.cohen.dvornik/Chow02#5308673504801770146

[42itous.livejournal.com]

yum.

I expect that putting bacon inside the matzaballs like dumplings should work just fine; I'd think that cheese would liquefy during the boiling process and might make them fall apart... but you could make a cheesy sauce to serve them with.

[c1.livejournal.com]

I keep pesadik. I don't keep kosher.

Huh... wha...?

[pekmez.livejournal.com]

what? I do it too! (for me, it's because eating matzah to remember the exodus for a week makes sense, not eating bacon or seething a kid in it's mother's milk because it says so in that ancient book doesn't.)

[42itous.livejournal.com]

Me too. Pesadik is a solidarity/tradition thing; kosher is a lifestyle/faith thing.

[avram]

My first thought was Hey, how about using bacon fat to fry up the latkes?

And then I remembered that latkes-as-Passover-food is my family's minhag.