JB's Miscellaneous Ramblings

So, I wasn't hosting a seder this year, but I was planning on providing soup and charoset at one, one which ended up not happening.

Subsequently, I've had a lot of leftover soup and matzah ball mix, and charoset left over.

Soup: I've noted elsewhere: "I have always started with an initial boil of various lengths (Mom called for 2-3 hours), I've varied over the years from that to ~6) that produces something that's never right to begin with - no matter whose meat/water/veg proportions I use.
It's then strained.

It's worth noting that even when I've precisely followed Cooks Illustrated's recipe precisely, this 1st boil has always completely failed to produce something that is like soup to me. I'm... always sort of perplexed by this. Ok, utterly confused."

This year, being the year of the Instant Pot, I decided to start with iPotted stock, via http://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2017/04/pressure-cooker-chicken-stock-recipe.html - modified by adding dill and a parsnip, subtracting the garlic, and taking the celery out after the 1st batch, because it wasn't right.

... and by 1st batch I meant 1st 3 batches. Thanks to kimberlogic and ahf, I had 3 pots to work with, and then did a 2nd run for 6 batches in total, 12Kg chicken, and just about 12q of water. I believe what came out of the 1st boil was something like 12-12.5q of broth, and about 1q of shmaltz. Yes, more stock than water.

... And that stock was... still not right. Tastier than average for my 1st boil, but still not what I want for my end product, or even for a soup I'm ready to eat then. I still don't understand it at all.

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As for matzah balls, when I got home from the emergency backup seder I went to on Monday, I boiled up a batch as the seder had been sadly soup-free (but otherwise lovely!) and I wanted some.

They were rocks. They're usually dense, but this was ridiculous. Also, somehow despite all the salt I'd put in, they were nearly salt-free in taste.

Over the next couple of days, I asked everyone with experience for their matzah ball recipe. It seems to be that mom, back when she was giving me the full instructions for her seder experience, halved the amount of fat that goes in to them. I went and added enough extra fat to bring them in line with normal recipes, and more salt.

And then I went and asked if anyone had ever pressure cooked matzah balls. The answer is Of Course They Have, and tamidon pointed me at http://foodsforlonglife.blogspot.com/2017/03/instant-pot-matzo-ball-soup.html and so, mindful of the caution pookfreak had about not overboiling due to the time bringing cold soup to boil, I brought the soup to low pressure and immediately opened it, then added the mix. 15 min high pressure, quick release... voila, they were _excellent_. Ok, still not enough salt, but other than that...

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On to the haroset: 1# of Macintosh (4 small) to .5# of Granny Smith (1 large), 1# walnuts, WAY more nutmeg than I usually add, due to an more-aggressive than I'm used to grater, cassia, and wine... worked excellently! MAYBE a bit less nutmeg, or a bit more cinnamon.

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And FINALLY! Allison was feeling driven and stripped off all the chicken meat (cardboard as usual, as its been boiled free of ALL its flavor, fat, etc.) so I contacted old family friends for the chicken croquettes recipe that for years was the standard destination for such chicken meat in my childhood. I got that yesterday and haven't yet had a chance to make it - it's just a thick white sauce, mix in the shredded chicken to the right texture, bread (or matzah meal) and fry. I hope to do this soon.

So yeah, despite not actually serving food to people, I've had good progress this year in making everything better for next year. Yay!

(NOW let's see how this wall of text looks when it's cross-dumped to FB. No cut.)

Just put the 1st soup on the heat - 18.25# Fowls (McKinnons), 15q water, about 4-6x veg.

I realize I never posted about my pork and Dairy and matzot from two years ago. I got the idea to do bacon cheddar matzoh balls and you know, they really work.
I preferred the bacon, and I mixed in some shredded cheddar into some leftover matzo Ball mix boiled them up and really, Yum!

For the hell of it I also had the idea of steaming a couple of them and I've never seen the 'thing becomes giant when you steam it' thing happened before but this did it. Someplace around I have video of them "breathing" when I pull the lid off of the steamer. It's funky.

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?

21# chicken/17.5q water and then 12#/10.5q
All with more veg added than I usually do. This seems to be a good thing.
Having the 60Q pot to work in to start was a good thing.

5x Matzah ball recipe made.

10#apples/2#walnuts/cassia/cinnamon/found the nutmeg/concord grape all chopped. More wine will be needed. Probably more spices, too.
I don't know why I used Red Del and Braeburn some years ago, but this year I fear it was a bad idea... the RD's were tiny and the peel was inedible. The Brae's were ... not _soft_, and I don't think 'mealy' is the right word... they keep their shape but almost crumble if you look at them funny.
Laurie suggest empires.
Other suggestions also welcome - I want some sweet, and some semi-tart, all with a good firm texture that will hold up to chopping and walnuts and such.

It's nearly 5am. Gahx2.

Good... night...

16# of chicken to start - whole fowls cut down, but the breast meat removed for later cooking separately. 10q of water. I hope this ends up in the right ballpark. Certainly, there will be much schmaltz (Hi, boymeat!) for the matzah balls.

3x batch of those planned.

About 13# of apples and 3# walnuts ready for turning in to charoset, starting tomorrow.

Also I'll be doing the eggs tomorrow and putting together (and buying?) the fish for the fishcakes.

And Days -3 and -2

Soup is 13.5 quarts, 15# chicken, 5 hours of boiling, 6 hours of simmering, 10 hours of light boiling (that was unintentional... left the heat a bit higher than intended... and then over night, another 4# of chicken boiled in 4 quarts of the existing soup... which is now re-combined and on low heat -- when passover's earlier in the year, I can store (and chill) the soup outside. Not so much this year.

Lots of other foods bought and hopefully the last of the shopping being done now.

Charoset will start with 10# apples... I wonder how much the cores and peels weigh.

this was pretty tasty... (It's a Kosher L'Pesach Muscato)

Lots and lots of simmering today, followed by 9 3/4# more chicken added to the already made stock, along with a jumbo parsnip, a couple of small onions and dill.

Kimberly's preparing sweet potatoes now. I'm about to dive in to apple peeling and chopping.

21.65# Chicken, 17.5Q water, 5+x(Onion, Carrot, Parsnip, Celery, Bay)
1st boil not yet hit.
Late night coming.

2 doz eggs about to be boiled.

Large quantities of white and sweet potatoes, walnuts, apples and so on sitting around, waiting to be processed.

A turkey still to be bought.

This year, it's:
Split-pea and ham soup with meunster, and matzah filling in for the crackers.

1) Tasting the soup this morning, I got nothing so much as slightly chicken-y water.
11# more of chicken were purchased and put in the soup to boil for another 5h.

2) 11#+- of apples (1/2 Red Delicious, 1/2 Braeburn), 2# walnuts, slightly less than .75l Manischewitz Concord Grape, and a pile of (true) Cinnamon and Chinese Cassia all chopped and combined to make 12#+- of charoset. There's got to be something to do with all the peels, and we don't have a compost heap for the cores.

3) 11# of Tenderloin procured, along with 3 doz more eggs, 6# baby red potatoes, lemons, more matzah meal, a pound of whole matzah to be turned into farfel, and misc. other stuff.

4) Not nearly enough protein eaten today. Eit.

(I want to be able to put a memory keyword on this post BEFORE I post it...)

(This entry is likely to be updated later today...)
(Yes, -3, this house is doing 2nd seder this year.)

A) 17.8# chicken and 17.5q water, along with dill, carrots, celery, parsnips and onions, on. It really should be 20# of chicken. I may run out in a few to correct that.

B) External ingredients for a 3x batch of matzah balls obtained: 12 eggs, 3c meal.

C) 12# apples, 3# walnuts ready to be turned into charoset.

D) 18 eggs on to boil.

Quiz: Which of the above was the single most expensive ingredient purchased today (Everything mentioned above was, indeed, purchased today).

( It's a trick question... )

I think I'm going to at least get the apples into peeled, cored, smaller pieces today.

(I Want Macaroons!)So far this passover season, I've found ONE can of macaroons. This is wrong and bad. Sigh.

1.33 Gal simmered off of the initial 5.5 Gal.

Another 1.75 Gal of soup (meant it to be 1.5, lost count) made and on a very low simmer right now. (Made w/7.5# chicken...) (Someday I'm going to do the 'boil the last chicken in the existing soup' thing and see how it comes out.)

Quad batch of matzah ball mix in the fridge.

A lot of Haroset also in the fridge...maybe 10# apples, about 2# walnuts?

From the others: Potato Kugel for many (15# potatoes?) made, baked, in the fridge.
Vanilla Cheesecake baked, in fridge. Egyptian Haroset made. (Tasty stuff but doesn't say 'Haroset' to me...but that's my background speaking. It'd be damned tasty as a ribbon of stuff in the middle of a honey cake, though.)

So far, 8 chickens (sans breasts) - 24# +-, 21q water. The initial simmer has 2-2.5 hrs to go.

Again (like last year), I'm using the Cooks Illustrated water/meat proportions - 4# meat, 3.5q water.

However, I'm using the canonical veggie mix - Carrot, Turnip/Parsnip, Onion, Dill.

I hope to get a bunch of apples chopped tonight, too.