Chicken and matzoh ball soup

Fall is soup-time. Having the stove on for longer periods of time is much more enjoyable with the chilly weather, and the warm broth is great for getting the core body temperature up. 

matzoh ball soup: I tried making this using the recipe from Gourmet, and all I have to say is this: Muriel, that recipe is meshugge. (No, not the band.)

It says simmer the matzoh balls for 40 mins - i think these were ready in 10. Perhaps Muriel has much larger balls, but I dunno how she's making them any larger and still getting 25. I had to add more matzoh flour to even get the consistency of the dough right, given the amount of liquids, and I held back on the stock added to the dough.

Recipe modifications: I added chopped celery to the simmering water, and garnished with the leaves. Interesting note: picked up a bunch of "fenland celery" at the farmers' market, which is a darker green, stronger-tasting variety. Good stuff. I'm drying some of the leaves in the window now, and am considering trying to make celery salt.



Speaking of salts: I just figured out how to make garlic salt. For some reason, I had this idea that garlic salt was artificial in some way. Created in vats in New Jersey or something. Then while mashing up garlic in the mortar and pestle, i realized that I could probably just add salt to the garlic paste, and then when the salt had absorbed the garlic flavour, pull out the garlic bits, and voila. In retrospect it seems incredibly obvious and yet I'd never really thought about it before. So I made up a test batch and it seems to be working pretty well. 2 parts salt to one part garlic, seal up in a jar, shake occasionally.