One of my family's traditions for Pesach (also known as Passover, which began this past Friday night) is to make matzah kleis (pronounced "matzah kluhs", in my best German accent) for the first seder. These matzah balls are made from matzah farfel, eggs, spices, and fried onions. I grew up making them with my bubbie, the matriarch of our family, with her family recipe cultivated in Germany.
The first step is to start a pot of boiling water, turned up to a rolling boil. This may take up to 25 or 30 minutes depending on your stovetop and size of the pot.
For this recipe, use as many whole pieces of matzah that you'd like. One recipe yields about 4 large kleis.
Soak the matzah in water, setting a timer for 18 minutes. Squeeze out the matzah farfel (pieces of matzah) and put it into another bowl.
You must finish mixing the kleis before the 18 minutes are up, otherwise the recipe becomes chametz!
Add one egg per matzah used, a pinch of salt and pepper, the fried onions and add matzah meal if the mixture looks too wet. Add a tablespoon or two of oil to prevent the mixture from being too sticky. For this recipe I added about 1 1/2 cups of meal. (Normally, we would just do one more matzah.)
Next, wet your hands and make balls the size of tennis balls (or a little smaller) and place them in a large pot of rolling boiling water.
After a few minutes, you will see the kleis rise to the surface of the water. They are done!
Enjoy, and have a fun holiday!
Recipe:
3 matzot
3 eggs
~ 1/2 cup matzah meal, more or less
1/4 cup chopped, sauteed onions (add more if you like onions!)
2 TB oil
2-3 pinches salt
2 pinches pepper, or a few turns freshly-ground
add more spices, to taste, if you'd like
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