jewish soup Archives - Splash of Sherri

My easy homemade chicken kreplach recipe is here just in time for Purim but definitely something you’ll want to eat all year long! The Jewish holiday of Purim (which begins Monday night) commemorates the day Esther (Queen of Persia) saved the Jewish people from execution by Haman (advisor to the Persian King). During the holiday it’s customary to eat foods which look like the villain Haman’s triangular shaped hat or his ears! To learn more about the holiday check out one of my favorite websites My Jewish Learning https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/purim-101/

If you are on Instagram or other social media, I’m sure you have been seeing a lot of photos and recipes of the ever popular hamantashen. Which I have also posted because, well, they are hamantashen and delicious! However, there are other traditional foods eaten during the holiday like kreplach, which sometimes go unnoticed. They are triangular shaped dumplings filled with ground meat or brisket. They can be simmered in chicken soup, or pan-fried with onions* and eaten as a main or side dish. I think it’s time to bring the kreplach front and center into the spotlight!

I’ll let you in on a little secret, I’ve always been TEAM KREPLACH! While I occasionally like a nice fluffy matzo ball in my chicken soup and of course noodles, I have always and will always be team kreplach! They are so yummy and delicious especially when they are lightened up with chicken and are a perfect addition to chicken soup. The filling is simple and so tasty and the wrapper becomes pillowy soft after it cooks in the soup.

To make it easy from the start, I use prepackaged wonton wrappers. These are simple to find in the grocery near the Asian food section. Usually it’s near the vegetables in a refrigerated case. If you can find the Gefen brand in your kosher market, I prefer them. Using premade wonton wrappers speeds up the process. The filling is a few simple ingredients most of which you already have in your pantry. It can’t get less complicated than that. Start to finish it takes about 2 hours to sauté the filling and fold the dumplings. If it seems overwhelming prepare the filling a day ahead of time and refridgerate. Day one cook the filling, day two fill the wontons, day three 40 kreplach waiting to be enjoyed!

So let’s stomp our feet, scream out, and make some noise for kreplach! Who’s with me? Let’s get those groggers (noisemakers) shaking! Enjoy!

ingredients
1 pound ground white meat chicken (or ground turkey)
1 small onion diced (about a cup of raw onion)
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 large garlic clove minced
1 large or extra-large egg
1 teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon pepper
1 package wonton skins

directions
Sauté the onion and garlic in oil with ½ teaspoon of salt. This should take about 10 to 15 minutes. When the onion is just starting to lightly brown, add in your ground chicken. Sauté the chicken until it is cooked through. Add remaining salt and pepper to taste. Chop it up a bit so there are no large burger sized pieces. Stir and set aside to cool.

When cool, add the mixture to a food processor fitted with the blade attachment and pulse about 10 times. Add the egg and pulse until it is ground. It should be the texture of small grains of rice. Not like baby food.

Line up your wonton wrappers a few at a time on a board. Wet the four sides of the wonton, add a teaspoon of the mixture to the middle and fold into a triangle. I try to press the chicken into the spoon so it’s compact. Then fold over into a triangle pressing the edges together very tightly and pushing the air out not letting any filling escape.

Place them in a large container lined with a double layer of wax paper in between each layer. The recipe makes a lot but they freeze very well, and when ready to use they can be added to the soup frozen.

The other way I like to serve them is by pan frying* them in caramelized onions, then adding them to the pan to brown alongside. That’s the way my Bubbie (grandmother in Yiddish) made them.

*To pan fry them, sauté sliced onions in olive oil low and slow until caramelized and golden brown. Add the kreplach to the pan with the onions and pan fry until golden on the outside.

A big thank you goes out to my sister’s friend Amy. She gave me this recipe when I first moved to the Midwest and has become a staple in my house ever since!

Mushroom Barley Soup with Flanken… Just the way my mom always made it! Walk into any Jewish deli and you will find Mushroom barley soup on the menu. If you are lucky, it will have flanken (short ribs for the unfamiliar). That’s the way my mom always made it. If you don’t live near a Jewish Deli (like me here in the Midwest – miles and miles, and miles away) don’t worry, I’ve got you covered! Even though the sun is shining today, and even though Passover is just a couple of weeks away and you are trying to rid your house of breads and grains, I am going to share my mother’s recipe with you! It’s super easy, tastes great and is so satisfying; it’s a meal all on its own. With this never-ending winter I think I have made this soup at least a dozen times and once you try it, you will too. Why have I made it so much?

In Ohio, we can get every type of weather all in one day – I kid you not. Last Thursday for example, I woke up and the sun was shining. It was quickly replaced by clouds, a mist of rain and then fog set in. As I drove to an appointment, it was hailing so badly I wondered if it would ruin my car. The worst of it was the white out of snow! Really?! By the time I got home, all I wanted to do was get in my pajamas, get under my covers and warm up (preferably with a steaming hot bowl of soup and an old movie on television). It was a Meshugah (me-shu-ga) day for sure! FYI… meshugah is Yiddish for crazy or nuts!

The only thing keeping me going was the thought of the mushroom barley soup with flanken I had waiting for me at home. It’s hearty like a stew, satisfying, and not too heavy. It’s the kind of soup which my mother would say will warm your bones. And while it does warm my bones, it also warms my heart thinking about how my mom would spend the day in the kitchen cooking for us.

If you can’t find flanken, brisket or stew meat will work equally well. It’s an easy soup that just simmers away without much babysitting needed. This soup can be made without the meat as well with much less cooking time and all in one pot. I’ll include the directions at the bottom of the recipe. If you go vegetarian, omit the wine. BTW… the wine is my splash on my mother’s recipe and I use Manischewitz because it’s always on hand and I love to cook with it. Feel free to use another cooking wine if you like. Lastly, you can also adjust the amount and type of mushrooms you add. While this recipe makes a large quantity, a half recipe can easily be made and it freezes very well. So while the sun may be shining today, and you are busy cleaning, you can enjoy a bowl while prepping your house for the holiday (insert smiley emoji here)! Let me know how it comes out! Enjoy! p.s. it’s still freezing cold here in Ohio!

This soup makes about 10 to 12 servings and can easily be cut in half

2 – 3 tablespoons olive oil
8 cups chicken or vegetable broth (I like Imagine brand low sodium no-chicken broth)
4 cups of water
3 pounds of flanken (brisket or stew meat would work well also)
1 large onion diced (2 cups)
3 cups of carrots sliced into 1/2” rounds
2 cups celery sliced
1 cup pearled barley
16 to 20 ounces baby bella mushrooms cleaned well and sliced
4 ounces shitake mushrooms cleaned well and sliced
4 ounces oyster mushrooms cleaned well and sliced
½ cup Manischewitz wine (any flavor – I use whatever is on hand)
4 cloves of garlic minced (about 1 tablespoon)
3 bay leaves
small bunch of fresh dill (about ½ cup) tied with string
2 teaspoons freshly ground pepper
salt to taste

Heat 1 tablespoon of olive oil in a large frying pan. Add the flanken and cook over medium-high heat. If you leave the slices whole, brown them on each side. If you use brisket, cut the meat into 1 or 1½“cubes. I had the butcher cut the flanken off the bone and I browned it on all sides in batches. My mother always left it whole and then fished out the bones. That’s not for me but feel free to make it this way if you like.

In a large stockpot, add the broth and water and bring it to a boil. As each batch of meat is browned, add it to the stockpot. Bring it to a boil then when all of the meat is in the pot, lower the heat and simmer covered for at least 2 hours or until the flanken starts to become tender. While that is cooking prep the rest of your ingredients.

Once the meat comes out of the pan, add ½ cup of wine and deglaze the pan (click on this link to learn more about deglazing) making sure to scrape up all of the crispy bits on the bottom. Pour this off into a cup and set aside.

Into the same frying pan, add ½ tablespoon of oil into the pan and stir in the onion. Lower the heat to medium and cook stirring occasionally until the onion is translucent– about 10 minutes. Then add the celery, garlic and carrots and cook for another 5 minutes. Place the vegetables into a bowl and set aside.

Add another ½ tablespoon of oil into the pan and add the sliced mushrooms. Sauté until they have reduced by half also about 10 minutes. Turn off the heat and leave the mushrooms in the pan.

After the meat has cooked for two hours, add the barley, vegetables, mushrooms, bay leaf, dill, salt and pepper. Simmer an additional hour or until the meat is very tender. Add the wine and cook another 10 minutes then all that’s left to do is Enjoy!

For the vegetarian version:
In a large stockpot (about 8 quart) add 1 tablespoon of oil into the pot and stir in the onion. Lower the heat to medium and cook stirring occasionally until the onion is translucent– about 10 minutes. Then add the celery, garlic and carrots and cook for another 5 to 10 minutes stirring occasionally.

Heat a 10 or 12” frying pan on medium heat, add 1 tablespoon of oil and add the sliced mushrooms. Sauté until they have reduced by half about 10 minutes.

Add the mushrooms, broth, water, barley, bay leaf, dill, and pepper to the stockpot. Bring the soup to a boil then cover and lower the heat and simmer for about 45 minutes to 1 hour or until the barley is tender. Taste for seasoning and adjust accordingly.