Sopa de Bolinha (Matzo ball soup)

This famous Jewish soup is a great hit with everyone here at home. So much so that we don't need a special occasion to have it. It's comfort food for any time of the year. It's really simple to prepare too. The only problem is it's not very easy to find matzo meal in Portugal (although I've heard I might be able to get some at the Corte Inglés supermarket in Lisbon). I bought the packet I am using now last summer in the Marais, in Paris.

Ingredients

Chicken stock

• 1 skinless chicken back (I normally use the more noble parts of the chicken for other recipes and save the back for making stock)
• 1 carrot
• 1 branch of celery
• 1 leek
• a bit of fresh parsley
• salt
• black pepper
• powdered ginger (optional)

Matzo balls

• 3 eggs whole
• 1/3 cup cold water
• 3 tablespoons vegetable oil
• salt
• white pepper
• nutmeg
• some more fresh parsley
• mazto meal (between 1 and 2 cups)
  

1. Put the chicken in a medium pan filled with cold water, bring to a boil and simmer for around one hour.
2. Remove the chicken and let it cool.
3. Meanwhile, add the remaining ingredients for the stock and keep simmering for another twenty minutes.
4. Put the meat attached to the chicken bones back in the stock and discard the bones.
   
5. Now the matzo balls. In a separate bowl, beat the eggs with the water, oil, salt, pepper, nutmeg and parsley.
6. Mix in the mazto meal last, bit by bit, until you get a thick paste.
7. Moisten your hands to make little balls with the matzo paste and drop them one by one in the simmering stock.
8. Cook for another 10 minutes.