Author: Milly Berman

Passover is this week, and for me, that means two things: I am going to be hosting a Seder, and I am going to be making absurd amounts of matzo ball soup. Matzo balls are unlike any other food I’ve ever tasted. They’re sometimes fluffy, sometimes dense, salty, bready, eggy, springy, and absurdly delicious.  

This year, I broke the unspoken rule of my family that matzo balls are a Passover food only, and got super into making matzo ball soup as a weeknight dinner. It’s perfect: The warm, comforting soup comes together in mere minutes, and the soft, bouncy balls fill you up more than most brothy soups would. Because I was cooking it all through the fall and winter, I experimented with lots of different flavors, using the standard matzo ball as a jumping-off point.

This recipe is the best of all the versions I tested. My first innovation is that I make the broth slightly spicy by adding red chili flakes, which are toasted in oil to open up their flavor. For me, the spiciness adds so much warmth and comfort to this soup, drawing out the complex flavors of the broth and vegetables. 

My second intervention is the addition of corn. Usually, matzo ball soup features onion, celery, and carrots as the flavor base. I always find those boiled-down carrots to be a total vibe-killer.  So, instead, I add sweetness in the form of early summer corn, stirring it in right at the end to preserve its bouncy texture and fresh, juicy sweetness. The topping of delicate celery leaves and dill brings this recipe right to the precipice of spring, where it belongs.  

Matzo Ball Soup

Ingredients

Serves 3–4

• 1 package matzo meal (I prefer Streit’s or Not Your Mother’s, but any brand is fine. Just don’t get the unsalted type.)
• Eggs (amount according to the matzo meal package instructions)
• 1 large yellow onion
• 5 stalks celery, plus leaves
• 4 cloves garlic
• 2 tablespoons olive oil, and however much oil the matzo meal calls for
• 1 teaspoon salt (if using unsalted broth, double the amount)
• 1 tablespoon red pepper flakes
• 1 teaspoon garlic powder
• 32 ounces vegetable or chicken broth
• 1 cup corn kernels (frozen is fine, but fresh is best)
• 1/4 cup dill, torn 

Instructions

1. Mix the matzo meal, eggs, oil, and water according to package directions. Rest the mixture in the fridge for 45 minutes to 1 hour.
2. While resting, make the soup. Start by thinly slicing the onion, celery, and garlic. Set aside the celery leaves for later.
3. Heat the olive oil in a large saucepan on medium heat. Add the onion, celery, and garlic, and sauté until translucent. Add the salt, red pepper flakes, and garlic powder, and toast for about 1 minute.
4. Pour in all the vegetable broth, cover, and bring the soup to a rolling boil. 
5. While waiting, wet your hands with water and shape the matzo mixture into 2-inch balls. These will grow into huge balls when cooked.
6. Drop the balls into the boiling water and cover tightly. Lower the heat and simmer for at least 30 minutes (The balls should feel light and airy when lifted with a spoon).
7. Add in the corn, and stir to combine. 
8. Turn the heat off, and let the soup sit with the lid on for 5 minutes to cook the corn.
9. Sprinkle on the beautiful torn dill and celery leaves, and serve!

Milly Berman can be reached at mgberman@wesleyan.edu.

This is another recipe in a series I am developing called “Recipes You Can Make With Ingredients Only From Weshop (and Not Just on Restock Day).” Sure, anyone can make a delicious dinner on a Friday or Saturday when the shelves are all full. But it’s truly a challenge to be inspired when there’s just one sad, wilted, baby bok choy in the vegetable section and nothing at all in the meat fridge. In this case, it’s important to have some flexible recipes into which you can dump limp vegetables and a good old brick of tofu to get through the week.

Substitute the tofu for any kind of ground meat if you can find it, and throw in any other vegetables you have. Scallions or spinach would work great. Disclaimer: these dumplings are in no way authentic to any cuisine whatsoever, but neither are the ones at Usdan, and these are much better.

Because they don’t sell dumpling wrappers at Weshop, we are going to have to make our own. It’s going to be okay. Dumpling wrappers are actually one of the simplest things in the world to make because they only require one ingredient (flour) and some time. The key is using part boiling water and part room temperature water—the boiling water denatures the gluten in the flour, making the dough soft and easy to roll out rather than stretchy or bouncy. When you first mix together the dough, it will be a dry, crusty mess. But the flour works its magic during an hour-long waiting period and actually absorbs the water in a process similar to autolyse, a stage of the resting period for bread dough when it hydrates and develops gluten. Then the dough can easily be rolled into 3-inch rounds and stuffed full of delicious filling.

Ingredients

Serves 2–4 

Dumpling wrappers:

• 2 cups flour
• 1/4 cup (+ 2 tablespoons) boiling water
• 1/4 cup room temperature water
• Oil

Tofu filling:

• 3 teaspoons oil
• 1 large carrot
• 1/4 onion
• 3 cloves garlic
• 1/2 inch ginger
• 1 baby bok choy
• 1/3 cup soy sauce
• 1 tablespoon sesame oil
• 3 tablespoons sriracha (or more, according to your spice preference)
• 2 tablespoons ketchup
• 3 tablespoons Japanese BBQ sauce (One of my Weshop staples. If you can’t find it, add 2 extra tablespoons of soy sauce and 1 tablespoon of honey.)
• 1 block firm tofu 
• Salt and pepper, to taste

Instructions

1. Mix together the flour and two types of water to form a shaggy, crusty, ugly dough. Add 2 extra tablespoons of boiling water if it’s really not coming together at all. Set aside to rest for 15 minutes.
2. Wrap the tofu in paper towels and place it in a bowl. Place anything heavy, like a can of tomatoes or a textbook, on top to weigh it down and press out any excess water.
3. Once 15 minutes have passed, knead the dough a couple of times. It should come together into something less ugly and more smooth. Rub the outside with oil, cover, and set aside for 45 minutes to an hour for the gluten to relax.
4. While the dough rests, make the filling. Chop your carrot and onion as finely as you possibly can and sauté them in 1 teaspoon of oil on medium heat until soft and translucent. While they heat, mince the garlic, ginger, and baby bok choy. Add them to the pan and stir to combine.
5. Season the vegetables with the soy sauce, sesame oil, sriracha, ketchup, and Japanese BBQ sauce. Continue cooking until the sauce has been mostly absorbed by the vegetables, about 5 minutes. Then remove from the heat and crumble in the pressed tofu.
6. When the dumpling dough has rested, roll the dough into a log and cut it into 16 evenly-sized pieces. Roll each piece into a ball in the palms of your hands. Use a rolling pin or any kind of clean, empty bottle to roll out each ball as thin as you possibly can. They should end up between 3 and 4 inches in diameter. The size is less important than the thinness. If they are too thick, they won’t cook all the way through.
7. Fill each dumpling wrapper with filling and seal them up. I could try to explain how to do this, but YouTube will serve you better.
8. Heat 2 teaspoons of oil in a pan on medium-high heat. Once it is super hot, place all the dumplings in the pan. They should start to brown instantly. Once they are lightly browned, add 1/3 cup of water and cover the pan with a lid. 
9. Cook for 6 to 9 minutes, or until the dumplings have started to turn shiny and a little translucent. At this point, remove the lid and let all the water evaporate so that the dumplings can get crispy again. The good thing is that you can’t really overcook them at this point. Once they are crispy, you are ready to serve! I like to dip the dumplings in a little extra Japanese BBQ sauce.

Milly Berman can be reached at mgberman@wesleyan.edu.

The Friday before Thanksgiving break, we, along with our wonderful housemate Emma Kendall ’24, hosted a Friendsgiving dinner. Celebrating Thanksgiving is one of our favorite parts of the year, yet we had never done so together. We invited our friends and encouraged them to bring either food or something to drink. There were key parts of the meal that we decided are integral to any kind of Thanksgiving celebration: stuffing, mashed potatoes, greens of some sort, and pie. You might be wondering why turkey is missing. We were intimidated by the idea of taking on the bird in its entirety, but Milly came up with a solution that worked perfectly (more on that later). 

Jordan: I volunteered to take on the stuffing, since I think it is the superior turkey day dish. In my family, my mom had been the one to make stuffing, and I wanted to follow the tradition by making her recipe. Crusty sourdough, artichoke, parmesan, garlic, onion, celery, and mushrooms are the key ingredients, and assembly really only involves some chopping, sauteing, and mixing before popping it in the oven. Because mushrooms can be quite controversial, I wanted to make an alternative for those who are anti-fungi. So, I went with Alison Roman’s leek and celery stuffing that is also sourdough bread based. (I’m from San Francisco, what can I say!) Planning the oven times and temperatures between my two stuffings, the rest of the dishes, and everything else that people brought over that needed to be warmed up was quite a challenge. I’ll be honest, the mushroom and artichoke stuffing turned out way better than the other one since I took a risk on the temperature and it dried out (sad). However, I feel good about my solid attempt at doubling up and am very satisfied with one out of two of my stuffings being successful.  

Milly: The truth is, there isn’t enough room in a Wesleyan fridge or oven for a whole turkey. This is a big problem if you’re planning an all-out Thanksgiving feast. There was some discussion of having chicken instead. I’m a vegetarian, so I wouldn’t eat it either way, but chicken at Thanksgiving is where I drew the line. My first move was to buy a bunch of turkey thighs and legs, as I knew that they would get less dry than turkey breasts would. I coated them in a dry brine first thing in the morning and left them for most of the day to soak up the flavor. Then I made an herby garlic butter and coated all the thighs and legs in it. I roasted them low and slow, adding a little bit of stock to the bottom of the pan every half hour to give it a sort of half-braise. When the turkey finished, I poured all that stock and drippings from the pan and made a gravy. I had made a last-minute run to Goodwill the day before and secured a matching set: a gravy boat and a serving dish, both shaped like cows. The gravy poured out of the cow’s mouth in a pretty disturbing way, but the dishes added the perfect touch of kitsch to our tablescape.

The second cow dish held sweet potatoes. I cubed the potatoes and tossed them in gochujang, honey, garlic, olive oil, and chili crisp. Then I roasted them alongside the stuffing until they got soft in the middle and golden brown on the outside. Once cooked, I tossed them in more honey, chopped pistachios, and crumbled feta. I knew it was good when one of our guests asked for the recipe. Then I knew it was really good when someone who wasn’t even at the dinner asked for the recipe. After the sweet potatoes, I threw together a quick cranberry sauce and we were ready to serve. We laid everything out on four folding tables we borrowed from friends and covered in lacy tablecloths. We lit a bunch of candles just as people started to trickle in. With the low lights, the amazing company, and the absolutely unbeatable menu, I must say it was the best Thanksgiving dinner I’ve ever had.  

The Friendsgiving Menu:

• Sour cream and chive Parker house rolls (Sabrina Seltzer ’24)
• Arugula salad with goat cheese, apple pomegranate seeds, and a dijon-balsamic-shallot vinaigrette (Emma Kendall ’24)
• Koginut and kabocha squash tart with sage and parmesan (Sabrina Seltzer ’24)
• Roasted brussel sprouts with toasted pecans and dried cranberry (Anna Graziano ’24)
• Mashed potatoes with butter and cream (Emma Kendall ’24)
• Creamy, sturdy, and complex baked macaroni and cheese with sharp cheddar (Soren Tollis ’25)
• Gochujang sweet potatoes with feta and pistachios (Milly Berman ’24)
• Stuffing with sourdough, mushrooms, artichokes, garlic, onions, and celery (Jordan Scott-Weiner ’24)
• Stuffing with sourdough, leeks, and celery (Jordan Scott-Weiner ’24)
• Turkey with shallot gravy (Milly Berman ’24)
• Cranberry relish (Helen Townsend ’24) and cranberry sauce (Milly Berman ’24)
• Apple crumble pie (Sabrina Seltzer ’24)

Milly Berman can be reached at mgberman@wesleyan.edu.

Jordan Scott-Weiner can be reached at jscottweiner@wesleyan.edu.

My first year at the University in 2020 was infamously bad. I shouldn’t have to explain that, but I was living in Butterfield C and surviving off of the one and only dining option we had: Usdan, but with an exciting twist: The food placed in a soggy to-go box or wrapped in plastic. I missed my kitchen at home, where I had been baking every week for ten years, and I missed the sweet yeasty smell that would waft upstairs from the oven.  

I outright refused to cook in the Butterfield C kitchen after two traumatic incidents. First, I got three points and a hearing with the dean for cooking there with three people, more than the COVID-19 capacity of two. The second was much worse than the first: I saw a neighbor rolling out meatballs right on the counter without wiping it down afterwards. As a vegetarian and a sane person, it was not an option to use that countertop anymore.  

The worst part of the first-year food experience was the breakfast, or lack thereof. I would usually wake up for my 8:50 a.m. class on Zoom at 8:45 a.m. and eat a granola bar under the table in the miserable morning light. It was on one of those cold, tasteless mornings that I came up with the dorm room cinnamon babka.

The beauty of this recipe is that you can make it all in your dorm room and then walk down to the dorm kitchen with your little loaf pan and pop it right in the oven with no fuss. When you have no kitchen, the world opens up. You begin to see that the surface area of your standard Wesleyan dresser is the perfect amount of space to roll out your dough into a 9-by-13 inch rectangle. Just push your deodorant and shampoo to the side like I did. It’s simple; if you know how to knead, you can make this recipe.

Ingredients (which, in 2020, must have been purchased at Weshop, because I didn’t have a car and wasn’t allowed to leave campus anyway):

Dough:

• 3/4 cup milk
• 1 packet active dry yeast
• 4 tablespoons sugar, divided
• 3 and 3/4 cups all purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 eggs
• 7 tablespoons butter (room temperature)

Filling:

• 1/2 cup butter (room temperature)
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 2 teaspoons cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon salt

Method:

1. Heat the milk until slightly warm, but not too hot to stick your finger in. Stir in the yeast and two tablespoons of sugar and let stand for 10 minutes.
2. Mix together the flour, salt, and two tablespoons of sugar. Then add the yeast mixture and eggs.
3. Knead the dough for 10 full minutes. To knead, use your weight to fold the dough over itself, press it down, and fold it again. It should become elastic and start to bounce back when pressed.
4. Add the butter to the dough one tablespoon at a time, kneading in between each addition. Don’t worry if this takes a long time; just make sure all the butter is incorporated into the dough. Cover with a damp towel and prove in a warm corner of your room for one hour.
5. Make the filling by mixing together the butter, brown sugar, cinnamon, and salt into a smooth paste.
6. Clean off your Wesleyan-provided dresser thoroughly. Lightly flour the surface and place your dough on top. Use anything round you have in your room (I used a balsamic vinegar bottle, but you could use a wine bottle or an actual rolling pin) to roll out the dough into a 9-by-13 inch rectangle. 
7. Use a butter knife to spread your filling out on the dough, reaching every corner. Then, starting at the long edge, roll the dough up into a swirl (like a cinnamon roll). Using a sharp knife, cut the roll lengthwise, making two long logs. Place them next to each other with the filling side up. 
8. Make an X shape by placing one of the logs on top of the other. Continue twisting by alternatively placing one log on top of the other until they form something like a twist. Place the twist in a greased, nine-inch loaf pan. Cover and prove for one hour.
9. Halfway through the proving time, go downstairs and preheat the dorm kitchen to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Then turn right around and LEAVE. (This is the best part of this recipe.)
10. Bake for 45 minutes or until you can smell the cinnamon all the way from your room. Let cool to room temperature before eating.

Milly Berman can be reached at mgberman@wesleyan.edu.