A Passover staple that’s perfect year ’round: Matzoh Brei

Matzoh, eggs and very little else create a simple, quick, tasty and filling meal that can be served sweet or savory. Recipe below.

WHEN I TOLD MY SISTER LENA I WAS MAKING MATZOH BREI, she began reminiscing about our mom. She reminded me that when she was in elementary school, occasionally at lunchtime, when the weather was nice,  she would walk home and Ma would fix her something. Sometimes it was a hamburger and sometimes it was a nice sandwich and a bowl of mushroom barley soup. And sometimes it was matzoh brei, with grape jam or powdered sugar. Then Lena would walk back to school in time for her next class.

Matzoh brei (rhymes with eye) is one of those classic dishes that began as a Passover staple, something simple, quick, tasty and filling to have at a time when we can’t eat bread. But it’s so easy to make that, in lots of households, it’s a year-round staple. It’s simple. The ingredient list is short. It’s just barely harder to make than scrambled eggs. You wet some sheets of matzoh, you mix them with eggs, you sauté everything, done. Start to finish, five, six minutes. Easier and faster than fast food.

As with any classic, there are regional variations and rock-hard family traditions and of course people are adamant about whatever theirs is. Some people soak the matzo in a bowl of water for a minute or two; some just run it under hot tap water for 20 or 30 seconds. Some people soak the matzoh in warm milk. My beautiful friend DeeDee’s mother would sometimes use sweet wine. The proportion of matzoh to eggs varies too—mine is squarely in the middle.

When it’s cooked, you can top it with jams or powdered sugar or honey or maple syrup. Also, there is a whole alternative realm in which matzoh brei is a savory dish, an analogue to chilaquiles, for instance served with warm salsa, avocado, cilantro and melty cheese.

This is the classic Mrs. Nowak recipe, and you should learn to make it. It’s nice any time, from what-ever-will-I-eat-right-now to a casual meal with friends. The ratio of simplicity to payoff is ridiculously huge. It makes you feel contented. And if you try this with powdered sugar, you will have the taste of my Detroit Jewish childhood.

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Matzoh Brei

Matzoh, eggs and very little else create a simple, quick, tasty and filling meal that can be served sweet or savory.

Servings 2 to 3

Ingredients

• 3 sheets matzoh
• hot water
• olive oil and butter, in the proportions you prefer, about 1 tablespoon total
• 4 eggs
• black pepper
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon sugar (optional—best suited for when you're using sweet toppings)

Instructions

• Break the matzoh into chunks one or two inches square and put them in a heatproof bowl.
• In another bowl, break the four eggs, add salt, pepper and sugar if you are using it, and beat with a fork.
• Pour hot water over the matzoh shards and let sit for 30 seconds. Drain off the water, squeeze any excess out with your hands, and put the matzoh in with the beaten eggs. Stir well.
• In a nonstick skillet, heat the olive oil and butter to medium. Then pour in the egg and matzoh mixture.
• We made this two ways. In the photo, you will see a pancake-like serving. In this approach, put a hefty spoon of batter in the hot pan, let it cook on one side until it is golden brown and firm, flip over and cook the other side. Or, alternatively, and faster, is to put all the batter in the pan at once and stir-scramble until it is done, with the curds still a bit soft and wet, about a minute or two.
• Serve nice and hot with the toppings you prefer.

Kitchen Notes

More about matzoh. The perforations in matzoh are not to make it easier to break the sheets into pieces. Their purpose is to prevent the matzoh from rising. It reminds us that when we were getting out of Egypt, we didn’t even have time to let the bread rise. We had to pack up and get moving in case Pharaoh changed his mind. I think about that from time to time, these days, when we are getting plenty of object lessons in how it is with tyrants and how they are fickle and cruel in all things.

There is a special tool to make those perforations. It looks like a roller with needles sticking out of it and it’s called a riedel.

And a little more. If you’re looking for other ways to use your extra matzoh, try our aptly named Matzoh Crack. And yes, click that link—you definitely want to know about it.

Liz’s Crockery Corner. I came across this plate—one of a pair—years ago in St. Louis. I often take it out of the stack at this time of year, because it reminds me that spring is, probably, going to arrive soon, really. Unlike most of our crockery, this one is not English or American—it was made by Villeroy and Boch some time between 1874 and 1909. This pattern doesn’t have a name, just a number, 7277, and I don’t know much more about this plate than that. In that period, the enormously successful company operated nine factories in Germany and France, manufacturing dishes, sanitary porcelain, like bathroom ceramics, and beautiful decorative objects, like vases and tiles.

Fans of Liz’s Crockery Corner may recall our conversation a while back about the Aesthetic style. In Germany, something very similar came about just a bit later in time: the Jugendstil (“young style”) movement, emphasizing organic lines, floral motifs, and creation by workshopping—in which groups of designers worked with industrialists to create beautiful, useful objects for the mass market. And yes, there is a straight line from this practical side of Jugendstil to the Bauhaus.

One thing I learned in the course of researching this plate is that the Boch family was quite interesting, a blend of both successful business people and successful artists. Eugene Boch, a poet and painter, was a close friend of Van Gogh—you may have seen Van Gogh’s portrait of him, painted in 1888 in Arles, in the Musée d’Orsay.