Jewish | Future Expat

Matzah Brei Recipe

Mar 30, 2014 | Jewish, My Recipes | 3 comments

Matzah Brei Recipe:

I’ve been eating Matzah Brei all of my life. In my family, it’s actually called Matzah and Eggs, but everyone else calls it Matzah Brei so that’s what I’m naming it here so people searching for the recipe can find it.

While matzah is a staple for the Passover holiday, you can find it all year long in the Jewish or kosher section of the grocery store. As a side note, like many Hebrew words translated into English, matzah has many spellings including matzo, matzoh and matzah.

I typically eat Matzah Brei for lunch, but many people consider it a breakfast food. It can be eaten plain or topped with something sweet. I like dipping my matzah brie in black raspberry jelly.

You can also make it more eggy if you like by cutting down the matzah to 1 1/2 sheets or adding another egg. The recipe below makes a single serving but can easily be double or tripled…just use a bigger frying pan.

Ingredients:

2 eggs
2 matzah sheets
1 tbsp water or milk
1 tbsp butter or olive oil
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
1/2 cup salami (optional)

Directions:

Start by beating your eggs in a large mixing bowl and adding salt and pepper to taste.

If you want to make it a heartier meal, you can add thickly cut chopped salami at this point or another cooked breakfast meat. I don’t normally add the meat myself, but I always order the Matzah Brei with Salami when I used to go to Kopperman’s Deli in my neighborhood….sadly they closed!

The next step is to wet the matzah under running water for about 30 seconds. Let the water drip into the sink for a moment, and then break the matzah into small pieces in a large mixing bowl.

Don’t worry if water is still dripping and gets in your mixing bowl. The recipe needs the extra moisture.

Mix the matzah and eggs together, adding a little more water or milk if you find the mixture isn’t wet enough.

All of the matzah should be coated in egg.

Melt your butter or heat the oil in the frying pan before adding the matzah and eggs.

Normally I would use about 1 tablespoon of butter or light olive oil, but my new frying pan instructions recommended not using more than 1/4 teaspoon of oil, so that’s what I did this time. Since there was so little oil in the pan, I used a paper towel to spread it around the pan. Next time I would use a non-stick basting brush since I think the paper towel absorbed a bit of the oil.

While adding more butter or oil (or schmalz if you want a truly traditional recipe) does make the Matzah Brei have a richer flavor, I find that I don’t miss it and my recipe is definitely healthier with just the touch of fat.

Normally I would cook the egg mixture on a high heat very quickly, but the new pan recommended using a lower heat than you typically use since the pan is a better conductor of heat than a traditional pan and food cooks faster. I didn’t actually find that to be the case, but I also didn’t let the pan heat up as much as I normally do before adding the eggs.

Normally I start stirring up the egg and matzah mixture right away, as if you are making scrambled eggs. Since I wanted to see how the pan would do with the non-stick surface and only a 1/4 teaspoon of oil, I let the eggs cook a little longer than I usually do and then flipped them over.

The pan definitely performed as promised…those eggs flipped over easily without any sticking.

To finish up my Matzah Brei I used a non-stick spoon to chop up the egg mixture into small pieces again, stirring until the eggs were cooked but still moist.

At this point, pour the Matzah Brei into your serving bowl and add a spoonful of your favorite jelly on the side to dip each piece in for just a hint of sweetness.

Scroll down to the end of this article for a printable recipe

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