Happy Passover!

Matzoh Brei

Spring Holiday Food Edition #1

Matzoh Brei with Strawberry Blueberry Jam

It's no coincedence that Passover (Pesach) and Easter fall around the same time. In an interfaith house that means the best of both worlds when it comes to food. Later today I will be posting Easter Dinner - a not so fancy affair around here but a showcase of delicious foods. Therefore it's only fair I post our breakfast yesterday of Matzo Brei.

What's Matzo Brei? It is Matzoh broken up in scrambled eggs. Think of it as the Jewish equivalent to Migas, a Mexican dish of tortillas and eggs, or an unleavened version of French Toast. I really like Matzo Brei but should note that every family probably has their own version or recipe. Ours is definitely scrambled, rather than an omlette.

I start with the eggs, whisking them in a bowl and adding a little bit of salt. To this I add the Matzoh but run each sheet under water on both sides and then break it up into the eggs in small pieces. Matzo is very dry as it is an unleavened bread basically made out of just wheat and some water, and baked without the time or ability to rise. I usually use one more egg than sheets of Matzoh but noticed this time an extra egg was needed. For this dish, I used 5 sheets of Matzoh and 7 eggs for three servings of brunch.

I let Matzoh soak in the egg mixture for about five minutes to really absorb the egg mixture. I then placed it in a pan with melted butter on medium high heat. Just like with scrambled eggs I let it "sit" for a minute before scrambling with my wooden spoon. This way it sets up very nicely and gets browned a bit. Some folks skip the scramble all together, flipping the whole kit and caboodle to make an omelette. I have also seen this as a more savory dish with onions and garlic. I'm more of a purist, adding very little to this dish.


You don't want to overcook this. Just like with scrambled eggs, you turn off the heat before it's really dry, you want some glistening egg. . . I plate it and add a nice genorouse heap of jelly to eat on the side. I don't know how that started but that's how I ate it as a child and I think it gives it a French Toast kind of feel. I guess you could use maple syrup too if you wanted to. . . That might be worth a try.