Each week I’m usually up for a handful of home-cooked meals. A couple during the week, a Friday night experiment, and a more elaborate Sunday supper.
After trying my first taste of matzo brei at Temple Beth El’s expansive Jewish brunch, I made my own batch for a weeknight dinner.
I’m an old soul who struggles to stay up late and I curse the few fleeting hours that linger when I get home from work. If I spend time making a scratch-made dinner, I have less time to exercise or write. And if I spend the evening working out, I have less time to make dinner. As the world’s slowest writer, it typically me a whole day to finish a post.
Fortunately, I can now add matzo brei to my list of simple, after-work meals.
I have thought about matzo brei ever since reading Ruth Reichl’s description in her memoir Tender at the Bone (one of the most delicious books I have ever read). After reading this book, how could one not be? I’ve always remembered her advice to cook matzo brei in a lot of butter, a suggestions she reiterates on her website.
A fellow Fargoan offered up her best matzo brei-making advice by sharing that one can not, under any circumstance, ruin this dish. With a renewed sense of confidence, I picked up a box of matzo crackers at Hornbacher’s on my way home from work.
I broke five crackers into smaller pieces and placed them in a colander. Then, I gently ran them under water until they were soft and pliable, but not mush.
I whisked six eggs together with a splash of milk and folded in the matzo crackers. Then, I poured the mixture into a pan preheated with sizzling butter. I stirred the mixture around until set and added a little salt and pepper.
Normally I like my eggs cooked a bit under, but allowed them to cook long enough to develop some crusty bits.
Then, I heaped my creation onto a plate and dunked each bite into apple sauce and sour cream. Others enjoy eating their matzo brei with syrup or jelly, while Mark Bittman mentions cooking it with sugar in his Diner’s Journal post Frank Gehry’s Matzah Brei.
