How do you like your Matzoh Brie/Fried Matzoh?

[pamd]

Ok, so I know it's an odd time of year, but I'm pregnant & was really in the mood. I have always made it using salt, but my husband requests sugar & cinnamon. Seems as though people are used to how they grow up with it. So, wondering what other options/recipes there are that people enjoy...

[djd]

Sweet AND savory: largish pieces of matzoh well-soaked but cooked 'til dry in butter with salt and pepper, served with jam.

[Marge]

I like savory AND sweet also--love this method cooked with mushrooms and onions, then topped with maple syrup...(and the dogs are cute, too)
http://offthebroiler.wordpress.com/20...

[a_and_w]

Totally missed your post djd -- and totally agree. Salt and pepper, served with jam is the way to go!

[miminjx09]

Brie is an old time favorite - one you can never forget the recipe for. I grew up in Brooklyn, NY in a Jewish home...and I am now 46 and Christian, but there are some traditions you just don't ever forget. In my mom's kitchen she taught me to break up 3 matzohs in a mixing bowl, soakthem in water and drain, beat in 2 eggs and fryin a lightly greased pan, flip over then serve as an unbroken latke (all in one piece) like a pancake with lots of sugsr sprinkled all over - nothing else but a glass of milk...hits the spot everytime morning, noon, or night...Enjoy even when Pesach is over anytime of year works!

[chowareyou]

we always had it savory, but now i think i'm going to make it tomorrow (haven't had it in over a year) but with a dash of cumin. how bad could that be? My husband eats his eggs with a sprinkle of cumin. Maybe I could get him to eat matzo brei with me again!

[Deenso]

Cooked in butter. Sprinkled lightly with salt. Little mound of sugar on the side of the plate for dipping. (Same goes for potato pancakes. I never learned to like 'em with apple sauce.)

[SgtStens]

My grandma always used to serve it just salted, with either applesauce or cottage cheese (not both at once, though). It seems strange to me now, but I like it anyway...

[goodhealthgourmet]

in our house it was always fried in a combo of butter & oil, and topped with cinnamon & sugar. i sometimes added apricot preserves to mine as well.

oh, how i wish i could still eat matzoh!

[Channa]

There's no law against mixing sweet and savoury. I saute onions, then add the eggy matzoh pieces. Keep stirring so there are lots of crispy bits. Serve sprinkled with cinnamon sugar. The sweet cinnamon-onion combo is just wonderful, and tastes vaguely Moroccan. You can also put a dollop of sour cream on top -- I don't think that adds anything, but my fiance insists I give you that option, because that's what he fancies.

[modestomitchell]

I must say so much talk about a very basic comfort food. First off if you like sweet then give the savory a try and vice versa they are both great and some days I make both to serve to friends and family. Why choose when you can have the best of both worlds. Shalom all.....

[Richard 16]

I feel so virtuous for doing a search on this topic rather than just starting a new thread...

I was making my usual matzoh brie (egg matzoh, 1:1 egg to sheet, touch of water, touch of EVOO, salt. Soak the broken up matzoh -- in random sizes -- just for a minute or two. Fry in butter.) when I thought -- what about sweet? I figured someone had made it sweet, but had no idea the depth of opinions and practices.

So, cinnamon & sugar, maple syrup, whipped cream cheese, fruit -- all good ideas. Anyone here have more?

[phantomdoc]

Add vanilla extract and sugar to the eggs and milk.

[piccola]

Ginger jam. Or my mom's "preserves" -- chopped fruit soaked in liquor for weeks in the fridge.

[aemann56]

My grandma, (my father's mother) made it with onions. My dad turned that into salami and onions, and being the fourth generation in my family from Chicago, I couldn't help but transform this most treasured dish into kielbasa and onions, if you keep kosher (which for this dish, i do not) you can certainly by all beef polish sausage, however I find that Klotkowski or Bobaks makes the best polish sausage. As you can probably guess we've always preferred salt, in just about anything for that matter...Cheers.

[Scagnetti]

I love these threads about Jewish food, there so entertaining! Matzoh brie, brisket, latkes (those threads are the best), smoked fish, etc. It's endless!

The only problem with Jewish food, you're hungry 16 hours later (old Henny Youngman joke).

[2lazy]

I just ate sweet fried matzoh for dinner. Been years. Thank you so much of reminding me of Matzoh. This was one of the recipes I enjoyed as a child, but neglected to remember over the years. :D

[sivyaleah]

Savory, salted. We do the omlette style version in our family, about 1-1/2 boards per person, 1 egg per person. Break up the matzo into small pieces, run hot water over, let sit only for about 1 minute, drain. Add chopped up onions, lots of salt and pepper. Fry like a big omlette, flip once - nice and crispy on both sides. Don't like it "eggy", prefer it on the drier side. Only topped with salt.

A non-jewish friend of mine got me into making a veggie version. So now, sometimes I chop up some peppers and mushrooms into it too. Not traditional, but nice nonetheless.

I totally don't get any reference to it being "french toast" like. That seems really odd to me.

[Louise]

A bread like item soaked in eggs and fried.

Actually, I've made a goyische version with leftover hard as rock french bread. Break it into small chunks, mix it with milk and eggs, let sit overnight in fridge to soften up. In the morning, give it a good stir, then fry. This I always do sweet, with about a gallon of maple syrup.

And no, I'm not Jewish, but have had abundant Aunts, Uncles, cousins, a stepfather, friends of the family, boyfriends, and large families of boyfriends who were MOT.

[paulj]

Made with bread like this, Spanish call this migas (crumbs). The tex-mex version uses tortillas strips.
paulj

[a_and_w]

Always salt and pepper. Sometimes with jelly, other times tobasco, occasionally with both together. I'm not jewish, and didn't grow up eating it, so that may explain my odd preferences.

[MommaJ]

I make my mother's salty-sweet version: fried with lots of salt and half margarine, half butter (and it absorbs such massive amounts of fat!), then a good dose of maple syrup. But my husband's grandmother made it in a way I'd never seen before and haven't seen since: largish matzoh pieces egged and coated with matzo meal, then fried. Not sure if they were softened with water first. It was very crispy and greasy and to die for.

[ChowFun_derek]

MommaJ...well thats a new one on me...matzo meal coating! Matzo Brie Schnitzel.....Southern Fried Matzo Brie...oy vay y'all!
I'm going to try this one!

[Nyleve]

My mother had a whole other kind of fried matzoh - but alas, the precise method for making it died with her. Here's a vague description:

Break whole matzoh sheets into quarters (as neatly as possible) and soak briefly in water. Meanwhile, separate eggs and beat whites until stiff and yolks with a little (I think) cake meal or matzoh meal and a little sugar. Fold whites into yolk mixture. Drain matzohs and spread some of this egg mixture on one side of a square of matzoh. Place, batter-side-down in frying pan with hot oil and cover top with more batter. Fry until crisp and puffed, then turn over and do the other side.

My mother called this - in Hungarian - bundas paska (which roughly translates to matzoh in a blanket). It was served as a dessert or brunch dish, sprinkled with sugar. Anyone else in the universe know this dish?

[anamae]

OH MY GOSH! I've been looking all over for a recipe like the one you describe from your Husaband's grandmother. I started to think my mother was the only one who made Matzah Brei this way. This is how my mother made Matzah Brei-- Matzah meal, egg, a dash if salt and then she would dip matazah (usually a 1/2 a sheet) in the mixture and fry it. Then sprinkle sugar on it or have it with jam.

[OneJayneDoe]

This is an interesting topic - Thank you for bringing it up because I had no idea that this dish was prepared any other way than the way my husband makes it for me.
Which is, by the way, a complete mystery, other than I can say with certainty it is not sweet inany way.
I am not allowed in the kitchen when he prepares the fried matzos, and I have no idea how he makes it! It's just one of those things.

[lowwolf]

I've been the matzo brie chef in my family since I was six. Stood on a kitchen stool while my grandma supervised. Twenty some-odd years later, I'm still the one who makes breakfast for the family the morning after the first Seder.

1) It's always sweet. Traditionally cinnamon and sugar, sprinkled from separate shakers to taste. Lately I've been getting into Grade B maple syrup instead, and my aunt likes strawberry jam on hers.

2) 1 to 1 1/2 sheets of matzo per person, held under lukewarm running water until they are thoroughly soggy, but not crumbling (this is where experience pays, as it is really a "feel" kind of thing).

3) ONE EGG PER SHEET OF MATZO!!! I can't stress this enough, as dry matzo brie bears a striking resemblance to sheet rock. Gently fold the beaten eggs into the soggy matzo by hand, breaking the sheets into halves, then quarters, etc until you've got uniform 1 inch square pieces.

4) Let the egg/matzo mixture stand for 15 minutes. Heat a good-sized knob of butter (never oil) in the largest frying pan you have, and begin transferring the mixture into the frying pan with your spatula. There will be some leftover egg in the bottom of the mixing bowl.

5) I don't go in for the brie pancake, but I don't like it too loose either. Again, it's a matter of experience and personal preference.

[Steve]

Well, I never realized there could be so many different preparations for Matzoh Brie. My version takes less work:

Run cold water over 5 pieces of Matzoh, and break them into a bowl. Add two eggs, and a splash or two of milk if desired, and mix with a fork until all the pieces are well coated.
Fry up an onion until golden brown, remove from pan, and add to the matzoh mixture along with salt and pepper. Fry in the fat of your choice, but half oil half butter works well.

[CynD]

We always made it this way, but never with onion or oil. Always with butter, and served with salt. Will give the onion/shmaltz version a try this weekend, now that this thread has teased my tastebuds.

[MRS]

The ideal matzo brie is made w/ the kiddies doing the breaking up of the matzo and the soaking in egg at the table. Then, Dad takes it all and makes it omelette style, crispy on the edges.Lastly, you get to do the maple syrup "all my yourself" and it's heaven on a Saturday or Sunday morning. Don't laugh, I'm welling up just thinking about those mornings!
Does anyone else recall those days?

As an aside, we got "fried turkey" instead of bacon in our kosher house. This was before "faux" food items were common.

[litchick]

love it made like scrambled eggs (broken up rather than in a whole sheet), with lots of egg and lots of salt, but topped with maple syrup. savory and sweet!

[howboy]

I grew up with sweet. My invention is to add thinly sliced banana to the egg and matzoh, then fry it up in butter. Serve it with sprinkled sugar. I fool myself into thinking this is healthier.

[Hunicsz]

Oohh. . .that sounds really good. I find myself warming to this whole sweet matzoh brei thing.

[missclaudy]

I like it sweet and salty and with trafe. Maple syrup, butter and BACON!!!!!! My bubby would plotz!!!!!!!

[Michele4466]

Oops, forgot about the bacon. LOL

I am all about the bacon... My mother who was raised on the lower east side in a kosher home LOVED bacon as well!

Oy vey! :-)

[MalinDC]

I apologize for the goyish question, but what is Matzo Brei? I mean, what is the underlying similarity between the salt vs. sweet camp.

[luckygirl]

I am wonderiing the same thing. Is this liike french toast but with a piece of matzo in place of bread?

[Louise]

Basically, it's french toast made with matzo instead of bread. Opinions vary as to matzo to egg ratios, how small the broken pieces of matzo should be, how long it should soak, whether it should be sweet (jam or syrup topping) or salty (salt, pepper, onions, schmaltz), and pretty much every other aspect of preparation and service.

It's like the peanut butter question: smooth or chunky? Except with many more choices.

[p.j.]

And not to give an exact recipe, but we usually figure about a "board" of matzah per person--or 5 for the 4 of us with some leftowvers. Over the sink, break the matzah into 1" by 1" or larger pieces, into a large colander. Pour some boiling water over the top. After a minute or so, squeeze handfuls dry, and mix with beaten eggs. If making a dairy version, we add a little milk, too. Heat oil in frying pan, and drop large spoonfuls into the pan. Proceed as for french toast.

[Michele4466]

In my family we broke up the matzo into a bowl and poured hot water over it. We then let it sit for a bit until very soft, squeezed out all the water and added the eggs, milk, S & P. If there were onions to be added, they were already sauteeing (sp?) in the pan.

The entire mixture goes into the pan and then let it be. It could take a bit to firm up and brown on the bottom, we liked it in one large pancake (sort of like a frittata) and then flipped over to brown the other side. Sliced up like a pie, a bit of maple syrup for dipping (if you like) and voila! Simply delectable eats!

Brings back memories...

[rockycat]

The split in our family isn't sweet/savory, it's how many eggs per sheet of matzah. I do 2 sheet to 1 egg while the spouse does just about the opposite. I want some egg holding my matzah together, not eggs with matzah floating around in it.

Btw, I use a hefty grinding of black pepper then serve with strawberry preserves. The pepper and strawberry set each other off really well.

[ChowFun_derek]

..but it should be crispy in full or in part unlike french toast...and defiinitly not custardy or puffy like good french toast made with challah...

[smartie]

my dad used to be the matzoh brei chef at Pesach he was very exacting - break up matzoh and soak in water in a collander. Drain, melt butter in a frying pan and fry drained matzoh till crispy, add beaten eggs till just past wet, serve and add sprinkled castor sugar.

I didn't know people had savoury matzoh brei till I grew up.

[goodhealthgourmet]

"I didn't know people had savoury matzoh brei till I grew up."
~~~~~~
neither did i! ours was always loaded up with sugar, cinnamon & preserves.

[a_and_w]

Have you tried it with sweet and savory flavors together? I think that's the best...

[goodhealthgourmet]

such as...?

unfortunately, the savory thing i'd *want* to add more than anything else is bacon. not exactly approriate for the dish in question ;)

[a_and_w]

Oh, I'm open to bacon-based sacrilege LOL! I just meant make it with salt and pepper but serve it with jam.

[goodhealthgourmet]

got it :) actually, i think my mom used to do that. sadly, unless someone comes out with a decent gluten-free product someday, my matzoh brei days are over :(

[Hunicsz]

Wow. I never knew that people ate matzoh brei sweet! I can't quite imagine it, truthfully. My dad (the cook in our family) always made it savory, exactly the way ChowFun Derek describes. Ummm. . .scmaltzy goodness.

Darn you, Pam D. I'm pregnant, too, and now you've got me craving matzoh brei. Sadly, I don't think this is an urge to be satisfied at my work cafeteria. . .

[Susanbnyc]

Yes....the family is divided on sweet or savory...I am a salt fiend so am firmly in the savory camp. But another difference in style is little pieces almost mushy pancakes or big slab like pan sized caakes...... the family is also torn over this one!

[p.j.]

I grew up with Matzo Brei for breakfast, fried up in smallish pancakes, served with strawberry jam or maple syrup.

My husband grew up with savory. He now makes an "expanded" version for dinner at least once during Pesach. He sautees onions, green peppers, and mushrooms with some garlic in oil, and then adds the matzo-egg mix. He handles it like a stir-fry, and it comes out in bits. Serve with salt & pepper, and maybe some salsa.
Good but I still like sweet the best.
Good luck!
p.j.

[Louise]

It's a regular at a local breakfast spot. Forget what they call it, but it has mixed in onions and smoked salmon and is served in a long narrow log topped with a slice of cheese that has melted, with a gob of sour cream on the side. Calorific, but so good.

[pamd]

My husband was away so I actually had it for dinner last night-that's what got me started on this...such comfort. I do want to try it different ways now though

[Michele4466]

My favorite is when it is made like a firm thick pancake/ omelette, takes forever to cook but so worth it. Nice and crispy brown all over...YUM!

With or without sauteed onions... lots of eggs and the matzo needs to be soaked for an hour or so...

Pancake should be savory/not sweet but I do love it with a little maple syrup for dipping.

I think I am going to have to make a stop at the store... now I have a craving...Being pregnant as well, I find I eat breakfast for dinner many nights a week and I have yet (nine months) to think of matzo brei... thanks for reminding me of one of my all time favorite childhood foods.

[California Sunshine]

To the eggs we add salt and pepper and a dash of onion powder, along with a small amount of chopped fresh curly parsley. The moistened matzoh is combined with the egg mixture, and fried in small amount of butter, garnished with a bit of sour cream - comfort food! I think that's lunch for me today!

[weinstein5]

It seems like it does break down into two style sweet and savory - my sister-in-law grew up with matzah brie made with fruit and sugar reducing the amount of matzah -

My family did it savory - originally it like ChowFun_derek - but have cut out the scmaltz and replaced it with oil but still a ton of onions -

and just a bit off topice - talking about this reminds me of eating the rendered chicken skins (gribbinis) used for making the chicken fat - talk about a heart attack waiting to happen -

[ChowFun_derek]

Boy...! You just kicked my salivary glands into overdrive!!!!

[Nyleve]

Deep dark secret. I had to skin a bunch of chicken breasts recently and I made myself a batch of gribines (our family is Hungarian so it was called something unspellable: teperteu?). I meant to share them with my husband but accidentally ate them all myself. I am so ashamed.

[Nyleve]

Maple syrup or strawberry jam. In our family it's always been served more like French toast than scrambled eggs. But now that I think of it, I should try the onion version. I always keep an old box of matzoh in the cupboard all year round because matzoh brei is the best breakfast in the world.

[ChowFun_derek]

In my family we sauteed onions in chicken fat and finished frying the matzo brie with the onions and in MORE chicken fat...S&P and thats it...heart attack on a plate...but soooo goood!
Never EVER sweet.....but matzo meal pancakes which were puffed up little souffleed pancakes...these we sprinkled a layer of sugar on (these were fried in sweet butter) It's a wonder I'm still here!

[mnosyne]

A friend served it to us with maple syrup and whipped cream cheese--it was an epiphany!