Matzo Brei

I grew up working in our family’s delicatessen. I was 14 when I first started helping. Breakfasts mostly involved bagels and fish. My mouth is watering thinking of the buttery hand cut Nova, kippered salmon, and sable fish. I usually made do until lunch time with our really good coffee, when I could then have whatever I wanted. We didn’t have a grill so we could only make a few things for breakfast. One of the things we couldn’t make was matzo brei, which people sometimes asked for. I remember having it for dinner at home occasionally. I had a craving for it a few weeks ago and put it on our dinner menu.

Although I learned to make a lot of things at the deli, like chopped liver, chopped herring, whitefish salad, and roasting brisket and pastrami, I never learned how to make matzo brei. I’ve had to learn to make it from long ago memories and experimentation. My father put a bit of chopped onion in his matzo brei, which I am not sure is very common, but it is how I like it. Even though matzo brei is a very simple and inexpensive dinner, I did have to take techniques from a few other places before I got my recipe the way I remembered it.

I remember the first time I had migas when I lived in Texas. Fried corn tortilla strips in scrambled eggs tasted so familiar. I knew I had never tried migas before, but all of a sudden I remembered matzo brei. I’m sure a lot of cultures have some sort of leftover bread or cracker in eggs. It’s such a good way to not let anything go to waste. Luckily, matzo brei is a delicious and filling way to use what I have in the house.

I didn’t have to do much to simplify this recipe to work for someone cooking from a wheelchair. The trickiest part is getting the matzo the right wetness before adding it to the eggs. The technique of running it under running water on both sides and then letting it sit for a couple of minutes has worked best for me. I served the matzo brei with marble rye toast, applesauce, and a little sour cream. It was an easy and warm dinner.