Excuses, excuses. I know.
Luckily, my food life has not felt the agony, but perhaps it's just a delayed reaction. In general, however, it seems that the more crazy my general life is the better my food life becomes.
It's funny, many people can't seem to fathom the amount of time I spend cooking. They think I'm crazy. You can't even begin to see it from reading this blog. It's something I think about constantly and look forward to doing. But, I guess I can see where people are coming from: where cooking is stress-inducing for many it is stress-reducing for me. I enjoy the creative and academic challenges it provides me; it challenges me in ways that work and classes and other entertainment medias can't. It forces me to consider interesting questions and also forces me to develop a sense of focus in periods when I'm completely unfocused. It's a good way to center myself daily.
Plus, at the end of it I have a delicious and edible result...at least, most of the time I do.
Last week was Passover.
Passover has always proved a challenge to me, both from a culinary and emotional standpoint. I didn't grow up in a Jew-rich community, so I would often be the only person in my lunch group relegated to eating matzo. It's not like this was a big deal, and my friends really didn't care. It was never a topic of conversation. Nonetheless, there was always a little twinge of feeling different, in a bad way. Plus, I hated matzo.
Of course, I was younger and more naive then. I didn't understand, or care to understand, a lot of things. So, for many reasons I won't go into here, I eventually came to like Passover. The great seders I had in college [after Year One's disaster] have definitely helped in that department.
Now, don't get me wrong.--it's not that I ever hated Passover. I've always loved the main Passover event, the big First Night Seder. It's usually a lot of fun at my house, and it's the time when mom makes my favorite thing: her chicken soup. Add in the matzo balls to that and voila! Sheer bliss. In addition to The Great And Wondrous Soup, there were also loads of other great foods, like brisket and charoset and Hillel sandwiches and macaroons and mum's meringues and the absolutely incredible tin of Barton's Almond Kisses. Ohhhhh yum. Yeah, during the seder there was never a feeling of missing bread and it's relatives.
But then, after the Afikomen was found and the party was over, there were not only lots of dishes to be cleaned, but, inevitably, lots of leftovers as well.
Oh, the dreaded leftovers.
Sure, they were good on their own. Plus, chicken salad made from the soup chicken was always delightful. But, by the time the third or fourth day of eight rolled around, I was sick of it. And, of course, lunch was a disaster--matzo sandwiches are only good for so long. We tried to supplement with things like K for P "cereals", which were gross.
So, leftovers were always a problem. Plus, since we usually followed Ashkenazic traditions rather than Sephardic ones, a whole lot of things were off limits. That, of course, didn't help things.
I've never really come up with a solution to the leftovers problem. However, this year, I made a concerted effort to try and do something about it. My efforts were quite fruitful and I came up with a few fun ideas. The recipes I'll post over the next few days are heavy on the matzo side, so for those who love the stuff, these are things you can make any time of year.
(Ironically, I've found over the years that many many non-Jews have a strong love of matzo, while many man Jews don't care for it so much.)
Today's Menu:
Steak 'n' Eggs Matzo Brei
Matzo brei is a popular Passover dish that consists of...well, eggs and matzo. It was never big in our house--why include matzo when you can have eggs straight up?
But, generally, people have very strong opinions on matzo brei and how it should be made.
One thing, however, is (almost) ubiquitous among recipes: the ratio of 1 matzo to 1 egg. After that, all hell breaks loose (see the comments section).
Matzo brei tends to be very lacking in the flavor department. For some reason, most people don't add anything to the concoction of eggs and matzo. Perhaps a bit of salt, but really nothing else. So, this year, I decided to put some effort into rectifying the flavorlessness problem of matzo brei:
I made brisket for the main seder, which, of course, I had leftover. No surprise, I got kind of tired of eating it plain. So, one night last week I came home after a long, very hard day and wanted something easy, but different, for dinner. And so came my creation.
It turned out pretty well, I must say. The brisket itself was highly flavorful and had a fair bit of salt, so I didn't really add anything else to the mix. A nice Passover take on the classic dish and one I will surely make again!
Steak 'n' Eggs Matzo Brei
[note: this recipe was based on one from The Perfect Pantry. I used leftover brisket I had, but you can use any type of meat you've got lying around]
2 pieces plain matzo
2 eggs
leftover brisket
water
butter [or margarine, if you wanna keep it kosher]
directions:
1. prepare the matzo
a. in a large bowl, break up the matzo into pieces. fill the bowl with hot water to cover.
b. when matzo become soft [not disintegrating], grab small handfuls and squeeze with all your might. get out the water and drop the clumps into a separate bowl. repeat this process until you've got all the matzo in clumps.
2. make the mixture
a. whisk together the eggs and pour them over the matzo clumps. lightly mix to cover the clumps with egg.
b. pull the brisket apart into small pieces and add them to the bowl. mix again to incorporate.
3. cook the matzo brei
a. put some butter in a skillet and melt over medium heat. turn the pan to coat the bottom and sides.
b. when butter is hot, pour the matzo-egg mixture into the pan and press down with a spatula to make it into a flat cake.
c. cover and let cook, about 10 minutes over medium-low heat, until the bottom has browned.
d. flip the whole cake, or cut into wedges and flip individually, and let the other side brown.
take that Leftover #1!!
Comments, questions, and recipe alterations are always more than welcome.
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