"matzah" news and stories

Each Thursday, we round up a selection of scrumptious links from our friends over at YumSugar. Here's what they've got cooking this week:

• Ditch the pedestrian version of matzo brei (who needs french toast?), for these variations.
• Matzo is a springboard for your Seder menu.
• Babies are best eaten during spring.
• Pork isn't kosher, but it can be heavenly -- especially in a sandwich topped with lemon slaw.
• This must be a trick question -- artichokes vs. asparagus?
• Celebrate more than Passover -- it's National Noodle Month -- try cooking something out of Easy Asian Noodles.
• Next year in a new restaurant?

My real Jewish friends are off tonight having a "Break Passover" party, a little "celebration" where they're going to indulge in all those foods they couldn't eat for eight days - yeasted breads, cakes, pretty much anything that contains wheat, all of which were replaced during the Passover holiday with matzo.

Since the holiday is over, there might be a lot of leftover matzo. Sure, eating it at three meals for eight days, one might get sick of the hard, cracker-like flatbread, but no one ever gets sick of matzo ball soup. How could they? Matzo ball soup doesn't cause sickness, it cures it. It's known as Jewish penicillin, great for anytime of the year.

We already know that there are a lot of "commandments" that govern the Jewish holiday of Passover, which will be starting tomorrow evening. Many of are strict dietary rules. The first two nights of Passover are the most important because Jews hold a religious service in their homes with friends and family around the dinner table called the Seder. The Seder is a time when the Passover story is told from a book called the haggadah, and explains why the holiday even exists.

The word "seder" means "order," indicating that there is an "order" in which 15 things, or steps, take place. If you didn't figure it out by now, the Seder dinner can take a very long time. There are very detailed steps that include blessings, hand washings, asking of questions and recitals of answers, and storytelling.

With the restriction on leavened bread and most grains during the eight days of passover, foods like toast and cereals won't do for breakfast. Matzo brei is basically a matzo and egg scramble, for which Stefania already gave us a basic recipe. However, matzoh brei can get as interesting as any vegetable-filled omelette, especially now withe farmers' markets offering spring produce.

For two servings, break one sheet of matzo into bite size pieces and soak in hot water to soften them. Saute chopped vegetables of your choosing in a small amount of olive oil  – I used scallions, yellow onions, tomatoes, bell peppers, and chopped garlic. Lightly beat four eggs, stir the softened matzo pieces into the eggs, then add to the vegetables in the pan.

Some people leave the egg/matzo mixture in the pan over a low heat to set like a frittata or an omelette. However, I prefer to scramble everything together – but I think that’s less of a taste preference and more of my hyperactive inability to leave anything to cook on its own.

At the very end, I added avocadoes, just so they would maintain their cool creaminess (avocadoes can become bitter when cooked).

Though we are not Jewish, my daughter attends a Jewish preschool. This week, in preparation for Passover, her school has been sending home wonderful hand-outs full of activities on how to celebrate and honor this holiday.

My favorite hand-out, of course, was the one with five pages of Passover recipes including these matzah recipes.  These would be fun to do with kids if you've got 'em.

Chocolate Matzah
1 large package chocolate chips
1 tbsp margarine
4 matzah

Melt chocolate and margarine over low heat. Stir to prevent burning. Break matzah into pieces and stir into chocolate. Cover a cookie sheet with waxed paper. Pour chocolate matzah mixture onto waxed paper. Cover with another sheet of waxed paper and flatten with a rolling pin. Refrigerate. When mixture hardens, peel off waxed paper and break chocolate into pieces.