For favorite Passover recipes from my kitchen, please get the book Essential Passover from Scratch: Recipes and Stories from My Mother’s Kitchen

Rae and I have been showing some enthusiastic teenagers a few of our secrets to good Jewish cooking. For the past few weeks we have been making a lot of Passover recipes. Matzo brie, or fried matzo, is a Passover staple. What was surprising, and really kind of delightful, was to discover that Rae’s family and my family have two completely different versions of the same dish. Ours is cooked up quite fast, into browned chopped up bits, and then served with a mound of jam, eingie. Rae’s is slow-cooked, using mushrooms and onions, and served in one giant, fluffed up wheel, which is cut into wedges to serve.

Rae’s Matzo Brie

• 6 sheets matzo
• 4 eggs
• 1 onion, chopped
• 1/2 lb. mushrooms, halved or sliced
• 1/4 tsp. salt
• olive oil for frying

In a very large pan, saute the onion until almost golden, then stir in the mushrooms and let cook for a few more minutes. Soak the matzos in water, briefly, then drain and stir in the eggs, salt, onions and mushrooms. Add a little more oil to the pan, and when it’s hot pour in the matzo mixture. Turn the heat to medium and let it slowly brown, for about 8 minutes. Slide a spatula around the edges and check the bottom of the matzo brie. When it is a deep golden brown it is ready to be flipped. Take a flat platter that is a bit larger than the pan, place over the top of the pan, and turn it all upside down, inverting the matzo brie onto the platter. Add a little more oil to the pan, and when it’s hot, slide the matzo brie back into the pan, uncooked side down. Cook for another 8-10 minutes until golden brown on the bottom, and then carefully slide onto the serving platter. Cut into wedges to serve.

Soak the matzo, stir in eggs. Add slow-sauteed onions and mushrooms and stir it all together.

Fry it up.

Loosen the edges and flip the matzo brie upside down onto a platter.

Slip it back into the pan, uncooked side down.

After the second side is golden brown, carefully loosen the edges, and slip it back onto the platter to serve.