Curried Everything Matzo Will Not Only Improve Your Passover, But All Your Future Charcuterie Boards

I loved Passover growing up. My mom would host 60+ people in our house, my grandmother would fill disposable hotel pans with brisket, sweet and sour meatballs and potato kugel. With all the amazing food I was always confused by how we settled for the crumbly, dry matzo that sat in boxes on every table.

Sure, the bland, not-so-pleasent tasting nature of matzo is kind of the point: its meant to remind us of the Jews escape out of suffering an Egypt that was so quick the bread couldn’t even rise. However, our dessert spread was always stuffed with delicious cakes and confections made with matzo meal. I was determined to get the same satisfaction out of the matzo itself by making it from scratch.

There are a ton of rules that must be followed to make kosher matzo including: using no leavener and only allowing for 18 minutes from the time you start making the dough to when it goes in the oven to avoid any natural rising that could occur from the ambient yeasts in the air of your kitchen (talk about fast food).

Additionally the most traditional matzo, and the only matzo that can be eaten at your seder, can only be made of flour, salt and water. This means no fat to add texture and flavor. However you can eat fat-full matzo for the rest of the holiday, so that’s what we’re going to make today.

Below I have included a baseline plain recipe that can be made with any fat, but if you can, I highly recommend trying to make a batch with schmaltz: the rendered chicken fat that is/was the default cooking fat of the traditional Jewish home. It adds that distinct sweet richness that perfumes your home when you roast a chicken.

Once you’ve nailed down that baseline recipe you can experiment with adding other ingredients. I contemplated a rosemary-garlic version and swapping out some of the flour for cocoa powder to make a choco matzo.

However I took inspiration from the bright yellow egg matzo to instead make a curried everything matzo with tons of turmeric, garam masala and cumin.

Schmaltzy Matzo

• 2 cups flour
• ½ teaspoon salt
• ⅓ cup melted and cooled schmaltz, or other fat
• ½ cup water
• Flakey sea salt, for topping

1. Preheat oven to 500º F.
2. In a large bowl whisk together flour and salt. Make a well in the center, then pour in the oil and water. Mix together with a wooden spoon until a shaggy dough forms.
3. Turn out onto a well floured surface and knead until a cohesive, mostly smooth dough forms, 1 to 2 minutes.
4. Divide the dough into 12 equal pieces, roll into balls. Working with one ball at a time, dust with flour and roll as thin as possible, it should be nearly translucent.
5. Add two pieces of dough to an ungreased baking sheet. Dust with flakey salt and press slightly to adhere.
6. Bake until the matzo starts to bubble and brown, 3 to 4 minutes. Flip the matzo and bake for an additional minute. Remove from the oven and transfer to a wire rack to cool. Repeat with the remaining dough

Curried Everything Bagel Seasoning

• 4 teaspoons everything bagel seasoning
• 2 teaspoon of cumin seeds
• 1 ¾ cups flour
• ½ teaspoon salt
• 1 tablespoon turmeric
• 1 teaspoon garam masala
• ¼ teaspoon asafoetida (optional)
• ⅓ cup olive oil
• ½ cup water
• Flakey sea salt, for topping

1. Preheat oven to 500º F. In a small bowl combine everything bagel seasoning and cumin seeds.
2. In a large bowl whisk together flour, salt, turmeric, garam masala, asafoetida and 2 teaspoons of the seed mixture.
3. Proceed with the recipe as written above, dusting the matzo with the remaining seed mixture.

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