Hoecakes were originally made by farmers with just cornmeal, salt and water.  I added a little sugar to make it more palatable for my family.  (Omit the sugar if you’d like.)  In the nice weather, I plan to make these outside over the fire of my grill. 

Recipe for Hoecakes

1 1/2 cup Medium Grain Cornmeal
1 cup Boiling Water
1 t. Sugar
Salt to taste
Butter for cooking

1.  Mix cornmeal with sugar and salt in a bowl.

2.  Slowly add most of the boiling water to the cornmeal mixture until it holds together.  You may not need the whole cup. 

3. Heat about a teaspoon or two of butter in a cast iron pan on medium-low heat.  You want to coat the pan.

3.  Use your hands to press the cornmeal mixture together and make little cakes.  (You can see in the photo below how this mixture needs to be press together by hand.)

4.  Place the cakes in pan and cook until golden brown.

Serve with butter is desired.

Hoecakes are called Johnnycakes in the northern United States – particularly in Connecticut and New England. Some recipes for Johnnycakes include flour and milk.

There’s an old American song about hoecakes called Snake Baked a Hoecake and a tale called Johnny-cakes.

Enjoy!

Mama Lisa

The jingle for a 1950’s commercial for Vegemite has since become a popular children’s song in Australia.  It’s called, "We’re Happy Little Vegemites".

Sara Anderson, who’s originally from Australia, wrote:

"We’re Happy Little Vegemites” everybody knows, and loves this song!

We’re happy little Vegemites,
As bright as bright can be!
We all enjoy our Vegemite
For breakfast, lunch and tea!
Our mummies say we’re growing stronger
Every single week,
Because we love our Vegemite,
We all adore our Vegemite,
It puts a rose in every cheek!

It’s true, we really do love our vegemite.

One of Australia’s great kids songs, and it’s an advertisement! If you have a chance to google the original ad, you should have a sticky beak!

[Note by Mama Lisa: having a sticky beak is Australian slang for being nosey or inquisitive.   But here I believe it means, "Have a peak".]

Vegemite is fairly salty, with a strong flavour, so you don’t ever need much of it. We eat it on sandwiches or on toast. It is so good on toast with melted butter! Vegemite and cheese sandwiches are very popular in the school yard.

Vegemite on toast is a fairly standard Aussie breakfast. Usually just kids would have a vegemite sandwich for lunch though, you don’t see too many adults pulling out their vegemite sandwich for lunch at the office. 

(I just read over that and it sounds like we eat it everyday….some people do, but definitely not all.)

I would have to say in all my travels and with all my international friends back in Australia I am yet to meet a foreigner who actually likes vegemite! It can be a bit of an overwhelming taste I think.  Perhaps you just need to grow up with it to truly appreciate it.

Sara

Thanks for letting us know about Vegemite in Australia Sara!

Here you can watch some people singing the Vegemites song…

G’day!

Lisa

You can put whatever you like into savory matzo brei.  Here are some suggestions: fry up any of the following first: chopped onions, green or red peppers, mushrooms, or other vegetables that you might put into a normal omelet.  You can also add cheese and/or herbs to savory matzo brei.  If you’re using cheese, I’d recommend Swiss or cheddar cheese – but use whatever you and your family like.

Here’s how you make Savory Matzo Brei:

Recipe for Savory Matzo Brei

3 Eggs
3 Matzo
1 Tablespoon Milk
Salt and Pepper to Taste

1) Fry up any vegetables you want to use in a little oil or butter, until lightly brown and soft.  Set aside.

1) Soak matzo in water for a minute or two to soften (no longer than that).  Take the matzo out of the water.

2) Break matzo into small pieces with your hands.

3) In a separate bowl, beat the eggs with the milk (like you would for scrambled eggs).  Add salt and pepper and stir.  Then stir the egg mixture in with the matzos.

4) Put pan with vegetables back on medium heat heat.  Then add the egg mixture.  Break up like you would scrambled eggs while frying.

5) Add small cubes of cheese if you’re using cheese.

When it’s firm (not liquidy), it’s ready to eat.

Bon appetit!

Mama Lisa

PS If you’d like to try something different, check out my recipe for Matzo Omelet.

I’ll give the recipe here for a matzo omelet. It’s inspired by the dish called Matzo brei. There’s a little story behind this and I’ll tell it in a moment. Matzo brei means fried matzo. The traditional way to make it is with a lot of matzo – you generally use equal eggs to matzo. Jewish people eat it around Passover. A matzo omelet is different, it’s an omelet with matzo in it – more egg less matzo!

A few years ago, my mother-in-law was explaining matzo brei to me. I suppose I misunderstood her explanation. I went home and made a traditional omelet for my husband with matzo in it. I made it using a little matzo per egg. It turns out that he loved it! I made him omelets like that for years, thinking I was cooking authentic Jewish food. My bad! I wasn’t. I had come up with a new invention: a matzo omelet. It wasn’t until this year, when my sister-in-law taught me the real way to make matzo brei, that I learnt the difference. I personally prefer the matzo omelet to the savory matzo brei.

So let’s get to the recipe! I’ll start by saying the you can put whatever you like into the matzo omelet. Here are some suggestions: fry up any of the following first: chopped onions, green or red peppers, mushrooms, or other vegetables that you might put into a normal omelet. You can also add cheese to the matzo omelet. I’d recommend Swiss or cheddar cheese – use whatever you and your family like.

Here’s the basic recipe for the matzo omelette:

Matzo Omelet

3 Eggs
1 Matzo
1/4 c. Milk
Salt and Pepper to Taste

1) Melt butter in a frying pan, fry up any vegetables you want to use on medium heat.  When they’re soft and lightly brown, turn off the heat and set aside.

2) Beat the eggs with a fork. Add the milk, salt and pepper and stir again.

3) Break up the matzo into bite sized pieces and put into the egg mixture.

4) Stir the matzo in the with eggs

5) Put the frying pan with the vegetables back on medium heat and add the egg mixture.

6) Once the omelet starts to get firm you can add cheese to half of the pan.

7) Once the cheese starts to melt, and the omelet gets less liquidy, you can flip half of the omelet over the other half. I flipped it and cut it in half to help it cook more quickly. You may need to lower the heat if the bottom starts to cook too quickly.

8) You can flip the omelet again after a couple of minutes, make sure the inside gets cooked. Once the eggs are firm on the inside, you’re ready to eat it!

Bon appetit!

Mama Lisa

PS I used whole milk for the omelet because we had it in our fridge for another recipe. I don’t normally use whole milk, but 1%. The whole milk gave the omelet a more custardy taste. More yummy, though more fattening. Interesting to know as a cook!

Next: Recipe for Savory Matzo Brei

Matzo Brei means fried matzo in Yiddish.  This is a good dish to make near Passover.  That’s when most Jewish people eat it.  I’d suggest trying it even if you’re not Jewish.  Here’s one good reason: Matzoh is always on sale around Passover and there’s tons of it in the store.  How can you not buy a box?

After you buy your box of matzo, I’ll tell you two things you can do with it!  You can made Sweet Matzo Brei or Savory Matzo Brei.  Don’t go away – don’t be fearful!  If you like sweet things, you’ll like Sweet Matzo Brei.  I was suspicious about it for years.  I KID YOU NOT!  I would never in a million years have put matzo, with eggs and syrup.  But man, this is good.  If you like pancakes or French toast with syrup, you’ll like it.  If you don’t, then try the savory way (which I’ll explain how to do in my next post).  My savory way is different from everyone else’s.  Mine is like a matzo omelet.  Sounds a bit strange, yes!  But it’s actually very good.  That one I have been making for years.

So, let’s get to it!

You can choose how much you’d like to make depending on the number of people eating.  The key to making Sweet Matzah Brei is to use one egg per matzo. We used 10 eggs and ten matzohs for 3 adults, 2 big teenage boys with hearty appetites and 2 young girls (one six and one eight year old).  Using that as a general rule, it would be about  1 to 1 1/2 matzo per person for a serving size, depending upon how hungry the people are and how much they like to eat.

Recipe for Sweet Matzo Brei

What you need:

1 Egg per Matzo
Milk (1 teaspoon per egg)
Cinnamon
Nutmeg
Butter for Frying
Maple Syrup

1) Soak matzo in water for a minute or two to soften (no longer than that).  Take the matzo out of the water.

2) Break matzo into small pieces with your hands.

3) In a separate bowl, beat the eggs with the milk (like you would for scrambled eggs).  Add a dash or two of cinnamon and nutmeg and stir.  Then stir the egg mixture in with the matzos.

4) Melt a slab of butter in a frying pan (enough to coat the bottom of the pan). Add egg mixture.  Break up like you would like scrambled eggs while frying on medium heat.

Serve with maple syrup – yum!

Many thanks to Dale Durdunas for teaching me this great recipe!

Next: Recipe for Savory Matzo Brei and a Matzo Omelet!