I have a surplus of matzo this year thanks to Costco, and I assume I can crank out my own matzo meal and matzo farfel at home from whole matzo.
Has anyone done this? Should I just put the matzo in a food processor to make the matzo meal until it looks right?
What about the matzo farfel? Should I just smash up whole matzo with a meat tenderizing mallet in a bag or something?
According to Sassy Radish, yes, you can make your own matzo meal by the obvious method of putting some crumbled matzo sheets into the food processor. She notes that you will get about 1/2 cup from two sheets.
Farfel can be made simply by breaking the matzo into appropriately sized pieces. This site explains that it is easiest to do it by hand to get the uniform size. About.com's Kosher Food section even says that is all farfel is: broken up matzo.
To make matzah farfel, break it into small pieces in a bowl In another small bowl, beat an egg. Add the egg to the matzah, coating it well. Heat some oil in a frying pan. When hot, add the matzah, spread it out and let the egg cook onto the matzah, stirring constantly. When dry, add just enough boiling water to cover the farfel. Cover the pan and lower the heat. Cook about 5 minutes until water is absorbed. Mix the farfel around with salt and pepper to taste. Serve warm.
It occurred to me that many recipes that call for matzo farfel usually call for soaking it in hot water. If you add the hot water first before breaking up the whole matzo, it should prevent finer dust from being created. So follow these instructions:
For each cup of matzo farfel called for in the recipe, use two pieces of matzo. Add the hot water as called for in the recipe to the whole matzo, then break up into about 1/2 pinky fingernail sized pieces.
Matzo meal can be created just by putting dry matzo in a food processor until the consistency of cornmeal or flour.
