My table has been messy with baking this afternoon. They say that Lenten Sundays are feast days, and so I obliged. Though it’s not just Lent that got me feasting. It’s really Purim. Maybe it’s that Easter always gets me thinking about Passover, too. Maybe it’s just a craving for some more Jewish cooking.
(And I know. I’m a week off. But the calendar on my wall didn’t come with all the world faiths marked up, and sometimes it hard to keep track. )
Among Jewish holidays, Purim really is the most fun. It’s Esther’s holiday, that Old Testament beauty queen and courageous saviour of her people. At Purim, her story is read aloud in the synagogue, and it’s more pantomime that KJV. Whenever the villain Hamen is mentioned, the congregation breaks out the noisemakers to erase the sound of his name from the air. Then afterwards, Purim is all about fulfilling the commandment to eat, drink and be merry – with tasty food, silly plays, fun and games galore. Purim is a shot of joy at the beginning of spring, with seasonal cookies to boot… but more on that to come.
The first time I was really aware of Purim was when I was a grad student. There was one Jewish student in the theology program with me, and at Purim, he got a package in the mail full of candies and small bottles of booze. Now that’s a care package – everything you need to have a celebration.
Some people have called Purim the Jewish Mardi Gras. I think that stretches it a bit. For one thing, Mardi Gras (or really any Shrove Tuesday celebrations – guiltily think of too many pancakes now) is the last kick at the can before the long fast of Lent begins. With Purim, it’s the other way around. The festivities mark a victory won, not an upcoming hard slog. Purim is carnival-like and ridiculously joyous, but it is also a time to remember those less fortunate than you. There is an obligation to give Purim gifts to the poor. And wonderfully, everyone has to give Purim gifts to the poor. Even the poor have to give Purim gifts to the poor. If that doesn’t happily level the playing field, I’m not sure what does.
I find the story of Esther affirming. It’s all about good news. Despite all threats and defeats, God will keep the ball rolling. Mordecai tells Esther that salvation will come about somehow, but that she has an opportunity to get involved. There is space in the larger story for our individual acts of courage. That is definitely a message to build a holiday around.
I think my Lent needs a little Purim thrown in this year. I need some good old-fashioned story telling. I need noisemakers, and powerful female role models, too. I need to hear about courage. And I need some happy food. I need to spend some time on a sunny Sunday afternoon in my kitchen with my family experimenting with new cookies.
So we did, and here’s the recipe we used.
Hamentaschen – These three-cornered cookies are utterly pleasure-inducing. The dough is soft and wonderful to 
work with, the filling is sweet and fragrant, and the process of filling and folding makes you feel smugly clever and crafty at the same time. This recipe works well with help – one on the filling while the other makes up the dough. The recipe comes, modified a bit, from the 1977 Sisterhood Beth Torah of Sepulveda, CA, fundraiser community cookbook entitled “Kissin’ wears out…Cookin’ don’t!” And to that I say, we’ll see. But it is fun to cook together.
There are as many ideas for filling these cookies as there are couples making them, I’m sure. I found suggestions for apricot jam, cherry pie filling, lemon curd, and red wine and apples. The Spouse developed this one, using some traditional ingredients. Chewy and sweet and unusual and perfect with dark coffee. In the end, though, we didn’t have quite enough this filling for the dough – perhaps too much tasting as I went – so, for the last few, I used some blackcurrant jam made by one of the wonderful women in our congregation. Sadly, I was a bit too enthusiastic with that, too. Jam boils in the oven and the oozing result looked a little… bloody. Which brings us to the derivation of the name: these are quite literally Hamen’s ears. I guess you can spot a villain by his pointy ears. Feel free to choose your filling as you like…
Dough:
2 eggs
½ cup oil
A heaping half cup sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1 ½ tsp baking powder
¼ tsp salt
2 ½ cups whole wheat flour
Filling:
¼ cup poppy seeds
A scant ¼ cup each of honey and sugar
¼ cup chopped raisins
half of 1 egg (beat it and then spoon out half – add the other half to tomorrow’s omelette)
Dough how-to: Beat eggs until foamy in a large bowl, then add the oil, sugar and vanilla. Sift together the dry ingredients in a separate bowl and then gradually add to the wets. Turn the dough out onto a floured surface and knead a few times until smooth. Divide dough in two and put half of it back in the bowl while you roll out the other half to about ¼ inch thickness. Cut into circles using a large glass or any circular cookie cutter you have.
Filling how-to: Put poppy seeds and apricots in a small saucepan with a couple of inches of water. Bring to the boil and let the water evaporate, leaving the seeds and fruit soft. Remove the apricots and chop along with the raisins. Add honey, sugar and egg, stir and set aside.
Putting them together: Place a small dollop of filling in the centre of each circle and fold the edges in, alternating corners over and under as if you are closing a cardboard box. Press corners and place on baking parchment on a cookie sheet. Bake for 20 minutes at 375˚.
