Savory Hamentashen

Every Purim I find myself kind of disappointed by the hamentashen at the Jewish day school where I work. The school orders about 1000 huge, doughy, dry pastries and this year they were filled with chocolate. Not a bad idea, but I really prefer jam. They were delicious when dipped in tea, but after two of them I was so sugared out that I really needed an anecdote. So, I went home and improvised some savory hamentashen. You can invent your own, too- I sauteed onion and garlic in oil and white wine, put in nearly equal parts vegetable and cheese, and added an herb and an egg or two. A formula that works every time.

For the dough, I made a pie crust that my husband found on Cooks Illustrated. It was pretty easy and astoundingly delicious. Please note that the recipe contains vodka. This cooks off, and my husband the alchemist insists that it has something to do with preventing glutinous formation. I don't know what that is, but I don't like the sound of it. Anyway. I, Erica Smiley, will never use store-bought pie crust again. Here's the recipe for this wondrous pie crust. One recipe makes enough for one recipe of one filling.

Fillings:
















Mushroom Parmesan Sage

1 package mushrooms, chopped
olive oil
cooking wine
1/4 cup or so parmesan cheese
3-4 dried sage leaves
2 eggs, beaten lightly
1/2 cup chopped onion
1 clove garlic
Sautee onion and garlic in oil and wine until onions are translucent. Add sage and mushrooms and cook until mushrooms shrink. Remove from heat and let cool. Add parmesan and egg. Nibble.
















Spinach Feta Rosemary

1 package pre-washed spinach
1-2 tsp rosemary
olive oil
cooking wine
2 eggs, beaten lightly
3/4 cup feta, crumbled
1/2 cup chopped onion

Sautee onions and garlic as above. Add rosemary and sautee several minutes. Pile up the spinach and cook until wilted. Let cool and then chop and add cheese and egg.

Coat your hands with flour and flatten small handfuls of dough into patties. Place about a tablespoon of filling in each one and pinch three corners. Bake at 350 for about 20-30 minutes, until browned.

Spinach Patties with Orange-Cumin Raita

First, an apology. I was so hungry when I was making these, I didn't even take pictures. And I couldn't put down my fork long enough to take pictures when they were done.

These hot, crunchy, chewy, salty spinach patties are from the cookbook Vegetarian Planet by Didi Emmons- but we always tweak her recipes a bit. We add eggs to this one to make the dough stay together a bit better. They're not altogether easy to make because there are a lot of steps, but they're all easy steps. They have lots of protein and don't taste spinach-y.

Raita is a yogurt sauce that is amazingly refreshing on top of the hot spinach patties. It's usually made with cucumber; go ahead and add some if you want. These would probably be excellent over rice, but it's not necessary. Just a thought.

12 oz spinach
1 cup chopped onion
8 slices bread
olive oil
20ish almonds
1 tsp apple cider vinegar
1/2 cup lentils
2 eggs

3/4 cup yogurt
2 tsp cumin (or more, to taste)
1 tsp orange zest

Combine lentils and 2 cups water. Bring to a boil, then lower to a simmer until lentils are soft.
Meanwhile, toast the bread and put it in the food processor to make crumbs. Sautee crumbs in a dry pan until toasty. Transfer them into a bowl.

When the lentils are done, put in food processor with almonds and form a chunky paste. Add to bowl with breadcrumbs.

Chop onion and sautee in olive oil until soft. Add cider vinegar and sautee one more minute. Add to bowl with breadcrumbs.

Now it's time to wilt spinach. Just pile it in the pan and watch it shrink. Cook spinach in a dry pan. Chop it up when it's all done and add it, plus the 2 eggs, to the bowl and stir everything.

Prep a plate with flour. Put flour on your hands and make about 8 patties. Dredge each patty in some flour and lightly fry in olive oil until they brown.

To make the raita, add all the ingredients together in a bowl. It's as simple as that.

Roman Holiday: Mint Pesto and Spinach No-meatballs

Facebook Status Report: January 2, 2009

I made this for the first time when faced with an overabundance of spinach. I was a long-time spinach-hater. I have found that the key is to make the spinach the backdrop ingredient- there for color, texture, and much-touted health benefits, but it's best when overpowered taste-wise by other delicious ingredients. Here, it's mint, feta, and (secret ingredient) a hint of cinnamon. This dinner is well-balanced with pasta, red wine, and the movie Roman Holiday.

Here are the original recipes:
http://www.razzledazzlerecipes.com/ethnic-recipes/greek/spinach-balls.htm
http://www.recipesource.com/side-dishes/pesto/00/rec0031.html

I kept the mint pesto recipe pretty much the same, but really improved the spinach balls by adding a generous handful of feta and a couple eggs to the batter. You can use frozen spinach, it's fine.

Fresh mint can get expensive. Farmer's Bounty in Davis sells big bags of it for a few dollars.