Savory Hamentaschen

Hamentaschen are a traditional Eastern European Jewish sweet triangular cookie made for the holiday of Purim.

This year, with the help of some friends, we decided to make savory tasch. Sort of like triangular empanadas or knishes.





For the dough:

• I used the knish dough recipe from my favorite cookbook, Olive Trees and Honey (the Ashkenazic Oil Pastry Dough on p. 154)

Fillings:

• finely chopped onions, caramelized
• finely chopped mushrooms- sauteed, with a touch of marjoram
• defrosted frozen spinach, drained
• curried eggplant with tomatoes
• minced garlic, sauteed

Cut the dough into circles, fill with small amounts of filling, and bake for 12-14 min on 350.

Mix and match fillings.

Majedderah

One of the many spellings for the classic middle eastern rice & lentil dish. The classic way is great, but i honestly prefer the shortcuts.

Ingredients:

• 2 medium to large onions
• 2 cups brown lentils
• 2 cups brown rice (I prefer short grain, but any kind works)
• olive oil
• salt & pepper to taste

A- Directions (the classic way)

slice the onions into long slivers (dicing works, but the final result has a much better mouth feel when you go with the long slivers)

1. saute the onions in the bottom of a large pot with approx 2-4 tbs of olive oil (the oil should generously coat the bottom of the pot)
2. when the onions are well caramelized, take out 1/2 of the onions and set aside.
3. add the lentils and 4 cups of water. bring to a boil
4. when the water is fully absorbed, add 4 more cups of water and the rice. add a dash of ground black pepper. bring to a boil.
   
5. cook until the rice and lentils are tender and all of the water is absorbed
6. mix in the remaining onions, and add salt and pepper to taste.
   

B- Directions- (The easier way):

I personally don't always have the time to wait for the onions to saute, and only then start cooking the lentils. To save time:

1. cut the onion into slivers. Place 1/3 of the cut onion in a large pot with 1-2 tbs of olive oil, 4 cups of water and 2 cups of lentils. Let it boil.
   
2. in a separate frying pan, saute the rest of the onions until caramelized.
3. then follow steps 5-7 above- when the lentils are cooked, add 4 cups of water and 2 cups of brown rice.
   
4. mix the caramelized onions in when the rice and lentils are done cooking

C- Directions (the easiest way)
So now you are probably wondering why add the rice and lentils at separate times. In short, lentils take longer to cook than rice, so if you added them at the same time, the rice would be mushy by the end. If this bothers you- follow directions A or B above. If it doesn't bother you- then:

1. either just follow Recipe B above, except add all of the water, some onions, lentils and rice in at the beginning (this won't take less time to cook, but it will be less time to tend to it
2. OR- use your rice cooker!
   
3. Place 8 cups of water, 2 cups rice and 2 cups lentils in the rice cooker and turn it to the whole grain setting. Don't forget to add some slivered onions, olive oil and a touch of black pepper.
   
4. While the rice cooker is on, saute the onions.
5. combine all ingredients at the end.
   
6. Comes our perfect every time. No fuss, no muss.
   

Other comments:

• use red lentils (not everyone finds them as filling, but if you do, its delicious too)
• serve with yogurt or labne!
• kid friendly, crowd pleaser, not a liquid-y dish, so its easy to take to work, and it stays good in the fridge all week.