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Recipes for Purim

  • March 18, 2010 5:21 pm
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The Jewish holiday of Purim begins this Saturday night. I’ll confess that, as a not-very-observant half-Jew (my mother’s family is Christian) I’ve never celebrated this holiday. but, along with other less well-known Jewish festivals like Sukkot and Shavuot, I find Purim intriguing. My husband’s cousins Miryam and Rachel, who live in Israel, have told me that in their community, Purim is a bit like Halloween or Mardi Gras. People dress up in costumes and there’s much merrymaking and feasting. They’ve also mentioned that their brothers always get ridiculously drunk during the holiday—in fact, it’s considered a religious duty to do so. (I’m not much of an expert on the religious side of things, but I think it has to do with mocking the Biblical villain Haman, whose story, in the Book of Esther, is the focus of Purim.)

One thing I do know about Purim is that it’s traditional to eat triangular cookies called hamantaschen, which imitate the shape of the three-cornered hat Haman is supposed to have worn. these delicious pastries, usually enclosing a sticky prune-, poppy seed-, or apricot-based filling, are available in many bakeries in my Brooklyn neighborhood, and I definitely plan on picking some up this weekend.

Here on Epi, we also have some recipes for less well-known Purim dishes. For instance, these Syrian Jewish cookies, filled with ground walnuts and cinnamon, sound fantastic. Kreplach, pasta dumplings filled with meat, potatoes, or cheese, are also traditional.

Here’s our complete list of Purim recipes. Anyone else have any favorites, or special plans for the holiday?

Recipes for Purim