skygiants: Wendy from the Middleman making faces at Ida (neener neener)
skygiants ([personal profile] skygiants) wrote2018-02-24 10:05 pm
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I had folks over for Purim festivities! After we'd efficiently knocked out about five batches of traditional-ish hamantaschen -- crowdsourced fillings included raspberry, blueberry, lingonberry, mixed-berry, and rhubarb jams, apple butter, lemon curd, nutella, speculoos, ginger preserves, and every combination of the above, occasionally with unsweetened dark chocolate mixed in -- we decided to get experimental and try something I had always wanted to attempt: SAVORY HAMANTASCHEN.

I suspected there was at least a 50% chance this would turn out to be a terrible idea but in fact it was an AMAZING idea, which I'm documenting in case anyone else wants to attempt it.

We started with standard hamantaschen dough, cut out about 2/3 of the sugar and the vanilla and orange juice, and added about a cup of shredded cheddar cheese, a dollop of olive oil, and a slew of herbs including rosemary, oregano, turmeric, paprika, and dry mustard. We also added extra flour and water on a guesstimation basis until the proportions/stiffness seemed approximately right.

For fillings, we started out by playing around with the apple butter, rhubarb jam, and a jar of onion jam I had lying around; then we got bolder and tried tomato sauce, cheddar cheese, mustard, and sriracha combos. Here's some of the pizzataschen, as documented by [personal profile] genarti:



And here's one of the many plates of sweet hamantaschen:



As we folded many tiny circles into tiny triangles, I subjected my guests to the worst Purim films we could find streaming: Purim: The Lot,, a surprisingly gory animated movie narrated by Esther's slave girl(??) which inexplicably detours in the middle to the story of Samson(???), and Esther and the King, in which Esther is played by JOAN COLLINS and caught in a LOVE TRIANGLE between AHASUEROS and SIMON THE NICE JEWISH BOY, neither of whom wear pants ever at all. To be fair, I'm pretty sure 'good Purim movies' are not a thing that currently exist.

While I'm talking about Jewish stuff: my Yiddish classes have started up again! I mention this because last week we watched this music video in class, after learning the original 1930s Yiddish song on which it was based, and I've now watched it like 10 times since:



Apparently Daniel Kahn and the Painted Bird are a RADICAL KLEZMER CABARET PUNK BAND and I'm ... really into it ...... (Daniel Kahn is also the guy who did the Yiddish version of Hallelujah, which was making the rounds a little while back.)

(Also, have I mentioned here yet how much I love my Yiddish classes and the adorable leftie socialist Jewish organization that hosts them? They are having a "radical Purim extravaganza" tonight and the only reason I'm not there is because I already ate enough home-baked hamantaschen to sink a freighter. HAPPY ONCOMING PURIM TO ALL.)
thistleingrey: (Default)

[personal profile] thistleingrey 2018-02-25 07:06 pm (UTC)(link)
I'm just happy that Yiddish classes exist.

I had not heard of Daniel Kahn and the Painted Bird, nor have I watched the clip yet because Reason is reading on the floor behind me, but I like the sound of the clip and there appears to be more on Spotify. Thanks.
thistleingrey: (Default)

[personal profile] thistleingrey 2018-02-26 01:56 am (UTC)(link)
I've been listening off and on this afternoon, and aside from the fact that I can understand surprising-to-me amounts via archaic and dialectal southern German (not standard, the standard modern stuff doesn't help at all, but also I have almost no Russian, and I'm aware that Yiddish is not just bent German!!), it's good musically, too. Buying a copy.
thistleingrey: (Default)

[personal profile] thistleingrey 2018-03-03 05:48 am (UTC)(link)
Yes, sadly, I don't have any Hebrew at all....

yay, music :)