Thinking Outside the Triangle

Cookies with onion. Sorry, no way.

I made them for non-Jewish company, and everyone just thought they were delicious canapes. All you hamantaschen purists (jam or poppy or prune only), loosen up. And I thought the dough was exceptionally good tasting. A couple of notes on the recipe though: the dough required a full 3 tbsps of ice water, and maybe a tad more, and it seems a stretch to expect the recipe to make 36 hamantaschen. I made 24, with just a bit of dough to spare. Also the feta I bought seemed too salty, so I cut it with a bit of cream cheese. Mmmmm. Thank you Ms. Nathan

These are some jive hamantaschen, both by virtue of their unfortunate fillings, and their overly thick crust. My ideal hamantaschen are filled with prune lekvar and thin-crusted, with a substantial amount of lemon in the dough. I don't have a problem with poppy seeds, generally speaking, but the absence of moisture and unctuousness in poppy seed-filled hamantaschen is always a disappointment compared to the prune. Other jams tend to be too cloyingly sweet, so I'm stuck with my lifelong favorite, I guess.

I’ve got to disagree with Joan Nathan on this one. I love to try novel recipes but this is just wrong. You should have seen the look on my 90 year-old mother’s face (very traditional Eastern European born) when I told her about this. Her response? “Fooey!” We never liked mohn growing up (probably since my mother didn’t so she always made prune hamentaschen... don’t knock ‘em till you try them. As for me.... I’m making cranberry/dried cherry hamentaschen this year.

sounds delicious, savory Hamantaschen; something akin to a cross between sweet Hamantaschen and traditional onion flavored Bialy's.

In modern Israeli Hebrew, in translation, hamantaschen are called "Haman's ears". To me the triangular shape reminds of a tricorn hat of the 18th century or a symbol of the Trinity, where missing in the middle is the full name of God in seven Hebrew characters, YEHOWAH.

I've done savory hamantaschen for years. (And yes, I've even cheated and used high-quality puff pastry for the dough.) At a combined Purim-St. Patrick's Day party a few years back, I did two savory hamantaschen: mushrooms and onions; and a kind of Moroccan chicken filling. Be mindful of the moisture level so the dough doesn't break and to allow for less messy eating. They're an ideal one-hand food (drink in the other, of course) for a party.

Hamantaschen is Yiddish, Haman's pockets in English. Being used to sweet fillings only, my hair is rising at the thought of a fill with caramelized onions. Disregarding the rules of kashrut, I would recommend chopped ham, either cured or smoked, but never boiled.

Onions in hamantaschen? I guess we need to be open- minded. As for the key involvement of women in the Purim story, the context is challenging on this kid-friendly festival: https://www.kveller.com/the-story-of-purim-isnt-kid-friendly-but-these-6-books-are/

"Hamantaschen, as essential to Purim as matzo is to Passover, are typically sweet, the triangular cookies filled with a jam that’s often made from poppy seeds." No it's not. Jews can only eat matza on Passover-it is biblically commanded. Hamenstaschen are a traditional food that if it's no big deal if you don't eat them

FETA in a hamantaschen? Sorry, that's just wrong.

My all time favorite hamantaschen are the walnut ones from the Hungarian Pastry Shop on Amsterdam Ave. near Columbia University. They offer them all year and I almost always stop and get one or two.

"During Purim, which begins this year on the evening of March 20, Jews are encouraged to indulge in playful revelry, eating rich pastries, drinking to excess and dancing in the synagogue — something like Mardi Gras, and coincidentally coming around the same time of the year." Instead of trying to link them by frivolous items, what they have in common is that they both fall out right before a time of deep introspection . For Christians it is Lenten and for Jews pre-Passover. The major components of the holiday of Purim is hearing the story of Purim read, giving gifts to the poor, giving gifts of food to each other and eating the Purim meal. That is what Purim is really about

Poppyseed hamantaschen are the only ones I make and the only ones I eat. Haman's hat, though? Hardly. Purim is a springtime holiday that celebrates the bravery of Esther. Who is Esther? Well, "Esther" in Hebrew means "hidden." Some people think this refers to God, who does not appear anywhere in the book of Esther, and so for Whom Esther (and to some extent, Mordechai) were His proxies. Furthermore, Purim takes place in Shushan in the Persian empire (Ahashverosh was none other than Ataxerxes, you're welcome). It is more likely that Esther is Astarte's Jewish twin, that the triangular hamantaschen are actually female symbols and that the poppy seeds, also grown in that region of the world, are, well, seeds. (The meaning of "Mordechai" is "of Marduk, a Babylonian god, so finding Persian/Babylonian representations in this Jewish book and story should not be surprising.) Purim is a Jewish fertility holiday, and the one focused on female fertility. After all, it comes right around the spring equinox... I get that it has been desexualized by being decontextualized from its Persian roots, but come on. When Joan Nathan provides her Sukkot recipes next fall, I'll be happy to provide the male-centric sexual themes that that holiday hides. Although Purim is a holiday of games, costumes (another way of hiding) and playing, not to mention drinking excessively and generally losing decorum, this interpretation is not a joke. However, I do hope it makes you smile.