Traditional three-cornered pastries for Purim are sweet. Why not serve savory ones too?
By FAYE LEVY, YAKIR LEVYSavory spinach pasty.(photo credit: YAKIR LEVY)
Traditional three-cornered pastries for Purim are sweet. Why not serve savory ones too? In several cuisines, savory three-cornered pastries have the distinctive hamentashen shape, made by starting with a circle and folding the edges above the filling in three sections to form a triangle.One such pastry is the talmouse, an old-fashioned French pastry with an envelope of puff pastry and a filling of grated cheese mixed with cream puff dough, which binds the filling and puffs during baking. Simpler triangular cheese pastries called corniottes, which some consider Burgundian cousins of talmouses, are said to resemble cocked hats. Their filling of cream cheese, Gruyère cheese and eggs seasoned with salt and pepper is baked in puff pastry. (See recipe.) At Armenian, Lebanese and Chaldean bakeries, you can find hamentashen-shaped pastries that are filled with spinach. Usually the filling has a tart flavor from sumac; some are called borek, others are called fatayer.To make fatayer, “form the pastry into a triangle as for making hamentashen,” wrote Gracia Grego in her book written in Hebrew, Habishul Halevanoni (Lebanese Cooking).In the Middle East, a variety of fillings are used for these pastries. Such “a turnover can be a light meal in itself, or can be served as part of a mezze spread,” wrote Barbara Abdeni Massaad, author of Man’oushé: Inside the Lebanese Street Corner Bakery. Spinach and chard are the most popular fillings; because the greens are used raw, they are first rubbed with salt and squeezed dry to remove excess water so they won’t make the pastry soggy.In addition to the greens, Massaad’s filling includes onion, tomato, sumac, lemon juice and olive oil. She notes that these turnovers can be baked in different ways – in a crepe pan, on a griddle, on a saj (convex disc) or in the oven. (See recipe.) Other greens that can be used to fill these three-cornered pastries are lettuce, wild dandelion, chicory or sorrel. Massaad also uses grated zucchini and purslane; to vary the flavor, she adds walnuts, raisins or cheese.We’ve had such pastries in which the filling of greens was enriched with tahini.For these turnovers, Massaad uses a yeast dough that’s enriched with a little oil and is slightly sweeter and saltier than the dough she uses to make pita. Some bakers use a more basic dough; Anissa Helou, author of Mediterranean Street Food, makes her savory three-cornered pastries from a simple unleavened dough of flour, water, salt and oil, and enriches her spinach filling with pine nuts. She uses the same dough for triangular cheese pastries filled with curd cheese, mixed with eggs lightly scrambled in butter, chopped parsley, mint, green onions, cinnamon, allspice, salt and pepper.Some three-cornered pastries look different from hamentashen due to their shaping technique. The familiar puff-pastry burekas are made from squares of puff pastry, rather than circles; they are folded in half over the filling to make triangular turnovers. Three-cornered phyllo dough burekas and Greek tiropita are made from strips of dough; the filling is placed near one corner and the dough is folded diagonally over it.Next, the turnover is folded several more times along the strip of dough, as when folding a flag.All these pastries can be made in different sizes. “In homes... these triangles are made small and dainty,” wrote Helou, “while those sold in bakeries and sandwich shops are much larger.” This is the case with hamentashen, too. My mother taught me to make small ones; each was just a couple of bites. Yet some bakeries sell enormous hamentashen, big enough for two people to share.Faye Levy is the author of 1,000 Jewish Recipes and of Feast from the Mideast.Burgundian cheese-filled pastry triangles – Corniottes BourguignonnesThis recipe is from a book for which I did the recipe research: French Regional Cooking by Anne Willan and l’Ecole de Cuisine La Varenne. In Burgundy, fromage frais or fresh cheese is combined with Gruyère cheese to make the filling for these turnovers. Cream cheese or any soft white cheese and any Swiss-type grating cheese can be used.Makes 9 pastries❖ 250 gr. (about 8 ounces) cream cheese❖ 2 eggs❖ 180 gr. (about 6 ounces) Gruyère or Swiss cheese, diced❖ Salt and pepper❖ 500 gr. (1.1 pounds) puff pastry❖ 1 egg yolk, beaten with 1 tsp. water (for glaze)❖ 45 grams (1½ ounces) grated Gruyère or Swiss cheese (for topping)For the filling: Beat the cream cheese with the eggs.Stir in the diced Gruyère cheese and salt and pepper to taste.Preheat oven to 200°C (400°F). Sprinkle a baking sheet with water.Roll out the pastry about 6 mm. (¼ inch) thick and cut it in rounds with a 12-cm. (5-inch) pastry cutter.Put about 1 tablespoon of filling in the center of each round and brush the edges of the pastry with egg glaze. Fold up the round from three directions to form a triangle that nearly encloses the filling, pinching the angles to seal. Set the pastries on the prepared baking sheet and chill for 15 minutes or until firm.Brush the pastries with egg glaze and bake in the hot oven for 15 minutes. Sprinkle them with the grated cheese and bake for another 10 to 15 minutes or until golden brown. Serve hot or at room temperature.Spinach turnovers – Fatayer Bi-Sbanekh Barbara Abdeni Massaad, author of Man’oushé, noted that if you’re making bite-sized turnovers, bake them in the oven for 15 to 20 minutes. She told us that small turnovers should be crispy, and need to bake longer than large ones because they have a richer dough and relatively more stuffing.If you would like to vary the flavor, wrote Massaad, you can add ½ cup (50 grams or 2 ounces) of crushed walnuts, raisins or pine nuts to the spinach mixture.You can also add cheeses; she prefers ½ cup (75 grams or 2½ ounces) feta cheese mixed with akkawi cheese, a white brined cheese.Makes 4 to 6 large or 16 to 20 bite-sized turnovers❖ Yeast Dough for Turnovers (see recipe below)❖ 450 gr. (1 pound) spinach leaves, washed carefully❖ 1 Tbsp. salt❖ 1 medium onion, finely chopped❖ 1 medium tomato, finely chopped❖ 3 to 4 Tbsp. ground sumac❖ Juice of 1 lemon❖ 1 cup (250 ml.) olive oil❖ 1 Tbsp. vegetable oilPrepare the dough and let it rise.Drain the spinach leaves well, drying them as much as possible. Coarsely chop the leaves.Add salt and gently rub the salt and spinach together; this will help draw out any excess water. Drain the spinach again.In a large bowl, combine spinach, onion, tomato, sumac, lemon juice and olive oil. Mix well with your hands, squeezing out any excess liquid. (If your hands are sensitive to lemon juice, wear gloves.) Punch down the dough; on a floured surface, form dough into a log. If making large turnovers, pinch off 4 to 6 pieces of the dough to form equal-sized balls.Flour or grease the bowl again, return the dough to the bowl and let rise another ½ hour.Divide filling according to how many turnovers you are making – a generous tablespoonful each for small pies, and about a cup for larger pies.For large turnovers, flatten each ball with your palm. Using a rolling pin, roll out each ball of dough into a disc about 6 mm. (¼ inch) thick.For bite-sized turnovers, roll out the dough and cut in rounds using a cookie cutter or glass.Place a portion of the filling in the center of each dough circle. Fold the dough over the filling in thirds, pinching the edges together so you have a triangular parcel. Repeat with remaining dough circles.Using a pastry brush, coat the turnovers with vegetable oil and let stand for ½ hour before baking.If you are using a cast-iron crepe pan, griddle or convex disc, preheat over medium heat. Lower the heat and place turnovers on the surface.Cook until the bottoms are slightly golden and the edges are crisp, about 5 to 7 minutes, turning over halfway through. Lightly spray the cooking surface with water between batches, and wipe away any debris.If you are using a conventional oven, place turnovers on a lightly oiled baking tray and preheat oven to 200°C (400°F). Bake on the bottom shelf for 7 to 10 minutes until the edges are slightly golden, watching carefully so they don’t burn.Serve hot or at room temperature.Yeast Dough for Turnovers Massaad notes that you can use whole-wheat flour in the dough instead of bread flour. For making bite-sized turnovers, use ¼ cup vegetable oil in the dough instead of 1 tablespoon.❖ 1 tsp. active dry yeast❖ 1¼ cups (300 ml.) lukewarm water (body temperature is best)❖ 2½ cups (360 gr. or 13 ounces) white bread flour❖ 1 cup (150 gr. or 5 ounces) cake flour❖ 2 tsp. salt❖ 1 Tbsp. sugar❖ 1 Tbsp. vegetable oilDissolve yeast in water and set aside for a couple of minutes.Sift both kinds of flour with salt into a bowl and stir in the sugar. Gradually pour the yeast, water and the oil into the dry ingredients, and mix.Knead the mixture to make a soft dough.Tip the dough onto a lightly floured surface and knead for 5 to 10 minutes, until smooth and elastic. (If using a food processor or stand mixer, add the dry ingredients first, then gradually add the liquids. Start on low and gradually turn up the speed, running the machine for 1 minute.Always stand close to the machine while it is running.) Place dough in a large bowl dusted with extra flour or greased with olive oil. (This will prevent dough from sticking to bowl.) Cover bowl with a damp dish towel and leave to rise in a warm place, free of drafts (such as an unheated oven), for 1½ to 2 hours, or until doubled in bulk.
