[Sca-cooks] In Place of Hamantaschen for Purim

[lilinah at earthlink.net]

One Purim food in the Mizrachi community is:
Bimuelos (an older form of the word that became Bunuelos)
aka
Zalabia (a form of Jellabiya)
aka
Zengoula (in Iraq and Iran according to Claudia Roden)

For these, Roden gives a recipe for yeasted dough that is formed into 
little balls and deep fried. After they are cooked they are soaked in 
rose or orange flower water flavored syrup. For Purim they can be 
shaped a little differently so they become Haman's Ears.

For Hanukkah, the Ashkenazim eat latkes, potato "pancakes", because 
they are fried in miraculous oil, but the Mizrachim eat Zalabia (see 
above), which are also fried in lots of miraculous oil.

For Purim some Sephardim eat an almond sweet topped with "threads" 
made of egg yokes cooked in syrup, which is apparently Portuguese in 
origin, but became a specialty of the Jewish community in Livorno 
Italy. I have a recipe (in Roden's book on Jewish food) but i've 
never seen these, let alone eaten them.

Anahita