The Jewish holiday of Purim 2018 begins this coming Wednesday night, the 28th of February, and continues through Thursday the 29th. In Jerusalem and other ancient walled cities, the holiday is called Shushan Purim and occurs on Thursday night, the 1st of March, through Friday.
It’s said that Queen Esther, the heroine of the Purim story, ate only raw fruit, vegetables, nuts and seeds after she was taken to King Ahasuerus’s palace. That’s how she managed to eat only kosher foods in her captivity. At her uncle Mordechai’s command, she kept her Jewish identity secret until the day when she made her dramatic accusation against the villain, Haman. For these reasons, Jews serve hamentaschen, pastries with hidden fillings, and particularly enjoy foods featuring fruit and nuts on Purim.
See Hannah’s post explaining the holiday here, and Karin’s description of the holiday’s mitzvas here.
Jewish custom requires every family to send baskets of goodies around to neighbors and friends on Purim day. We posted about Purim baskets here. Our green Purim baskets feature home-made bread, salads, and spreads like hummus – but we can’t neglect candy. Try these easily made chocolate fruit-nut clusters, made, naturally, with fair-trade chocolate. We know you’ll like them. Our neighbors say they look forward to them every year.
Chocolate Fruit-Nut Clusters
Ingredients:
200 grams – 7 oz. bittersweet chocolate
60 grams – 2 oz. butter or margarine
300 grams – 10 oz. mixed dried fruit and nuts. Especially nice in the mix are candied citrus peels.
Melt the chocolate and butter (or margerine) in a double boiler or in the microwave. Stir gently and constantly until the mass is smooth and glossy.
Add the fruit and nut mixture to the melted chocolate. Mix thoroughly.
Spoon the mixture into small paper cupcake cups by tablespoons, or onto a sheet lined with baking paper. There will be some liquid pooling at the bottom of the pot. Spoon it up and drizzle it over the clusters, filling up any empty spaces. It’ll get hard again, so use it all up.
Freeze the clusters for 1/2 hour before serving. If making them ahead of time, keep them in the refrigerator or freezer.
Enjoy!
More Purim ideas on Green Prophet:
- Gehorabeya Cookies For Purim
- Make Your Own, Green Purim Costume
- Make Green Noise This Purim
- Purim and Building A Good Society
Author: Miriam Kresh
Miriam Kresh is an American ex-pat living in Israel. Her love of Middle Eastern food evolved from close friendships with enthusiastic Moroccan, Tunisian and Turkish home cooks. She owns too many cookbooks and is always planning the next meal. Miriam can be reached at miriam (at) greenprophet (dot) com.
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