I suspect that the custom of eating turkey on Purim to commemorate King Ahashverosh’s reign (Mi Hodu Ve’ad Kush) as well as his limited intelligence (a turkey brain) is based on a mistaken word play. In modern Hebrew the bird is called a Tarnegol Hodu, literally an Indian chicken referring to the now outmoded name for the Native Americans who introduced the turkey to the Pilgrim fathers.

Nonetheless a turkey is a lovely thing. I’m not referring to those horrible Thanksgiving monsters but rather to red meat turkey which here in Israel is known as Basar Adom. (don’t even try to ask what Basar Lavan is)

Anyway with Purim in the air, I prepared a turkey roast. It’s easy and healthy, high in vitamin B and low in fat. A great choice for a seuda or a weekday meal

Turkey Roast

Saute 1-2 onions and garlic in 2 tablespoons of oil (or if someone is dieting cut the oil in half and use olive oil spray, non combustible and one of my food faves)

Add the turkey and brown.

Season with 2 tablespoons of poultry spice or an equivalent combination of cumin, curry powder and paprika.

Add 2 tablespoons of teriyaki sauce and a cup and a half of water to create gravy and cook until on a low flame until soft (about an hour and a half)check periodically to see that the water doesn’t cook out.

Yum and freezes well

Along with this I’d serve a traditional Spanish pasta dish called Kaveyos di Haman (Haman’s Hair)

It’s amazing how many edible body parts this man had!

His ears, his feet, his eyeballs (yes there’s a custom to bake a Hallah in the form of Haman’s head and then gouge out the eyeballs)

Kaveyos di Haman represents his hair on a bad hair day, but don’t let that put you off.

It’s quite easy to make and tasty too,

Boil one bag of vermicelli (it calls for Fidello, traditional Sephardic coiled noodles, but my source for this recipe, Gil Mark’s ever useful Encyclopedia of Jewish Cooking says that vermicelli or angel hair pasta will do the trick)

I used rice vermicelli which cooks after one minute’s immersion in boiling water and needs to be drained but not washed

Dress with olive oil, lemon juice, salt pepper. I added a bit of chopped cilantro. Parsley should work equally well.

Enjoy. Also freezes well.

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