Leftovers Alert!!!! Or wait, maybe just make this from the get-go. Truth be told, this is not entirely my recipe, but a brainchild of how not to throw out an abundant of leftovers from my recent Rosh Hashanah dinner. As a cookbook collector, and occasional practicing Jew, I have several Jewish inspired cookbooks. Most of them lead to bland recipes reminiscent of what old Jewish people used to cook, so in one hand it’s flavorless, but on the other it’s comforting because it’s what I grew up eating.
Never would I think a recipe development would come from leftover Tzimmes, but that’s what happened here. Modern Jewish Cooking – a cookbook by Leah Koenig, is one that I have in my collection. The thing I like most about this book is that it helps me write sample menus for the Jewish Holidays. Tzimmes is one that finds itself on many kitchen tables during the High Holidays, mostly due to it’s sweetness and the correlation of wishing others a “Sweet New Year”. Well, it will also probably make you poop, a lot. It’s fruit and carrots and sweet potatoes combined with sweet citrus juice, and added in dried prunes or apricots. For those goyim reading this, I get it, it probably sounds gross….and you would be right to assume it’s usually not very good. But, this recipe is actually good “as-is”, and if made following the recipe of the book, will leave you with a ton of leftovers. Leftover Tzimmes will sit in your fridge until ultimately it grows hair or you decide to throw them out……..but just wait a minute! In searching for what to make in the days following Rosh Hashanah, the “aha” moment of empanadas filled with pureed Tzimmes came to me. While this might not sound appetizing, think of it was a roasted fruit and ginger puree stuffed inside a flaky buttered crust, baked in the oven and dipped in pomegranate labneh. Doesn’t sound bad anymore huh? Well, this recipe is not bad, it’s not even close to bad, and the guilt of throwing out perfectly good leftovers won’t haunt you until next Rosh Hashanah!
Mango-Ginger Tzimmes Empanadas
Equipment
- 1 Rolling Pin
- 1 food processor (or blender)
Ingredients
Mango-Ginger Tzimmes (Recipe taken from Modern Jewish Cooking by Leah Koenig)
- 8 oz carrots peeled and cut into 1 inch pieces
- 2 pounds sweet potatoes peeled and cut into 1 inch pieces
- 1/3 cup mango juice
- 1 lime zested the zest of 1 lime
- 2 tbsp lime juice
- 1/4 cup honey
- 1 tbsp brown sugar
- 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1/2 tsp ground ginger
- 2 tsp grated ginger
- 3 tbsp crystallized ginger finely chopped
- 1/2 tsp kosher salt
- 2 ripe mangos peeled and cut into 1 inch pieces
- 1 cup pitted prunes or dried apricots chopped
Empanada Dough
- 1.5 cups all-purpose flour
- 1/2 cup corn flour or maseca
- 1 tsp kosher salt
- 6 tbsp melted butter, unsalted
- 7 ounces plain Greek yogurt
- 2-3 tbsp warm water
Instructions
Mango-Ginger Tzimmes (Recipe taken from Modern Jewish Cooking by Leah Koenig)
- Preheat over to 350. Bring a large saucepan of water to a boil over high heat. Add the carrots and sweet potatoes and cook until tender, but not completely soft, 12 to 15 minutes. Drain, rinse with cool water, and drain again.
- Meanwhile, in a large bowl, whisk together the mango juice, lime zest, lime juice, honey, brown sugar, cinnamon, ground ginger, grated ginger, crystallized ginger, and salt. Add the cooked carrots and sweet potatoes along with the mangoes and prunes/apricots, and gently toss to coat.
- Transfer the mixture to a 9×13 inch baking dish. Cover with aluminum foil and bake until tender and juicy, 25 to 30 minutes. Remove the foil, gently stir, and continue baking, uncovered, until the juices reduce slightly, 10 to 15 minutes. Remove from the oven and transfer to a bowl. Just before serving, stir to coat the tzimmes with the pan juices. Serve warm.
- That's where the Tzimmes recipe stops, so feel free to eat what you want and use the leftovers for the empanadas. OR……Go ahead and proceed with the empanadas right out of the gate. If this is the case, let the tzimmes cool after removing from the oven, and throw the entire batch into a food processor. Process on high until smooth. It's OK if there's still some chunks! This is the puree you will fill the empanadas with.
Empanada Dough
- In a large bowl, whisk together both flours and salt. Add the melted butter and mix with a fork. Add the yogurt and mix again. Add the water, 1 tablespoon at a time and using your hands, incorporate the water until a smooth ball forms. Kneed the dough making sure all ingredients are mixed well, but don't over knead.
- Grab a golf ball sized piece of the dough, and using a rolling pin, roll to about 1/4 inch thickness. You can use a circular pastry cutter, or even a flipped over mug, about 3 inches wide, to cut circles out of the dough.
- You can add the dough scraps back to the larger ball and continue to roll out discs, which will yield you about 20-25 empanada circles. As you make the circles, place them on a well floured baking pan or onto a silicon mat and cover with a damp town until all discs are rolled out.
- Once all discs have been rolled out, pick up a disc in one hand and place about 1 tbsp of pureed tzimmes in the middle. Fold the disc so that you form a half circle with the pureed tzimmes enclosed. Go ahead and pinch the ends shut, and using a fork on a flat surface, press the ends the entire way around to make a solid seal.
- Repeat with the remaining discs, and once finished, cover the tray with plastic wrap and place into your freezer. They will hold frozen here for a couple of months, however if you plan to wait to make them longer than a few days, place them into a ziploc freezer bag for long-term storage.
- Once ready to make, you have 2 options. You can bake these in an oven at 375 degrees (from frozen) for about 35 minutes. If you want to fry these, heat oil in a large heavy-bottomed pot until the oil reaches 350 degrees, and slowly add the empanadas to the pot. Do not overcrowd the pot. Keep an eye on these and remove once done to your liking.
- There is no wrong way to eat these, however I prefer these baked and the tzimmes puree is less likely to leak out and splatter as it would in the oil.
- Serve with yogurt, labneh, honey, molasses, etc. In the picture above I made pomegranate labneh by simply mixing pomegranate molasses into some labneh until getting the flavor I desired.
