Fatima's fingers - a sort of lucky dip

"The name "Fatima's Little Fingers" was derived from hamsa or khamsa, which is a palm-shaped amulet common in the Middle East. The amulet is said to represent the hand (or five fingers) of Muhammad's daughter Fatima Zahra, Islamic equivalent to the Virgin Mary." Taste and Flavors

I don't have much time and am not feeling very inspired so I am doing a sort of lucky dip. So this will be a quickie.

Sitting on my desk waiting for me to do a post on it, is one of my Christmas present books - New Feast by Greg and Lucy Malouf. And I will do a proper post on it. So I thought I would just pick a page at random from it and I came up with this. No it's not filo pastry, he rather unconventionally for a Middle-Eastern chef, proposes using spring roll wrappers because they, "hold up better to deep frying."

The hamsa is an amulet - a sort of good luck charm - this is an example but they come in all shapes and sizes. And it's design goes back to cave paintings, so I read. But surely that just means those stencilled hands that you see everywhere in prehistoric caves around the world. To me these just say 'I was here', but I guess it can be seen as something to ward off evil.

"The five fingers represents the 5 pillars of Islam but is mainly a symbol used for protection and used as defence to ward of the Evil eye .The "evil eye" is a curse believed to be cast by a evil glare, which is usually directed towards a person who is unaware. Many are the cultures who believe that receiving the "evil eye" will cause one misfortune, bad luck, ill health, injury or even death. And the saying goes that if your Fatima Hand amulet bears a crack, it means it has been protecting the wearer from very bad luck." Tibu

And I do note that in the photograph of Greg Malouf's Fatima's fingers the lefthand cup does indeed have five in it. But then the other one only has four - well one has been broken and is lying on the table. Coincidence or deliberate?

Anyway - there are several recipes for Fatima's fingers on the web including Greg Malouf's. I guess the basic idea of creating a stuffing and rolling it in the spring roll wrappers before frying is common to them all (and lots of other dishes too - indeed Malouf does say that they are sometimes called cigars) but the filling is not. Even Greg Malouf suggests that you should experiment with different cheeses and fresh herbs. His version has goat's cheese, lemon, tarragon and thyme. It sounds very simple. He gives clear instructions as to how to roll them up which is the only complicated thing about it. Quick, simple, easy - yes this is proper simple food and properly delicious by the sound of things, if not particularly healthy. I shall try it sometime soon.

They seem to be a particularly Tunisian thing.