Seasonal pantry: Make lamb strudel for your Twelfth Night feast

The Christmas season comes to its quiet close this weekend with Twelfth Night on Friday, also known as Epiphany, King's Day and Little Christmas, and Russian Christmas on Saturday. Friday also kicks off Mardi Gras season in New Orleans, with the first parades and King's Cakes for sale in every grocery store and bakery.

Celebrations at this time of year have pagan roots, as so many Christian holidays do. In its religious context, Jan. 6 commemorates the day the magi - the three wise men, the three kings - arrived at the creche, guided by the Star of Bethlehem. It is the moment they saw the Christ child, hence “epiphany,” a moment of profound insight. Their gifts were the first Christmas presents. But in earlier times, festivals celebrated the return of light, as the lengthening of the days after the winter solstice are visible by this time.

Many cultures still celebrate Twelfth Night with an exchange of gifts, and here and there in the United States you find people doing the same. It makes Christmas Day itself less of burden, as you can simply enjoy the cold dark days, decorations and parties without having to shop amidst massive crowds.

Most Twelfth Night food traditions have vanished or are interesting today more as curiosities than as something we may actually put on our tables. Only the King's Cake and the Buche de Noel have survived, though the latter is today typically enjoyed on Christmas Day.

In Ireland, “Little Christmas” is celebrated with scones and other baked goods, though Spiced Beef, a traditional dish on St. Stephen's Day (Dec. 26) is sometimes on the table, too. In Russia, Twelfth Night is Christmas Eve, when a vegetarian meal must be served.

You needn't be Christian to celebrate this time of year, of course.

It is enough that days are now growing visibly longer as the Earth tilts on its axis, with a few minutes more light each day promising that soon it will be spring. Happy Epiphany.

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This strudel, with its lamb and rosemary, suggests spring, but it's warming enough to enjoy on a cold winter's night. It is also festive enough for a Twelfth Night Feast, with the right accompaniments.

Begin with a soup of winter squash or a steamed artichoke (there's a nice bumper crop right now) with mustard cream. Serve the strudel on a bed of fresh greens, and add steamed or roasted carrots season with cumin, lemon, garlic and olive oil alongside. For dessert, go simple with a big bowl of tangerines, or be ambitious and make a King's Cake.

You'll find a recipe for King's Cake at “Eat This Now” at pantry.blogs.pressdemocrat.com, along with suggestions on where you might be able to purchase one. To drink? Sparkling wine to echo the starry night sky or a suave pinot noir to flatter the lamb.

Lamb Strudel

Serves 6 to 8

For the dough:

1 cup sweet butter

1 cup cream cheese (preferably old-fashioned style)

21/2 cups flour

1 teaspoon kosher salt

1/4 cup cream

For the filling:

2-3 tablespoons lard or olive oil

2 medium leeks, white and pale green parts only, thoroughly washed and cut into small rounds

3 garlic cloves, minced

- Kosher salt

21/2 pounds lamb, diced

8-10 ounces new potatoes, cut into small dice

1/2 cup white wine

3/4 cup meat stock or broth

3/4 cup pitted green olives, cut into thin rounds

- Black pepper in a mill

1 teaspoon rosemary needles, minced

3 tablespoons chopped fresh Italian parsley

- Juice of 1/2 lemon

12 ounces grated cheese (such as Bellwether Farms Carmody or Pepato, St. George, or Vella Dry Jack)

1 egg white, mixed with 1 tablespoon of water

- Coarse salt, such as Maldon's

To make the dough, combine the butter and cheese in a large bowl and mix vigorously until smooth and creamy. Combine the flour and salt in a bowl, mix with a fork and gradually add to the butter mixture.

Add the cream, mix well and chill for at least one hour.

To make the filling, put the lard or olive oil into a sauté pan set over medium-low heat, add the leeks, and sauté for 15 or 20 minutes, until very tender. Do not let the leeks brown.

Add the garlic, season with salt, and add the lamb. Sauté, stirring every few minutes, until the lamb is lightly browned all over.

Add the potatoes and season again with salt.

Add the wine and stock, cover the pan, and cook for 15 minutes.

Uncover the pan, increase the heat to high, and cook until the liquid is nearly completely evaporated. Add the olives, several turns of black pepper, the herbs, and the lemon juice.

Taste, correct for salt, and remove from the heat.

Let the mixture cool to room temperature.

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.

Remove the dough from the refrigerator and lightly flour a clean work surface. Roll out the dough to form a rectangle 10-by-12-inches.

Spread the cheese down the center of the dough and spoon the lamb mixture on top. Fold the pastry over to form a long cylinder, brush the edges with the egg white, and press with a fork to seal tightly.

Brush the top of the pastry with egg white, sprinkle lightly with coarse salt over the top, and then cut crosswise slashes, every 2 inches, in the pastry, being careful not to cut too deeply.

Set the strudel on a baking sheet, put the sheet on the middle rack of the oven and bake for 20 to 25 minutes, until the pastry is golden brown.

Remove from the oven, cool for 15 to 20 minutes, cut into crosswise slices and serve right away.

Michele Anna Jordan is author of the new “Good Cook's” series. Email her at michele @micheleannajordan.com and visit her blog at pantry.blogs.pressdemocrat.com.