1,000 Jewish Recipes (145 page)
Read 1,000 Jewish Recipes Online
Authors: Faye Levy
5.
Gently put apricots and their soaking liquid in a saucepan. Add remaining 2 tablespoons honey and enough water to barely cover fruit. Very gently stir over low heat until honey blends in to liquid. Cover and cook over low heat about 20 minutes or until apricots are tender.
6.
Spoon 2 to 3 tablespoons of pan juices into a medium skillet. Add reserved refrigerated stuffing and cook over medium-low heat, stirring gently with a fork, about 5 minutes or until hot. Spoon into a serving dish.
7.
To serve hens, add stuffing from hens to serving dish with extra stuffing. Serve hens whole or, if you like, divide them by cutting each in half lengthwise with poultry shears. Garnish with poached apricots.
1
â
2
to 4 cups, enough for 1 chicken or 4 Cornish hens
A stuffing with fruit and nuts turns an ordinary chicken dinner into a celebration. Use this vibrant melange to stuff Cornish hens or a chicken. I also like it in acorn squash or zucchini, or as a side dish instead of as a stuffing. For meatless meals I make it with vegetable stock instead of chicken stock.
1
â
4
cup vegetable oil
1
â
4
cup chopped green onions
1
1
â
2
cups orzo or riso (rice-shaped pasta), about 12 ounces
1
â
2
cup diced dried apricots
3 cups hot chicken stock
1 teaspoon ground ginger
2
â
3
cup toasted cashews
1
â
3
cup chopped fresh parsley
Salt (optional) and freshly ground pepper, to taste
1.
Heat oil in a medium saucepan. Add green onions and sauté over medium heat, stirring, 1 minute. Add orzo and cook over low heat, stirring, 3 minutes. Scatter diced apricots on top. Add stock and ginger and bring to a boil. Cover and cook over low heat about 14 minutes or until orzo is just tender.
2.
Fluff mixture with a fork to break up any lumps in orzo. Add cashews and parsley and toss mixture to combine. Season with salt, if using, and pepper. Let stuffing cool before spooning into poultry.
CHOLENTS
There are many variations to this hearty Ashkenazic style
cholent
(slow-cooking meat stew). Smoked beef or salami are favorites of Hungarian cooks, in addition to the fresh beef, to lend flavor to the beans. Any long-cooking cut of beef is good: Brisket, short ribs, flanken, chuck, or stew meat. If the meat is boneless, many cooks add a few marrow bones or other beef bones for extra richness.
Dried lima beans or other large white beans are most popular, although many favor a mixture of beans. Potatoes and a cup or two of barley are often included. Some cooks, especially those of Polish or Russian extraction, add kasha (buckwheat groats) instead of barley. If you're adding kasha, use the largest size grain.
Onions are the most popular flavoring and sometimes are sautéed in schmaltz (chicken fat) before being put in the pot. Many cooks add a few garlic cloves also. Spicing is generally simpleâsalt, pepper, and, in the case of cooks from Hungary, good quality Hungarian paprika. You can use sweet or hot paprika, or a little of each.
More elaborate versions of
cholent
include a kneidel, a savory kugel made of challah or flour; a stuffed kishke; or a stuffed chicken or goose neck.
1 pound dried lima beans, Great Northern beans, or other white beans
2 large onions, cut into large cubes
2 tablespoons vegetable oil or chicken fat (optional)
3 pounds beef brisket
2 teaspoons salt
1
â
2
teaspoon freshly ground pepper
1 tablespoon sweet paprika
1
â
2
teaspoon hot paprika or cayenne pepper, or to taste (optional)
8 boiling potatoes, peeled and quartered
4 large cloves garlic, coarsely chopped (optional)
1.
The night before you will make the cholent, sort through and rinse the beans. Put them in a bowl and cover generously with water. Soak overnight in the refrigerator.
2.
Preheat oven to 200°F (or lowest number setting that isn't "keep warm"). If you want to sauté the onions, heat oil or chicken fat in a large, heavy stew pan or Dutch oven. Add onions and sauté over medium-high heat about 5 minutes or until onions begin to turn golden. Remove from heat. Transfer onions to a plate.
3.
Trim excess fat from beef. Place beef in stew pan. Season on both sides with salt, pepper, and sweet and hot paprika if using.
4.
Drain soaked beans and add to stew pan. Add potatoes, onions, and garlic, if using. Add about 2 quarts water, or enough to cover ingredients by about 2 inches. Bring to a boil. Simmer uncovered over low heat for 20 minutes.
5.
Cover tightly and transfer to oven. Bake cholent, without stirring, about 10 hours or overnight.
Hamin
is the Hebrew word for
cholent
, the meat stew that cooks slowly overnight for Shabbat and is made by Jews throughout the world. This version is spiced the way my mother-in-law taught me, with garlic, cumin, and turmeric. The long cooking with the spices gives the beef, beans, and potatoes a wonderful flavor.
The custom of putting eggs in their shells on top of the
hamin
so the eggs become brown and creamy inside is popular among Sephardic Jews. The eggs are absolutely delicious.
In some homes 1 or 1
1
â
2
cups of whole wheat berries are added to the
hamin.
Either they are mixed with the other ingredients or put in a separate bag or cheesecloth so they stay together and steam in the stew's juices. You can find them at natural foods stores and Middle Eastern grocery stores.
The traditional way to cook
hamin
is to put it in a low oven or on a heating plate set on low just before sundown on Friday and to leave it until it is served on Saturday for an early lunch. Since sundown's time changes from summer to winter, the stew's cooking time varies also.
Because of the long cooking time, most cooks start with a generous amount of water to be sure the
hamin
doesn't burn. Depending on the pot that is used, more or less water will evaporate. On Shabbat, cooks do not add more water and do not boil the liquid to thicken it. If the stew turns out too soupy, they simply begin with less water the next time.
2
1
â
2
pounds beef chuck
2 cups dried medium lima beans or other white beans, picked over and rinsed
8 small boiling potatoes, peeled
2 large onions, cut into thick slices
8 cloves garlic, coarsely chopped
2 teaspoons salt
1
â
2
teaspoon freshly ground pepper
2 tablespoons ground cumin
4 teaspoons ground turmeric
8 large eggs in shells, rinsed
1.
Preheat oven to 200°F (or lowest number setting that isn't "keep warm"). Trim excess fat from beef and cut meat into 2-inch pieces.
2.
Combine meat, beans, potatoes, onions, and garlic in a large, heavy stew pan or Dutch oven. Sprinkle with salt, pepper, cumin, and turmeric; mix well. Add 2 quarts water. Bring to a boil. Simmer uncovered for 20 minutes. Remove from heat. Set eggs gently on top and push them slightly into liquid.
3.
Cover tightly and bake mixture, without stirring, about 10 hours or overnight. If you wish to cook it faster, bake it at 250°F for 5 hours.
4.
Shell and halve eggs. Serve stew from the stew pan or a deep serving dish, garnished with eggs.
When I first ate chicken
cholent,
I thought it was a recent development because of the interest in eating lighter food. However, I learned that chicken
cholent
has been a tradition for many years in some families. Actually, this makes perfect sense. The custom is to save the best food for the Shabbat dinner to make it festive. Since meat was expensive and therefore a rare luxury, it was used when people could get it. Sometimes poultry was available rather than meat and so chicken or goose was used.
This
cholent
follows the Sephardic fashion in the spicing and use of chickpeas. Some people soak the chickpeas but I find it is not necessary. The dark meat of turkey is also very good when prepared this way.
4 pounds chicken quarters (legs with thighs attached), excess fat removed
1 teaspoon paprika
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1
â
2
teaspoon ground coriander
1
â
2
teaspoon ground allspice
1
â
2
teaspoon freshly ground pepper
3 cups dried chickpeas (garbanzo beans), sorted and rinsed
1
1
â
2
pounds boiling potatoes, peeled and halved if large
1 cup wheat berries (available at natural foods shops), rinsed
1 large onion, cut into thick slices
8 large cloves garlic, coarsely chopped
1
â
2
teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon tomato paste
1
â
4
cup water
6 to 8 large eggs in shells, rinsed
1.
Preheat oven to 200°F (or lowest number setting that isn't "keep warm"). Remove chicken skin, if you like. Put chicken in a large stew pan or Dutch oven. Mix paprika, cumin, coriander, allspice, and pepper in a small bowl. Sprinkle spices over chicken on all sides.
2.
Add chickpeas and potatoes to casserole. Add wheat berries, onion, and garlic. Sprinkle with salt. Add enough water to cover ingredients by 2 inches. Mix tomato paste with
1
â
4
cup water until smooth. Add to casserole. Bring to a boil. Cover and cook over very low heat 30 to 45 minutes. Set eggs gently on top of stew and push them slightly into liquid.