1,000 Jewish Recipes (146 page)
Read 1,000 Jewish Recipes Online
Authors: Faye Levy
3.
Cover tightly and bake mixture, without stirring, overnight. Serve hot.
My mother has lived in Jerusalem for many years. Like many cooks in Israel, over time her way of making
cholent
has changed to a hybrid of Ashkenazic and Sephardic styles. Sometimes she adds a touch of cumin to the basic Ashkenazic seasoning mixture of salt, pepper, and paprika. She has also adopted the Sephardic custom of putting eggs on top so they brown "because Israelis like it that way."
To make good
cholent,
she feels it's important to include both white and brown beans and barley. Generally she makes her
cholent
with chicken but occasionally she uses beef. Often she browns the onion so it will add more flavor.
When I asked her if you could cook the
cholent
ahead for 2 or 3 hours or until everything is tender, refrigerate it, and reheat it in a low oven, she answered, "Why would you want to do that?
Cholent
tastes much better when it cooks very slowly all night."
If you like, remove the skin from the chicken before cooking the
cholent.
The chicken will stay moist because of all the liquid in the pot. However, leaving the skin on and removing it before serving will give you a richer tasting
cholent
because some of the fat from the chicken skin will blend in.
4 pounds chicken pieces, excess fat removed
1 to 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
2 large onions, cut into thick slices
1 teaspoon paprika
1
â
2
teaspoon ground cumin (optional)
1
â
4
teaspoon freshly ground pepper
3
â
4
cup navy beans or other white beans, sorted and rinsed
3
â
4
cup brown beans or red kidney beans, sorted and rinsed
1 cup barley, sorted and rinsed
6 to 8 fairly small boiling potatoes
1
â
2
teaspoon salt
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. Heat oil in a large stew pan or Dutch oven. Add onions and sauté over medium-high heat, stirring often, about 5 minutes until onions begin to brown; they don't need to soften. Remove from heat. Add chicken to stew pan or Dutch oven and sprinkle with paprika, cumin if using, and pepper. Mix well.
2.
Add the beans and barley to the casserole. Peel potatoes, if you like. Add to pan and sprinkle with salt. Add enough water to cover ingredients by 2 inches. Bring to a boil. Cover and cook over very low heat 20 to 30 minutes. Set eggs gently on top of stew and push them slightly into liquid.
3.
Cover tightly and bake mixture, without stirring, overnight. Serve hot.
My husband's sister-in-law Nirit Levy adds a whole head of garlic to her pot of
hamin,
or
cholent
. The flavor of the garlic slowly infuses into the
hamin
. The garlic cloves become meltingly tender and taste very good. There is no need to peel the garlic; you simply squeeze the skin and the garlic comes out.
Nirit follows the Sephardic custom of using a mixture of beans and chickpeas in her
hamin
. She also adds barley and arranges it and each kind of bean in a separate section of the pot for easy serving. She prefers bone-in skinless chicken thighs and for seasoning, she likes our mother-in-law's mixture of cumin, turmeric, and black pepper.
An important element in
cholent
is the water. There is always a lot of discussion regarding how much to add. You can't let the
cholent
dry but you don't want it to be too soupy either. How much evaporates depends on the shape of the pot used, how tight the lid is, how low the heat is, and even the age of the beans. Nirit soaks the beans and barley overnight and cooks them for 5 minutes before putting them in the
cholent
pot. This eliminates much of the guesswork because the beans and barley have already absorbed most of the water they need.
1 pound dried white beans such as Great Northern (about 2
1
â
4
cups), sorted and rinsed
1 cup dried chickpeas (garbanzo beans), sorted and rinsed
1
â
2
cup pearl barley, sorted and rinsed
2 pounds small boiling potatoes, peeled
1 large onion, quartered
1 large head of garlic
4
1
â
2
to 5 pounds chicken thighs, skin removed
1 teaspoon salt
1
â
2
teaspoon freshly ground pepper
2 tablespoons ground cumin
4 teaspoons ground turmeric
8 to 10 large eggs in shells, rinsed
1.
The night before you make the hamin, put the beans, chickpeas, and barley in separate bowls and cover generously with water. Soak them overnight in the refrigerator.
2.
The next day, drain white beans. Put them in a saucepan, cover with water, and bring to a boil. Simmer 5 minutes. Drain and rinse. Repeat with chickpeas and barley.
3.
Preheat oven to 200°F (or lowest number setting that isn't "keep warm"). Spoon white beans, chickpeas, and barley in separate piles into a very large stew pan or casserole. Add potatoes, onion, garlic, and chicken. Sprinkle with salt, pepper, cumin, and turmeric. Add 2 quarts water or enough to just cover the ingredients. Bring to a boil. Cover and cook over very low heat 20 minutes. Set eggs gently on top of stew and push them slightly into liquid.
4.
Cover tightly and bake mixture, without stirring, 10 hours or overnight. Serve hot.
A meatless or vegetarian
cholent
is a popular item for serving at synagogue lunches following the Shabbat morning service. There are several practical reasons for this. Not everyone will eat meat but almost all will be glad to have a taste of
cholent
. Often the kitchen at the synagogue has utensils and equipment for serving dairy or pareve food but not meat.
When I was discussing vegetarian
cholent
with a cook who prepared it every week for a synagogue, he mentioned that he had trouble making it come out brown. I suggested browning the onions and adding soy sauce. He tried it and was pleased with the result.
Pareve Cholent can be just as tasty as one made with meat. When I was at a festive synagogue lunch after a bar mitzvah, the Iranian caterer prepared three vegetarian
cholents:
one made with rice, tomatoes, and whole baby carrots; one with large chunks of sweet potatoes, sautéed onions, and whole-wheat berries; and one with chickpeas, plenty of garlic, and curry-like seasonings. All tasted great and together they were a good demonstration of the many possibilities of vegetarian
cholent
.
If you like, you can add textured vegetable protein, which is available dry at natural foods stores. It comes in several sizes; choose one that is in
1
â
2
- to 1-inch cubes that resemble pieces of meat.
3 to 4 tablespoons olive oil or vegetable oil
3 large onions, sliced thick
8 large cloves garlic, coarsely chopped
One 28-ounce can diced tomatoes, with their juice
1 teaspoon dried thyme
1 teaspoon dried oregano
3
â
4
cup dried white beans such as Great Northern, sorted and rinsed
3
â
4
cup dried pinto beans, sorted and rinsed
3
â
4
cup dried chickpeas (garbanzo beans), sorted and rinsed
1 cup dry chunks of textured vegetable protein (optional)
4 large carrots, cut into 3-inch pieces
1 pound large mushrooms, halved
1 pound large boiling potatoes, peeled and quartered
3 tablespoons soy sauce
1 teaspoon sugar
Salt and freshly ground pepper, to taste
6 to 8 large eggs in shells (optional), rinsed
1.
Preheat oven to 200°F (or lowest number setting that isn't "keep warm"). Heat oil in a large stew pan or Dutch oven. Add onions and sauté over medium-high heat, stirring often, about 7 minutes or until onions begin to turn golden; there is no need for them to soften. Stir in garlic, followed by tomatoes, thyme, and oregano. Add beans, textured vegetable protein if using, carrots, mushrooms, potatoes, soy sauce, sugar, salt, and pepper.
2.
Add enough water to cover ingredients by 2 inches. Bring to a boil. Cover and cook over very low heat 20 minutes. Set eggs, if using, on top and push them gently into liquid. Cover and bake in low oven overnight. Serve hot.
 or
Â
A popular addition to Ashkenazic style
cholent
is a
kneidel
, or dumpling. You can add it as small balls like for matzo ball soup, but instead many cooks add it as one large ball and slice it for serving. As it cooks gently all night, it absorbs flavor from the meat and
cholent
seasonings. Matzo meal
kneidel
is the most popular but some cooks use cracker meal or flour instead. Hungarian cooks season it with paprika.
Add the
kneidel
when you bring
cholent
to a simmer.