Around the Shabbat Table (12 page)
Read Around the Shabbat Table Online
Authors: Jayne Cohen
yield:
ABOUT 4 SERVINGS
In both Sephardi and Italian-Jewish cooking, there is a wealth of recipes for ground meat or poultry cooked with vegetables. Most familiar, of course, are meat-stuffed vegetables, baked or braised; meat is also mounded between vegetable slices, then breaded and fried, or prepared as in this recipe, combined with chopped vegetables, formed into meatballs, fried, and then braised.
I've cooked these meatballs over braised celery root and carrots, a favorite Sephardi combination. If you can't find celery rootâor if the knotted bulb appears too dauntingâsubstitute fennel or celery, perhaps intensifying their flavors with a generous pinch of crushed fennel or celery seeds.
And instead of the green olives or
roasted red peppers
I've combined with the meat here, you can experiment with other cooked vegetables as well, such as chopped spinach, fried eggplant, or braised fennel. Adding vegetables to the meatballs both flavors and lightens them, making this method a particularly good choice when you are using ground chicken or turkey.
1 thick slice challah (about 1 inch) or good-quality white bread, crusts removed
2
1
â
2
cups chicken broth, preferably
homemade
, or good-quality, low-sodium
purchased
1 tablespoon chopped garlic, plus 2 teaspoons minced
5 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley
1 large egg
1 pound ground chicken, turkey, or beef
1 cup pitted green olives, chopped (use good-quality brine- or oil-cured), or
1
â
2
cup minced
roasted red pepper
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
1
1
â
2
pounds celery root (also called celeriac)
1 pound carrots, scraped
Olive oil, for frying
Juice of 2 lemons
1 teaspoon grated lemon zest
TEAR
the bread into 2-inch pieces and put it into a small saucepan. Add
1
â
2
cup of the broth and cook over medium heat until the bread has absorbed all the liquid. Transfer the mixture to a food processor, together with the chopped garlic, 2 tablespoons of the parsley, and the egg and then process until well combined. Put the meat in a large bowl and add the pureed bread mixture, the olives or red peppers, and salt and pepper to taste. Knead with your hands until the ingredients are thoroughly amalgamated. If you have time, refrigerate for at least 30 minutes to let the flavors blend.
PREPARE
the vegetables: peel and trim the celery root and cut it into large cubesâyou'll have 3
1
â
2
to 4 cups. (To facilitate the peeling, cut it into large pieces first, then trim and peel.) Cut the carrots into pieces roughly, the same size as the celery rootâyou'll have about 2 cups.
WETTING
your hands as needed, form the meat into walnut-size balls. Heat about
1
â
4
inch of oil in a large, heavy, deep-sided skillet or sauté pan until hot but not smoking. Add the meatballs and sauté in batches until lightly browned on all sides but not cooked through. (This is the one-pot method. If time is a problem or you don't have a deep-sided sauté pan, fry the meatballs in a regular skillet and braise the vegetables at the same time in a Dutch oven or heavy casserole.) Transfer the meatballs to a platter as they are done.
WIPE
out the skillet, add 3 tablespoons fresh oil, and heat until hot. Add the celery root and carrots and sauté over medium-high heat, in batches if necessary, until the vegetables turn golden brown at the edges. Keep lifting and turning with a spatula so the vegetables color on all sides. If you worked in batches, return all vegetables to the skillet. Add the lemon juice, remaining 2 cups broth, 2 teaspoons minced garlic, and salt and pepper to taste. Stir well, then simmer over low heat, covered, for about 10 minutes. The vegetables should be almost tender at this point.
ADD
the meatballs to the pan, and spoon the pan liquid and vegetables over them. Cover and simmer gently for 10 minutes, or until the vegetables are very tender and the meatballs are cooked through. Adjust the salt and pepper and stir in the lemon zest and the remaining 3 tablespoons parsley.
TRANSFER
the meat and vegetables to a serving platter, and ladle some of the pan juices over them. Pass the remaining pan sauce separately. (If you want a more concentrated pan sauce, reduce it for a few minutes over high heat after you have removed the meatballs and vegetables.)
Cholent
Call it
cholent, shalet, dafina, hamin, s'keena, tabit:
nearly every Jewish community in the Diaspora has come up with a version, or several, of this quintessential Jewish dish. It is a one-pot hot mealâmeats, vegetables, legumes, and/or grains are all cooked together in a casseroleâtraditionally prepared on Friday afternoon and left to simmer very slowly in the oven until the Saturday midday meal.
These casseroles were created to solve a singularly Jewish problem: how to honor the Sabbath lunch with hot foods when no fires may be kindledâor ovens litâafter sundown on Friday. (The Jewish Sabbath, like all Jewish days, begins with sunset and ends the following evening. “And there was evening and there was morning: the first day,” says Genesis 1:5.)
Because the Sabbath laws prohibit the act of cooking as well as lighting fires, observant Jews do not stir the dish, add additional ingredients or seasonings, or degrease the cholent while the Sabbath is in progress. Cooks trim as much fat as possible before cooking, or they can prepare the cholent well in advance, refrigerate it, and remove the fat before reheating. (Warming up cooked food on a previously lit fireâa stove burner or oven kept on overnightâis permissible.) Guests may season the food at the table.
But you need not restrict the cholent of Sabbath to the traditional Saturday lunch. Robust and aromatic, it is ideal cold weather comfort food. Prepare it on a blustery January or February morning when rattling winds make you long for richly caramelized, slow-cooked flavors, and let it stew all day in a gentle oven or Crockpot, steaming up the windows. You'll come home to an ineffably tantalizing fragrance and a deeply soul-satisfying meal.
Ah, the aroma. Too often it is more glorious than the taste. Because the ingredients can be rather heavy (when meats were scarce, cooks often took the kitchen sink approach, tossing in virtually everything but to fill out their cholents) and are cooked so long, traditional cholents, especially to the uninitiated, can be unpleasantly thick and tired-tasting.
SOME GUIDELINES: DELICIOUS CHOLENTS FOR CONTEMPORARY TASTES
â¢
Today there is no reason not to limit the amount and number of starches used. Beans, with rice, perhaps, or a dumpling, along with some white potatoes, is usually the most I include in a Sabbath stew.
â¢
Barley, simmered for very long periods, tends to swell up enormously, drinking up a great deal of the cooking liquid, and can become rather mushy. If you include it, go easy, adding just enough to lend a creaminess to the cholent. Or try soaking it overnight in cold water (
1
â
2
cup barley to 2 cups water) when you soak the beans, for fluffier barley.
â¢
If you are cutting down on meat, include more sturdy vegetables along with the beans. Carrots, celery root, fennel, parsley root, parsnips, and rutabagas are all good choices. They will impart their earthy, herbal flavor and, in turn, beautifully absorb the aromatic cooking juices. Roasted shallots make a wonderful addition.
â¢
Because the lengthy cooking flattens out the flavors, eliminating the complex high notes, before serving, introduce some fresh, vivacious tastes. Shower the cholent lavishly with fresh herbs or rouse it with a jolt of freshly ground black pepper or finely minced fresh garlic. Something citrusyâthe finely grated peel or a splash of juiceâwill also enliven the cholent and pull the flavors into balance, while mitigating its richness.
â¢
Yes, it is a
rich
dish. If health reasons do not permit you to indulge in a regular portion, enjoy it as an appetizer. Round out the rest of the meal with a big, tart salad and whole-grain bread like a sour rye. Chilled Crenshaw melon or other seasonal fresh fruit makes the best finish.
â¢
Cholents freeze beautifully and reheat well. Leftovers become perfect make-ahead meals. And it's easy to remove the fat from cholents prepared in advance. Remember to add a dash of fresh flavoring just before serving.
DUCK AND WHITE BEAN CHOLENT
yield:
4 TO 6 SERVINGS
This spoon-tender duck and creamy bean casserole is reminiscent of a fine cassoulet, to which it is no doubt related. European Jews wealthy enough to enrich their cholentsâthe stew that for many was the taste of Sabbath itselfâwith duck and goose found the lush flesh would remain succulent and tender even after the prolonged cooking from Friday afternoon to midday Saturday. Today, kosher
confit d'oie
(long-simmered preserved goose) is still sold in Jewish delicatessens in France for creating lavish Alsatian-style cholents.
But the lengthy, gentle braising that renders such incomparably supple meat and enchants the house with a heavenly perfume will also fade the pungent seasonings. They will need some brightening up. So just before serving, I send in a fresh infusion of flavors: brisk minced garlic, rosemary, and snappy lemon zest.
1
1
â
2
cups dried white beans (about 12 ounces) such as cannellini or great Northern, washed, picked over, soaked overnight in cold water to cover by at least 2 inches, and drained
One 4
1
â
2
- to 5
1
â
2
-pound fresh duck (or, if unavailable, thawed frozen), cut into eighths, wingtips, tailbone, and neck removed
1 tablespoon olive oil
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 cup chopped shallots
8 large garlic cloves, coarsely chopped
1 cup dry red wine
10 to 12 pitted prunes, quartered
4 large waxy potatoes, peeled and cut into quarters, or 6 medium, halved
2 tablespoons chopped fresh rosemary leaves
1 tablespoon chopped fresh sage
2 teaspoons grated orange zest
About 6 cups chicken broth, preferably
homemade
, or good-quality, low-sodium
purchased
FOR THE LEMON-GARLIC GARNISH
2 to 3 teaspoons grated lemon zest
2 teaspoons minced or pressed garlic
1 tablespoon finely chopped fresh rosemary leaves
2 tablespoons finely chopped fresh parsley, preferably flat-leaf
1
â
2
teaspoon salt
PLACE
the beans in a very large (7- to 8-quart) Dutch oven or heavy flameproof casserole in which you will be cooking the cholent.
RESERVE
the duck liver and giblets for another use. Pull off and discard as much excess fat as possible (or save for renderingâsee
Poultry Schmaltz
). Rinse the duck pieces and thoroughly dry with paper towels.
HEAT
the oil in a 10- to 12-inch heavy skillet (cast-iron is ideal), until very hot but not smoking. Working in batches, add the duck and brown on both sides over medium-high heat, beginning skin side down. Transfer the duck as it is browned to the Dutch oven or casserole. Let the browned duck rest until cool enough to handle, then remove the skin from each piece. If your cholesterol permits, return the skin to the skillet and fry over moderately high heat until crisp on both sides, to render out as much fat as possible (it will be a delicious flavoring for the cholent). Cut the skin into small bits and add to the Dutch oven or casserole. Sprinkle the skin and the duck pieces all over with salt and pepper. (If you choose not to crisp the skin, simply discard it.)
REMOVE
all but 1 tablespoon of the fat remaining in the skillet and discard or reserve it for another use. Add the shallots and sauté over medium heat until softened, about 5 minutes. Add the garlic and continue cooking for 3 minutes, or until golden. Transfer the mixture to the Dutch oven.