The Shabbat Table: Different ways to make cholent

Cholent
Cholent

The Shabbat Table is the latest CJN column from noted chef and food blogger Norene Gilletz. Click here for last week’s recipes.


Good Shabbos, Shabbat Shalom! I’m writing this week’s blog from beautiful, sunny Sedona, AZ and am in a bit of a southwest mode. I’ve been eating lots of beans, greens, avocados, and salsa-based dishes so I thought it would be a nice twist to bring a little additional heat to Shabbat – especially since there’s supposed to be a snowstorm to welcome me back home to Toronto!

This scrumptious chicken dish is ideal for busy cooks who are rushed for time and need a quick-to-assemble healthy Shabbat dinner. I’ve also offered up a slow-cooker version which makes a delicious lunch for Shabbat – Mexican-style cholent!

Slow-Cooker Shabbat Tip: Just assemble everything in the crockpot up to 24 hours in advance, cover and refrigerate it. Don’t cook it ahead of time. Just transfer the insert to the slow cooker and turn it on to the low setting just before lighting your Shabbos candles. It makes for a perfect Shabbos lunch, especially when served with guacamole, tortilla chips, salsa, and assorted veggies for dipping!


SAUCY MEXICAN CHICKEN, TWO WAYS

Adapted from Healthy Helpings (formerly titled MealLeaniYumm!)

Fast, fabulous and healthy! My long-time friend, Phyllis Levy, makes this using fresh pineapple, but canned pineapple is convenient when you’re pressed for time.

6 boneless skinless chicken breasts, trimmed and cut into 1-inch chunks
(or 12 boneless skinless chicken thighs)

2 1/2 cups chunky salsa (mild, medium or hot)

1 can (19 oz/540 ml) kidney or black beans

14 oz (398 ml) can pineapple chunks, drained (see note below)

2 tsp Dijon mustard

5 to 6 drops hot sauce, if desired

2 to 3 cloves garlic, minced

3 Tbsp fresh lemon juice

Sweetener to equal 1 Tbsp sugar (see Note below)

1 can (12 oz/341 ml) corn niblets, drained

1. Combine all ingredients except corn in a large bowl; mix well. Cover and marinate in the refrigerator for 1 hour.

2. Transfer to a large skillet and heat on medium, until bubbling.

3. Reduce heat and simmer uncovered for 25 minutes, stirring occasionally, until sauce has reduced and is thickened.

4. Add corn and cook 5 minutes longer, until piping hot. Serve over rice.

Yield: 6 servings. Reheats and/or freezes well.


SAUCY MEXICAN CHICKEN, CHOLENT-STYLE

1. Follow recipe above, but combine all ingredients in the insert of a slow cooker instead of a bowl. Cover and refrigerate up to 24 hours.

2. Place insert in slow cooker and cook on low for 8 to 10 hours or overnight.

3. Spoon over rice.


If you prefer a more traditional cholent, check out Tori Avey’s excellent website for some excellent recipes. Chamin is a Sephardic stew made for Shabbat and Cholent is a similar dish that is Ashkenazi. Both dishes evolved for the same reason – to avoid cooking during the hours of Shabbat – and have the same basic ingredients. However, they are spiced and prepared differently, so each stew has its own distinct flavour – but both are delicious!

Tori Avey’s family’s cholent recipe is a reflection of the heritage of her Israeli husband’s parents, his mother’s Middle Eastern Sephardic cuisine and the Russian Ashkenazi cuisine of his dad, so she blended the two and created “Ashkephardic Cholent.”

The dish uses the basic ingredients of an Ashkenazi cholent – meat, beans, potatoes, and barley – but Avey also adds in Sephardic and Moroccan spices for flavour. She also adds whole uncooked eggs in the shell to the pot, another Sephardic custom. The eggs slowly cook in the broth, soaking up the flavour and turning a lovely brown colour. She sometimes uses chickpeas, which is used in Moroccan dafina. Other times, she uses a combination of kidney, pinto, and lima beans, which are more often used in Ashkenazi cholent. It all depends on what they have in the pantry on Friday morning. She uses red potatoes because their starch content is lower, so they won’t dissolve during the long slow-cooking process. For a lighter version, Tori sometimes omits the barley, letting the potatoes take centre stage.

Note: Cholent cooks overnight, so the traditional way is to start the cooking on Friday before sundown so that the pot is in the oven before Shabbos begins. Enjoy!


TORI AVEY’S “ASHKEPHARDIC” CHOLENT

1 cup dried beans (lima, pinto, kidney, chickpeas, or a mixture)

3 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil

2 1/2 lbs beef stew meat, cut into chunks

2 onions, chopped

2 marrow bones

6 raw eggs (optional)

2 1/2 lbs large red potatoes, peeled and halved

2-4 tsp kosher salt

1 1/2 tsp paprika

1 1/2 tsp turmeric

1 tsp cumin

2 garlic cloves (optional)

1/2 tsp black pepper

1/2 cup pearl barley (optional)

1. Do-Ahead: In the morning, place beans in a bowl and cover with 3 inches of cold water. Let beans soak all day until you are ready to cook the cholent. Drain and rinse.

2. Heat oil over medium in a large heavy-bottomed pot or Dutch oven. Rinse meat, pat dry and then add it to the pot. Brown meat on all sides.

3. Remove meat from the pot, but leave the fat in. Sauté onions in the fat until brown and caramelized. Add meat back into the pot and stir. Add soaked beans and stir again.

4. Place marrow bones on top of meat, marrow side up. Rinse eggs, then nestle them within the meat, evenly spaced. Put a layer of potatoes on top of the meat.

5. Cover all ingredients with water and bring to a slow boil. Skim the foam that rises to the top.

6. Add seasonings to the pot and stir the water gently (do not agitate the layers of potato, meat, and beans – just stir enough to disperse the spices in the liquid). If adding barley, sprinkle it evenly on top of the broth; it will trickle down and settle amid the other ingredients.

7. Let the mixture simmer slowly. While it’s cooking, preheat the oven to 200 F.

8. After 15 minutes, taste the broth and add additional kosher salt and pepper, if desired. (Add kosher salt carefully, there’s nothing worse than over-salted cholent!)

9. Cover the pot tightly and place it in the oven. Let cholent cook overnight for 12 to 15 hours. The cholent is done when the potatoes have turned dark brown and the liquid has reduced by about half. Check the cholent periodically to make sure it’s not becoming too dry; don’t let the liquid reduce by more than half. Serve each portion of cholent with meat, potatoes, and an egg, if desired.

Makes 8 servings