Cholent (M) perfect for Passover

Cholent (M)
For Passover
Serves: 6 (with leftovers)

• 1 lb. white beans
• 3/4 cup oil, divided
• 2 cups rice 4 onions, chopped
• 1/2 lb. mutton with a little fat, chopped thin
• salt, freshly ground black pepper
• 1/2 loaf bread or challah
• 2 eggs
• 1 cup fresh parsley or coriander, chopped, divided
• flour 1 onion, sliced
• 1-1/2 - 2 lbs. beef (1 piece or cut into 6 big pieces)
• 6 eggs
• 6 pieces beef marrow bones
• 6 kishkes (stuffed intestines), bought or homemade according to recipe below
• 6 medium potatoes, peeled
• 1 whole unpeeled onion

To make the kishkes: thin intestines, scrubbed clean

• 1/2 cup schmaltz
• 1 onion, chopped
• salt, freshly ground black pepper
• 1 potato, peeled and boiled
• 1/2 cup flour

Begin on the night before - soak the beans in lots of water and leave for the night. Next morning drain and wash the beans.

Heat 1/3 cup oil in a large skillet and fry the onions until golden. Add mutton and fry a few minutes. Add salt and pepper to taste and divide between two bowls. Add 1/2 cup of parsley or coriander to each bowl.

Make the bread patties: Soak bread in water and squeeze dry. Add to one mutton bowl with 2 eggs and, season with salt and pepper and mix well. If the mixture is too moist, add a little flour. Chill for an hour, form 6 patties and fry in a little oil until golden-brown.

Make the rice bag: Prepare a sheet of cotton cloth about 16"x16".

Wash the rice, and add to the second bowl of mutton mixture. Season with salt and pepper. Mound the rice mixture in the middle of the cloth, gather the edges and tie securely with twine. Loop the twine several time around the "neck" of the bag. Important: Leave about 2 fingers free above the rice mound to let the rice expand.

Make the kishkes: Wash the intestines and tie off one end. Roll them open like a turned-in sock. Melt schmaltz and fry the onion until brown. Remove from heat, add potato and mash. Add flour to form a fairly hard mixture, and season to taste.

Stuff the intestines, packing tight the stuffing and rolling the edges back up. Tie off the other end and in 5 more places to make 6 "sausages". Prick with a needle in several places.

Assembly: Heat 1/3 cup oil in a big heavy pot and fry the onion until transparent. Add the beans, some salt and pepper to taste and mix.

Place the meat and bones over the beans, and put the rice bag and kishkes over the meat.

Arrange the bread patties, eggs and potatoes. Add an unpeeled onion with brown skin, it adds color to the cholent. Sprinkle salt and pepper.

Up to this point everything can be prepared ahead.

Hungarian Sole't - Cholent

Hungarian Sole't - Cholent
Source: Adapted from "Old Jewish Dishes" and "Flavours of Hungary," published by the Hungarian Tourist Board
Serves: 4 to 6

Cholent:

• 500g (1 pound) red or white beans
• 1 onion, chopped
• 2 or 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 cup barley
• 1 carrot, sliced
• Goose breast or 2 goose legs
• 2 tbsp. good quality Hungarian sweet paprika
• Pinch Hungarian hot paprika or hot pepper (optional)
• 1/4 tsp. ground black pepper
• Salt, to taste

For Goose Neck (Helzl):

• Skin of goose neck, well cleaned
• 2 cups flour
• 2 tbsp. goose fat
• Pinch of salt
• 1 tsp sweet paprika
• 1/4 tsp ground black pepper

Prepare Ahead:Soak beans overnight.

Make Goose Necks: Prepare goose neck by kneading flour and fat with spices. Stuff mixture into goose skin and sew up both ends with plain white cotton thread.

Make Cholent: Mix soaked beans, barley, onion, garlic, carrot, and spices.

Place in pot with goose and goose neck in the middle. Cover with water and cook very slowly.

Traditionally the cholent cooks for about 18 hours, but it can be eaten after three or four hours of cooking.

If you find it impossible to find a goose neck, a similar kugel can be prepared without it, using more goose fat. The kugel should then be placed at the bottom of the cholent casserole and covered with an old plate.

It is difficult to find any dish which is authentically Jewish. Everything we eat seems to be a derivation of food which was borrowed from or influenced by the people among whom the Jews lived. It was during a recent visit to Hungary that I found at least one country where Jewish cooking has very clearly influenced the local cuisine.

Cholent Recipes

The word Cholent (from Eastern Yiddish טשאָלנט tsholnt) or shalet (from Western Yiddish שאלעט shalet) refers to a number of dishes from Ashkenazi Jewish cooking, which can be braised on a very low flame for many hours.

Recipes: Cholent Recipes

Their existence is due to the Jewish Sabbath laws, which do not allow a practicing Jew to light a fire on the Sabbath. However, an existing and covered fire may be used. Therefore, Jewish cooking incorporates a lot of dishes that can slowly braise from late Friday afternoon to noon on the Sabbath. There are many variations containing meat, potatoes, cereals, beans, or vegetables as well as combinations from dumplings and dried fruit. The word cholent is thought by some to be derived from the French words chaud 'hot' and lent 'slow', and by others to be derived from the Latin calientem — a term documented with this exact meaning in the Spanish form caliente in the Late Middle Ages.

The historic origin of cholent is the Mishnaic חַמִּין [ḥammin]. Similar dishes exist in many Sephardi groups. The most known of these dishes is probably the Iberian and Moroccan Sephardi dish.