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Friday morning, alarm clock goes off at 4:15. Time to do the Shabbos cooking. Gefilte fish, roasted chicken, challah, kugel, chicken soup and cholent.
My cholent recipe has been evolving over the years, as friends share their tips and secret ingredients. So, this Shabbos, my cholent has beans, barley, potatoes, a clove-studded onion (Thanks, KQ!), beef chuck chunks, chuck pastrami chunks, garlic, paprika, ketchup, and beer. And yeah, it is SO good!
So, this erev Shabbos, what do you put in YOUR cholent?
Posts: 10397 | Registered: Jun 2005
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I don't know if we'll have it this week. But how early you wake up on Fridays to prepare the food!
Posts: 2978 | Registered: Oct 2004
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Oh. I did a Google search and found a recipe. It doesn't sound bad at all, but it did say that the homemade stuff tastes nothing at all like the horrid stuff in jars, so...
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The horrid stuff in jars in that weird jelled fish broth is passe. The current favorite is made with these frozen loaves of ground fish. It is lovely to make -- none of the fuss of grinding up your own fish -- and a vast improvement over the nasty jarred variety. You can boil it in the traditional fashion, or bake it (which I prefer). I've baked it in tomato sauce, vegetable sauce, or in broth. For this Shabbos, I made a three layer gefilte fish, which looks fancy and tastes good, but using the frozen fish loaves, is super easy to make.
Challah is like Jewish Brioche. A rich egg bread. French toast made with lesser breads is just not worth it. A really good home made challah can almost be a meal in itself.
But Cholent is the star of the Shabbos table, a dish eaten by Jews in every community all over the world, with infinite local variations. We have a saying that what makes the cholent so delicious is a "secret ingredient" available only to the Jews -- Shabbos.
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The jelled fish broth is called "yich", apparently. Very descriptive. We use the Ungers one where you just boil it for an hour or so with some onions in the water.
The benefit of the loaf-type gefilte fish is that you don't have to deal with the chreyn falling off. When you slice it, it's flat on both sides (except for the ends, and that can be dealt with)
With cholent, we can't use beans. I get all anaphalactic and all with beans. So we use lentils instead. Works just as well, if not better.
Sometimes we use beef or bison for the meat, but sometimes we use chicken. And believe it or not, a bit of cinnamon goes great in cholent, particularly if you're using chicken.
And challah... well, the challah I make has a reputation in these parts. I took my Mom's challah recipe (which she got from her sisterhood cookbook), and modified it for our bread machine. I just use it to mix and knead the dough. Then I take it out, braid it, and let it rise in the oven, after which I paint it with some egg/water mixture and bake it.
But a few years ago, I tried substituting whole wheat flour. Most whole wheat bread I've tasted is coarse and harsh. Even the half-and-half whole wheat and white wheat bread isn't to my taste usually. But my challah is 100% whole wheat, with some added gluten to make it rise better, and it is just amazing. Soft and yummy, and without the pastiness of white bread even egg bread.
If anyone wants the recipe, I'll be happy to post it. The only down side is that it isn't great for french toast. I still use egg challah for that. And I have a non-secret recipe for that, too.
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I found the bison in the cholent to be a tad tough, while the beef chuck gets meltingly tender. Chicken? Are you using parts? With bones? I'd like to try that. Post details, please.
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I make a half-whole-wheat challah that gets raves (I've done the 100% with added gluten, and I don't care for it as much). Lately I've been using white whole wheat instead of the usual red wheat flour. I really like it.
I'm not a huge cholent fan (I know, I know -- but overcooked potatoes just don't do it for me), but my kids like it. So I will be making it this week. Potatoes, sweet potatoes, whole small onions (I'll have to see if I have any whole cloves), carrots, barley and wheat kernels, a small amount of beans and lentils, chunks of beef and lamb, lots of garlic, a bit of pepper. Put to cook a few minutes before Shabbos on extra-low, so it cooks as little as possible.
Posts: 32919 | Registered: Mar 2003
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Tante, I have used chicken in cholent, and the bones get soft enough to eat (like canned salmon). (Which means you can't sample from the cholent Friday night, as some people like to do. It's not "fully cooked" until those chicken bones are soft -- at least, so says Shmiras Shabbos.)
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You're Shabbat meal is different from mine. My Dad's a Persian Sephardic and my mom's Spanish Sephardic, so that probably explains it. Gefilte fish...blech. I've tried cholent before and I liked it a little.
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Sephardis make cholent. They just call it chamim and put odd things in it. Like wheat kernels (which I like so much that I use them) and hard-boiled eggs (which I don't like at all).
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I start my cholent early early Friday morning. The cholent is ready for our Friday dinner. Sometimes it goes on the blech, and sometimes in the crockpot.
I like a few slices of kishka on top of the cholent. And either an already baked potato kugel hovering on top or I just mix up the kugel batter and pour it on in a sort of free-form kugel that sets on top of the cholent and absorbs all the delicious cholenty goodness.
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Really? You can cook a potato kugel in the cholent? That sounds wonderful. I'll have to try it.
Btw, I hate cholent eggs. I don't get the attraction. And isn't it a problem anyway, since you can't check for bloodspots?
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As I dislike potato kugel fairly intensely, I don't cook one in my cholent. My mother does sometimes though. The other thing she puts in is essentially a large, flattened kneidel that cooks on top. We call it a kigel -- I don't remember why. (And no, we do not pronounce kugel that way when referring to anything else. Maybe a guest named it?) Maybe I'll do that this week . . . but I need eggs.
I agree with you on the taste of cholent eggs. But not everyone agrees that checking eggs (at least, those bought in the supermarket, produced by hens that get no contact with roosters) is that crucial. After all, you eat hard-boiled eggs in general, neh?
Posts: 32919 | Registered: Mar 2003
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quote:Originally posted by quidscribis: I don't even know what a cholent is! Or gefilte fish or challah. Kugel, however I know.
You do too! Remember my kishke thread? I promised you and Telpy I'd make cholent if I ever met you guys in person.
Tante, my cholent has corned beef, barley, beans, potatoes, eggs, and kishke.
And yes, I do make it myself. My mom says I'm probably the only person under 30 on the entire planet who actually knows how to make it!
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<dobie purist> there isn't a link in the first post of either thread, not a dobie </dobie purist>
Posts: 5362 | Registered: Apr 2004
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KQ -- you (and the rest of the Ketchups) are welcome on any Shabbos for some cholent.
I posted the Cholent thread and the Jello thread at the same time because I was wondering if Hatrack had a greater interest in Cholent, or in its polar opposite, Jello. Alas, Jello won out, by a significant margin.
I will be campaigning endlessly to remedy this unfortunate situation, and will re-conduct the survey at some later date, to evaluate our progress.
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quote:Originally posted by rivka: As I dislike potato kugel fairly intensely, I don't cook one in my cholent. My mother does sometimes though. The other thing she puts in is essentially a large, flattened kneidel that cooks on top.
Interesting! My partner makes these exquisitely light kneidelach, and she puts oregano in them. It sounds strange, but they are absolutely amazing.
quote:Originally posted by rivka: I agree with you on the taste of cholent eggs. But not everyone agrees that checking eggs (at least, those bought in the supermarket, produced by hens that get no contact with roosters) is that crucial. After all, you eat hard-boiled eggs in general, neh?
quote:Originally posted by Tante Shvester: I posted the Cholent thread and the Jello thread at the same time because I was wondering if Hatrack had a greater interest in Cholent, or in its polar opposite, Jello. Alas, Jello won out, by a significant margin.
I will be campaigning endlessly to remedy this unfortunate situation, and will re-conduct the survey at some later date, to evaluate our progress.
Of course you can eat left-over Jello. Leftover cholent... not such a good idea.
There's a kosher Chinese place here in Chicago called Mi Tzu Yun that has kishke on the menu. But I've seen places that have cholent on the menu, and I can't even wrap my mind around eating cholent when it's not Shabbat.
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quote:Originally posted by Tante Shvester: I posted the Cholent thread and the Jello thread at the same time because I was wondering if Hatrack had a greater interest in Cholent, or in its polar opposite, Jello. Alas, Jello won out, by a significant margin.
I will be campaigning endlessly to remedy this unfortunate situation, and will re-conduct the survey at some later date, to evaluate our progress.
Tante, I am saddened with you. I, however, am firmly in the cholent camp and will strive to aid you in converting these the lost souls of our dear brothers and sisters from Jello Hell and into Cholent Heaven.
Of course, who am I to talk when I've never actually had Cholent? Posts: 8355 | Registered: Apr 2003
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I've never made cholent, but my shul's recipe has chick peas in it. I think it's vegetarian. It also has tomato -- I think it's diced tomato from a can. It's good stuff.
The best challah around (Boston) is Cheryl-Ann's, which is legendary. I've had their whole wheat challah, and it's really really yummy... though I don't know if it's 100% WW.
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We put turkey sausage and kasha in ours. We switched to turkey sausage when my dad's cholesterol went up.
Posts: 289 | Registered: Jan 2002
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The cholent came out splendidly this week, likely in part due to a substantial amount of beef, lamb, and veal. While it did not get completely finished, my kids assure me they will happily eat the leftovers tomorrow night. (I will have leftover chicken, since I agree that leftover cholent does not appeal.)
Oh, and I often use oregano in my kneidlach too. Posts: 32919 | Registered: Mar 2003
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Wow, glad I read this thread and learned what cholent is--will have to start looking for recipes! How is it pronounced?
That 3-layer gefilte fish looks intriguing. (I have bad memories of the stuff in jars!)
Rivka, my mom has started using the white wheat for making her whole wheat bread, and we all love it.
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quote:My mom says I'm probably the only person under 30 on the entire planet who actually knows how to make it!
Not likely. I was making my family's cholent when I was in my teens.
(Several potatoes, enough water to cover same, onion powder, garlic powder, meat. Optional additions: barley, kishke.)
Pronunciation: CHUH-lent or CHOO-lent, depending on one's accent. For a change, the "ch" is not a gutteral sound, but rather the sound found at the start of "chipmunk." (This points to an origin from a language other than Hebrew or Yiddish, both of which lack that sound; one theory is that it's from the Old French "chaud lent," or "hot and slow.")
Posts: 884 | Registered: Mar 2005
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Actually, let me retract one part of that: Yiddish does have the phoneme in question; otherwise tchotchke and tchaynik wouldn't exist, among others. Still, the word appears not to be native to either.
Edited to add: since moving out, I've gotten more experimental, often adding salsa.
Posts: 884 | Registered: Mar 2005
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...Frumspeak gives a Russian origin for "chepper," for what that's worth. And, according to Wikipedia, the sound is found in German. (It's the first postalveolar sound listed.)
Edited to add: then again, according to this article, it shows up in German only in loan words...
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