My grandmother loved the way the Sabbath candles flickered in the windows of Jewish homes on Friday nights, and fondly recalled picking up the
cholent pot from the neighborhood bakery on Saturday.
His daughter Lenore, who lives in the San Francisco Bay Area, told me in an interview that her father was inspired by
cholent. "His mother grew up in Vilna or wherever, and on Friday afternoons her mother would take a big crock and fill it with dried beans and root vegetables and a shtickel meat, and ask my grandmother to go to the local bakery and put the crock in the oven.
FOOD p17...one of the first slow-cooked meals was
Cholent, a hearty meat and vegetable stew cooked overnight.
The recipes include fott ponty ecetes leben, tormaval (pike in sour aspic with horseradish),
cholent, and almas maceskugli (apple-matzo roll).
When Goldie Simcha doesn't welcome everyone in for her famous
cholent, her neighbours wonder what could be wrong.
Both are a sort of Bukharian
cholent, left to simmer overnight Friday and, like hakhsh, they're traditionally prepared in a cotton bag submerged in a pot of boiling water, a method likely borrowed from Persian and Iraqi cooking.
To name just a few: Fried Leek Pancakes are categorized under "legumes" (20); a cake the authors consider impossible to "reconstruct" (112) is a straightforward sponge cake; the use of pickling spices and lima beans in
cholent is not "unusual" (116); carrots originated not in Turkey (118) but in Afghanistan; the Balkans, not the Baltics (86), were "known as grape-growing regions" in the nineteenth century (the Baltics were famed for their hops, not their vines).
(6) At home, families would have enjoyed the Yiddish staples of gefilte fish, chicken soup, gribinyes, and
cholent with kishke, at weekly Sabbath meals, (7) and rye bread, schmaltz herring, pickles and similar foods more frequently.
More prayer in the synagogue in the morning followed by a kiddush in the synagogue dining hall made up of Jewish delicacies like
cholent reserved for Sabbath heartburn, and another festive family lunch at home at noon or a little later if you were a member of a Hasidic sect that dawdled at player in the shul.
The author also points out that Arabs use the Judeo-Arabic term hammin '
cholent' as they cooked the very same originally Jewish dish.
From traditional Shabbath
Cholent to Garlicky Pot Roast and Sweet Potato Salad with Preserved Lemons, this packs in traditional and modern Jewish kosher fare in an outstanding presentation especially recommended for Jewish kitchens and libraries catering to Jewish cooks.
Dishes contain only small amounts of animal protein and pack in nuts, grains, fruits, herbs and spices and vegetables in dishes such as Orange Beets with Almonds and Vegetarian
Cholent. A healthy dose of color photos completes the presentation and will delight Jewish cooks seeking new seasonal celebration fare.