Cholent Review - Shabbos Parashas Tetzaveh

I made very successful vegetarian cholent this past Shabbos, and I would to share the fortunate concatenation of events that made it happen. First of all, I realized that most of my vegetarian cholents are largely potatoes and therefore very starchy. So I decided to reduce the number of potatoes and compensate by increasing the amount of beans, since these contain also contain fiber and should be healthier than potatoes. Now I have tried this in the past and discovered that one of the defects of the otherwise mighty six quart Hamilton Beach Stay-N-Go slow cooker is that it tends to cook at a low temperature (when on low; high is too high), which means that dried beans such as kidneys do not get cooked all the way through. So, I compensated for this problem by soaking the kidney beans overnight, which definitely helped. Secondly, I added hot water to the pot (until all the ingredients were covered) as opposed to the cold or room temperature water that I normally add. In the end I estimate that in included two to two and a half cup beans (a cup or so of kidneys and the same amount of large lima beans). I chopped up and threw in six large carrots, one large potato (as opposed to two) and a sweet potato. Finally, I added some button mushrooms together with some dried shiitake mushrooms. For flavoring I hard three teaspoons salt, one teaspoon black pepper, a healthy amount of paprika and olive oil. After I pulled the cholent off the heat on Shabbos morning, I added some soy sauce to taste. It was a delicious cholent with a perfect, almost creamy consistency. Geshmak!

Making Cholent at Old Broadway (in Yiddish)

Cholent Review - Parashas Naso

I think I am getting close to making a decent vegetarian cholent, or I should say, my son Binyamin and I are getting close. This past Shabbos we made a tasty cholent with most of the usual ingredients: a potato, a sweet potato, carrots, barley, beans and shiitake mushrooms. This cholent differed from my previous vegetarian cholents in a number of ways. First, I put only one large potato in rather than two. I also made sure there was more water than I have in the past. As with my other cholents, I added olive oil, but in this cholent, in addition to salt and pepper, I also added soy sauce. I did not add it once, but twice, first, I added it with the rest of the seasoning before I put the pot on the fire, but then after tasting the cooked cholent before serving it, I added a but more, maybe two tablespoons (for a three quart cholent). It was savory and delicious. The only problem is that since the Hamilton Beach Stay&Go Slow Cooker doesn't cook at a high temperature (I always use the low setting - I would not recommend using the high setting), dry beans often are not thoroughly cooked. For next week, I hope to soak the beans ahead of time. Shavua tov to all!

Cholent Review - Parashas Shemini

This past Shabbos Hashem blessed me with success with two cholents. The first cholent was my regular meat cholent, whose recipe I have discussed on this blog before. The second cholent (assembled by my son, Binyamin) was a version of the North African hamin called Dafina. For various reasons that cannot be discussed here, I could not follow the recipe precisely as I found it on the Internet, but I think what I did do was a good approximation and was even acknowledged as such by one the Sephardic members of the congregation. I used our other six-quart Hamilton Beach slow cooker and threw in a large cup of barley (pssst - not traditional - real Sephardim use rice in cheese cloth) and three cups (or so) of chickpeas (after having been soaked overnight), two baking potatoes and a sweet potato. I also added two large teaspoons of black pepper, two large teaspoons of salt, some paprika (maybe a teaspoon), a small amount of cayenne pepper, a quarter cup of olive oil, raw eggs (in the shells) and the coup de grace, two large teaspoons of ground cumin. I did not add any meat since I used the parve slow cooker. I put the pot on the heat at about 7:15pm and took it off at about 12:30pm the next day. It was spicy and delicious, and had an excellent consistency! The eggs, which were boiled in their shells, came out brown! I hope that I will have another opportunity to make this great cholent again soon.

Cholent Review - Parashas Terumah

I haven't posted a cholent review in a few weeks because I really had nothing new to add. I did a few things differently for my cholent this past Shabbos so I would like to share my experiences with my cholent making colleagues out there. I have mentioned before that my Hamilton Beach slow cooker is not as hot as the old Rival Crock Pot was, however, I have larger been able to compensate by the way I layered the ingredients as they are placed in the pot. The most important ingredient in this regard is the chopped carrots. I put all of them at the very bottom yesterday afternoon, and they all were cooked perfectly. Another ingredient that needs to be placed with care is the barley (this past Shabbos I mixed it with wheat kernels - yummy!). The barley (and wheat) are the last dry ingredients before the spices to go in. After I pour these grains in, I shake the pot so that they fall between the the meat and cut vegetables. This way, they will also be fully cooked. The last point that I want to share is also an important one. After Igor brought the pot up from the basement during kiddush, I stirred my cooked confection to make sure everything was well mixed. And so it was. For anyone out there following my reviews and making your own cholent, Ess gezunterheyt!