Cholent

That's an odd title for a blog post, isn't it?

For you non-Jews out there, cholent (pronounced like "choont") is a traditional Jewish stew, usually made on the Sabbath.  It's something I grew up eating, and have never made myself.  Until now!  A week or two ago my mom invited people over for cholent, and hearing about it totally got me in the mood to make it.  What is in cholent?  Well, there are many variations.  My mom's version has sauteed onion; red, white and garbanzo beans; barley; potatoes; chicken and eggs.

I got the recipe from her on Friday, and went out to buy everything I needed.  The hardest things to find were marrow bones, which you use for flavor.  My intention was to make it on Friday night so that we could eat it on Saturday, but that didn't happen.  I did start the beans soaking on Friday night, though, so by the time I put it all in the oven, the beans had been soaking for over twenty-four hours (which is apparently good for getting the gas out of them?).

Last night, with Donovan's help, we got it all ready for the oven.  Sauteed two onions, de-skinned a bunch of chicken thighs and drumsticks, peeled potatoes...and then, into the pot it all went!  Sauteed onions in the bottom of the pot, then all the beans and barley mixed together, then the marrow bones, then the potatoes, then the chicken, and then the eggs (whole).  Spices in between the layers, and then covered the whole thing with water.  Into the oven to bake on high for a couple of hours and then on a low heat overnight.  It was quite an interesting experience!  I've never dealt with marrow bones before, so that was new and exciting.

We were watching Pirates of the Caribbean (inspired by our trip to Disneyland last week), and I kept hearing this sizzling sound coming from the kitchen.  Overflow!!!  Yeah, I put too much water in, and the liquid was overflowing out of the covered pot and onto the bottom of the oven and creating quite a mess, burnt smell, and smoke.  Donovan quickly prevented smoke detectors from going off by putting a fan in the window to blow all the smoke outside, and turning on the vent fan on the microwave.  It took a while for all the smoke and stink to clear out.  Thankfully, all was not lost, and the cholent continued to cook unperturbed.

All day today we smelled the yumminess while the cholent cooked and cooked and cooked.  Finally tonight (after cooking for twenty+ hours) we took it out of the oven so we could eat it for dinner.  The pot definitely looked like it had seen better days.

My poor pot...

I separated out all the components and made us up bowls with the bean/barley mixture in the bottom, the chicken (taken off the bone) on top of that with a piece of potato and an egg.

Chicken, potatoes, marrow bones, eggs and bean/barley mixture (in the pot)

Aside from needing lots of extra salt and pepper (I had no idea how to spice that much food ahead of time!), it turned out delicious!  The only thing missing was Mediterranean pickles.  They are the perfect addition to cholent!  We now have food for several days, especially the bean/barley mixture!  I had no idea that three cups of beans and two cups of barley would make such a huge amount of food!!

I'm very proud of myself for stepping up into the ranks of Jewish women everywhere and making my first cholent.  :)