Comforting Fall Soups
Spiced Butternut Squash Soup #vegan
Chowder with Broccoli and Corn #vegan
Fire Roasted Tomato Soup #vegan
Hearty Vegetable Soup #vegan #GERD diet
Potato Cabbage Soup #vegan
Chicken Noodle Soup #poultry
The 20 living hostages are home!
A new beginning!
Red Wine Cholent
Cholent is a most traditional Shabbat stew that is a welcoming and comforting lunch. It is slow cooked, usually overnight, begun before the Sabbath and continuing during the following hours to adhere to the laws of the Sabbath, which doesn’t permit lighting a fire or cooking. It is easily adapted to vegetarians without any loss of flavor. I used a cast iron heavy pot, which is heavy and allows the perfect slow cooking that gives cholent its trademark flavor and consistency. Slow cooking is very popular now and the ancient recipe is one of the oldest. French influence is heavy in my kitchen and thus I made this recipe with red wine and rosemary.
While originating in ancient Israel, since the Biblical times, Jews have lived around the world, thus there is no one recipe for cholent or even the same name. Recipes have regional influences, with varied seasonings, some made with beef, others with chicken or others vegetarian. All have vegetables, all have some grain for thickening. Some have beans and most have root vegetables. What a delicious diversity that offers a look into history and heritage.
Red Wine Cholent
#gluten free #Ashkenazi #main #beef
Serves 8
2 tablespoons olive oil
1/2 cup uncooked pearl barley
1 pound flanken or beef stew, cubed
1 tablespoon kosher salt
1 teaspoon each paprika, pepper, oregano, thyme
1/2 teaspoon sage
1/2 teaspoon rosemary
1 tablespoon potato starch
1 large onion, chopped
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 sprig rosemary
2 cups zucchini, 1” slices, skins on
2 cups chopped carrots
1 cup deseeded, chopped or sliced sweet red bell pepper
1 cup prunes
1 sweet potato or 1 butternut squash, peeled, deseeded (for squash) and chopped
1 can beans of choice, drained and rinsed (kidney, pinto, cannellini or chickpeas)
1 cup dry red wine
1 cup water or stock
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Cut flanken or beef stew into bite size pieces. Toss in zip lock bag or covered dish with pepper, oregano, thyme, sage, rosemary and potato starch. Reserve bones if using flanken.
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Heat olive oil in preheated crockpot on high or Dutch oven on stove top on medium heat. Sear meat. Remove and reserve. And add onion and garlic. Cook until transparent. Put barley, vegetables and prunes into pot and stir. Place beef and bones, on top of vegetables mix. Pour wine over beef.
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Set crockpot on low or heavy top pot over low flame and let cook for 8-10 hours. Check to make sure there is enough liquid in pot.
Expandthetable suggestions
Vegetarian: Omit beef for vegetarian option and add 1 can chickpeas, drained, 1 large potato cut in 8ths , 2 stalks celery, 1 cup chopped parsnips
Allium Free: Omit onion and garlic. Substitute 1 fennel bulb, thinly sliced, 3 stalks celery, chopped, and 1 green pepper, cored and chopped
Alcohol Free: Use broth in place of alcohol.
Add more veggies: Add other root vegetables of choice, such as turnips, parsnips or potatoes,
White Beans: Use white beans in place of kidney beans
Add some kick: Add 3 tablespoons ketchup when adding wine
Foodie Lit
Author Julie Simmons told me that her novel's theme, The Lost Canvas, “is the resilience of the human spirit. I wanted to show that through the characters who represent entirely human constructs – joy, grief, success, failure, desires for goals, and regrets. The kinds of things that we all experience. They use these abstract sentiments, their layers, the makeup of what it is that gives us our human spirit as introspection to lean into it, and move forward because within all of us is the power of resilience. We get to choose. We can decide to become victims of our circumstances or to be the heroes of our own destinies.” This is a story and characters that you will love to read about!
