Living spiritually, parenting proactively, cooking kosher
Following my post about cholent, I have received inquiries about buying muslin bags in Israel.
From my experience, these sakiyot lebishul mebad are available at most health food stores. You can also order them online, for example here and here.
As to care, I have found the dishwasher to be the best way to clean the bags (just be sure to wash off whatever food has gotten stuck to them under running water before placing them in the machine).
Bon appetit!
It has become a routine. Each Thursday my neighbour calls to ask whether I’ll be baking challa come Friday. I usually answer in the affirmative and in return get a name of a sick person to pray for while separating challa. The whole project of organizing 40 women each week is spearheaded by an amazing lady, who literally came back from the dead after giving birth to her last child.
Ever since I began baking challa in earnest a couple of years ago, it has become a cherished spiritual experience. And while at it, I take the time to say a short prayer for all the people I know could use a break in life.
This got me thinking. With so many potential challa backers on Twitter, wouldn’t it be a great medium to match them with those in need of a prayer? I know that some people are averse to segulot, but the mitzvah of challa, like any other mitzvah, creates a merit, which we could share with others by praying for them.
So, if this is up your alley, here is the deal:
As always, I welcome suggestions and comments.
Happy baking.
Winter is here and with it the annual cholent season. While the long months of the Israeli summer make the very thought of a heavy meat meal (and an extra heat source) unthinkable, cholent is the perfect winter comfort food.
For anyone unfamiliar with this masterpiece of Jewish inventiveness, cholent (chamin in Hebrew) is a stew eaten on Shabbat afternoon after being left to simmer on low heat since Friday. Almost every Jewish community in the world has its version of this dish. Natives of communities as diverse as Jerusalem’s Nachlaot or London’s East End, have fond childhood memories of carrying home the steaming pot of cholent from the local baker’s oven every Shabbat morning.
At our house, cholent usually consists of beans, meats, potatoes and grains, such as wheat, barley, brown rice, or buckwheat. The best way to cook the grains is by separating them from the rest of the stew. Although most people I know use cellulose cooking bags for this, I don’t particularly savour the idea of cooking my food in plastic. However, I found the perfect solution while translating a Bukharian cookbook a couple of years. The author suggested cooking the grains in drawstring muslin bags
Cholent can be cooked either in a crock pot or in a regular pot placed on top of a hot plate or a blech (a sheet of tin placed over a small burner or a pilot light). Make sure the pot is boiling before turning the heat down Friday afternoon.
Here is our favourite cholent recipe with several variations on the theme.
When my Yemen-born mother-in-law first came to Israel in late 1940s, her parents decides to build their house apart from the rest of the community, so as to protect their children from unwanted social influences. Little did they know that within a decade they would be living in the midst of a vibrant community of Moroccan immigrants that arrived to Israel during the 1950s.
This is how my Yemenite mother-in-law came to cook the traditional North African chreime fish stew for Friday night dinner. Today, my in-laws Shabbat table is unimaginable without chreime. From there, the recipe has made its way into our kitchen and even to my mother’s recipe box, where it’s a great hit with her New Jersey neighbors.
I have made several changes to the original recipe, which is quite spicy. Unlike my mother-in-law, who uses carp or tuna steaks, I prefer salmon fillet. You can use any fish fillet or steak. The rich sauce is very dominant and will make up for the taste of the fish.
Finally, bread dipped into the sauce is the best part of this dish, so make sure to cut up a large loaf to go with the stew.