Cholent

Seeing as how its almost next Hanukkah, I thought I would post my recipe for cholent that I made for friends last Hanukkah.  Cholent is a Jewish stew that is very hearty and is typically made on Shabbos as it can stew in a slow cooker before Shabbos and ready to eat the next day.  I have had this meal at orthodox Jewish homes and I am a huge fan.  There are quite a few ingredients but its fairly simple to make and the result is a very filling, warming meal - perfect for cold nights.  My favorite is the beef in this dish, it is so tender!

I'm going to include my pictures but they don't do this food justice...I was too excited to eat it to worry about taking pictures!

Ingredients:
- 1 large white potato (I used a sweet potato though) chopped
- 2 yellow onions chopped
- 2 lbs of flank steak sliced to fit into the slow cooker
- 1 teaspoon black pepper
- 1 cup barley
- 1 cup red kidney beans (dry)
- 3 teaspoons of chicken or beef stock
- 2 tablespoons of paprika
- 2 tablespoons of honey
- 1 loaf of kishka (you can find these in kosher/jewish markets and even my local publix sells them in the frozen food aisle)
- salt to taste

Directions:
- after chopping onions and potatoes put these inside of the slow cooker/line the bottom of the slow cooker with them
- add barley and kidney beans on top of onions and potatoes
- sprinkle with stock, paprika, honey and salt if you choose to add
- place kishka in the middle of the slow cooker on top of all of the ingredients
- chop flank meat to fit in the slower cooker (large chunks or strips) and sprinkle with ground pepper before putting meat into slow cooker.  Place meat around kishka.
-add water to cover beans and barley (approximately 2-3 cups of water)
- cover and turn slow cooker on low
-cook on low for 5-8 hours

This is what it will look like before you add water:

 

After adding water and covering:

 

After its been cooking for some time:

 

The finished product:

 

So it doesn't look so great but it tastes amazing! Everyone loved it and even the canine partygoers were begging for more:

 

If I had thought about it sooner I would have done something again this year, the holiday just feels so weird this year being so close to Thanksgiving instead of Christmas!  Below are some pictures of the table...my mom made latkes and my roommate made Israeli salad as well...and some pictures of the lighting of the candles and playing dreidel:

 

HOPE EVERYONE HAS A HAPPY HANUKKAH THIS YEAR!!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Romesh’s Beef/Chicken Curry and Coconut Rice:

My friend Romesh is from Sri Lanka. He insists the only two things he learned how to cook his entire life is chicken/beef curry and coconut rice so he cooks this every time I come over. Good thing it tastes amazing!



Romesh’s beef/chicken curry:
Ingredients:
1 lb meat: bonless chicken breast chopped or beef chopped or bone-in chicken thighs
-salt to taste
-1/2 can coconut milk
-1/2 cup soy sauce
-oinions cut into slices
-2 tablesppons curry powder
-black pepper to taste
-1 tablespoon cayenne pepper
-oil to fry

In a pot with a lid heat oil and add chicken/beef...fry for several minutes, just long enough to brown slightly on the outside...then add all other ingredients except for the coconut milk. Cover with lid and simmer for 10 minutes. Add coconut milk, mix and simmer for another several minutes.

Romesh’s Rice:
Basmati rice - cooked
1-2 eggs scrambled
Green scallions chopped
Dash of coconut milk

Cook rice and set aside. Lightly scramble eggs in frying pan, add scallions and cook for one minute. Add rice and mix. Add coconut milk to taste.

Enjoy:)

Mongolian Beef:

I recommend Lee Kum Kee Mongolian Beef Sauce. Actually, I recommend all of the Lee Kum Kee Sauce mixes. If you don’t feel comfortable making a sauce yourself or picking ingredients to add to a dish but want some home cooked Chinese food, Lee Kum Kee is a great choice. When I first began cooking for myself in college I would pick up a bottle or sauce packet and just follow the recipe on the package. It would always come out great. They even have single serving size packets of sauce. You can find them in any asian market and now a lot of chain grocery stores are starting to carry their products in the ethic aisle. A lot of their sauces are certified kosher as well. I promise these are authentic, I actually heard about them from a Taiwanese girl and my Chinese friend loved the black bean sauce so much he took some packets home to China to cook for his parents!
For this recipe you would use the Mongolian beef sauce:

Like I said I used to just follow the recipe on the back of the packet but it only gets better the more you add to it!

Other ingredients:

-1 onion sliced into long strips
-bell pepper, red or green diced
-one bunch scallions, white part chopped and green parts sliced into long pieces
-2 cloves garlic minced
-1 teaspoon ginger minced
-1/4 of a poblano pepper diced
-strip steak (the kind used for charrassco) sliced into long strips – if you aren’t big on steak then chicken tastes just as good
- a couple of pinches of crushed red pepper (optional – go for it if you like some heat, this is a mild sauce)
-olive oil for frying

1. Fry steak and garlic in olive oil until cooked through, if using the strip steak this shouldn’t take more than 10 minutes

2. add ginger, onion, bell pepper and poblano pepper and fry until onions are translucent

3. add sauce, crushed red pepper and scallions and simmer for a 5 minutes

Eat up with some jasmine rice – yum!