S'Derot

S'Derot is a community in Israel, located in close proximity to the Gaza Strip. In particular, it is attacked on a daily basis by rockets from Gaza. It really doesn't matter if the rockets are launched by Hamas, people affiliated with Hamas, or just very angry people who'd rather attack Israelis then channel their energy into a productive activity. The attacks are real, the damages are real.

Chabad in S'Derot has set up an online fund to aid the Jewish residents of S'Derot. I would urge you to assist them.

Iron Cholent

Recipes from the Cholent Meister of Chabad of Tyson's Corner, VA (outside of Washington DC). A companion blog to Capitol Chai Life

Cholent is a uniquely Jewish creation...

...while assorted cultures have stews and slow-cooked foods, in Judaism, it is a necessity, since observant Jews are strictly prohibited from cooking on Shabbat, in addition to being severely limited in the use of fire and electricity. While there is some debate about the origin of the word "Cholent" (and for that matter, the term is not universally used -- Ashkenazic Jews [of Eastern European origin] make cholent, while Sephardic Jews [of Western European and North African origin] make Dafina), the origin is reasonably well understood.

Shabbat stews first started to appear around the 4th century CE, but in the 9th century CE, a movement within Judaism arose in the area known as Mesopotamia -- present day Iran and Iraq. These Jews, known as Karaites, believe in a very strict reading of the Torah. In reaction to this group, the Rabbis of the day ordained that their followers have a hot meal as part of their Shabbat observance.

Obviously, this was a challenge, since Jews could not tend a fire, nor cook food. The meal would have to be prepared and mostly cooked by the time Shabbat came in on Friday night, and then have to sit on a pile of coals for sixteen to twenty hours, until it was eaten for lunch on Saturday.

Given these conditions, cholents are generally heavy on beans, root vegetables, grains, and red meat. This simplest cholents are in fact just that -- beans, beef, and onion. Still, cholents have acquired some variation in the past 1700 years or so, and for that matter, some slow-cooked dishes are perfectly fine for cholent. Chili anyone?

Sunday, March 23, 2008

Niku Jaga (Japanese Beef Stew in the Crock Pot)

This is an exceptionally easy stew to make. I weighed out the potatoes and substituted a like mass of baby potatoes (each one was small enough to fit into a cereal spoon). All you do is dice the onion, cube the meat, mix together the base (water, sake, sugar, soy sauce, and soy sauce), through it all in the crock put and cook.

2 lbs beef brisket
1 cup water
½ cup Japanese Sake
¼ cup sugar
¼ cup soy sauce
1 tsp salt
½ lb baby carrots
3 medium potatoes, peeled and chopped
1 white onion, diced

Put everything in a crock pot, cook 10 - 12 hours on low, 4 to 6 on high.

Sensei and Takura are purported to have explicitly supervised sakes, but Star-K asserts that (unflavored) sake does not require certification. The London Bet Din asserts Choya Sake is kosher. Go figure....
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