Well, with Lag B'Omer this past week, it was rather hectic getting ready for Shabbat. Since I had missed the birthday of one of our regulars, and he's Sephardic, I made Dafina for him, which he always likes. Eggs included this time. I suppose the irony is I put fifteen eggs in there so there would be leftovers for Seudah Shelesheit, and the Rebbitzin gave most of them to kids who were at kiddish. And this was in addition to the hot dogs I had wrapped and cooked in there! "We're gonna have to work on our communication." (Will Smith as USAF Captain Steven Hiller to Jeff Goldblum as David Levinson in Independence Day)
Regardless, I had one or two thing to pick up at the market before Shabbat, and as I walked through the cake mixes to the spices, I noticed Duncan Hines Spice Cake Mix. More to the point, I noticed that it is (once again) PARVE.
Now we are not supposed to daven to eat, but eat to daven, so we have a piece of cake on Shabbat morning before Shacharit. I bought the mix and a 9 x 13 pan. Now the question was tovolling the pan! I realized that I would not be passing far from Lake Anne, in Reston, so I took a detour up there and pulled in to the boat launch area. There must have been about a dozen kayakers there. Friendly and all but I bet they wondered what the guy in the Stetson was doing dunking a pan in this lake!
Regardless, the cake was a hit -- next Shabbat, I'll be more prepared and I'll make a proper cake (we certainly have enough flour in the shul!)
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.
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.
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?
