Wednesday, November 09, 2005

The perfume of Shabbes

As the nights draw in and the weather turns cold, we have less time on our already frenetic Friday afternoons to prepare for Shabbat. The solution is a famous Jewish delicacy that's both quick to prepare and warming on a chilly day. I'm talking of course, about Cholent or Hamin or Adafina for those with a Sephardi background - the famous dish incorporating a combination of beef, beans, barley and potatoes, slowly simmered from some time on a Friday afternoon until Shabbat after shul.

Mrs G and I differ on the way in which to make cholent - she slathers it with such bizarre substances as ketchup and barbecue sauce whilst I prefer to add in date honey and red wine. We are both united in our dislike of beans as a base for the cholent and our home is less malodorous as a result. I like to add some eggs to hard boil in the pot - she is happy to go without. Both our versions are delicious - a large hunk of beef, lots of onion and garlic, regular and sweet potatoes, barley and kishke (a type of sausage) are layered together in our slow cooker with cooking liquids and left to work their magic for the best part of 24 hours.

Whether we use my recipe or Mrs G's, come Shabbat morning, an incredible, tempting aroma wafts through our home, screaming at us to dispense with any sort of civilised niceties, forget going to Shul and to get stuck in. This, together with chicken soup, is the perfume of the Shabbes bride. And herein lies the problem - 5:30 on a Shabbat morning finds me lying in bed, wide awake, being tantalised by the smell. My mouth waters, my stomach rumbles and I simply can't get back to sleep no matter how tired I know it will leave me feeling.

I find myself left with a very stark choice - do I forego the delights of cholent or run the risk of falling asleep during the Rabbi's sermon (usually this would be a no-brainer but my Rabbi is an exceptional speaker!) The only logical way out of it that I can see is to do our best to make sure that we're invited out for Shabbat lunch. Any takers?

Gilly

4 comments:

ifyouwillit... said...

Cholent is definatly an all year round dish, chicken soup too!

Anonymous said...

I object!!! I find the usage of the terms "slather" and "bizarre" to be offensive and you conveniently forgot to mention that I also include date honey in my cholent! While you may find my additions different to what you are used to, I would prefer that you couch our cultural differences in more appropriate terms for future bloggings, where we have mutual friends who read it! Love as always, your slightly peeved wife

Karl said...

Why not have the best of both worlds -
Why not get up early - daven at hanetz and then come back for Chulent for breakfast/kiddush. Then you can go to your regular shul to catch your Rabbi's sermon.
and then get invited out for lunch!

Gilly said...

Zeh - sausages were originally made (and sometimes still are) of intestine cases stuffed with various stuff - I'll stand by my definition that kishke's a kind of sausage.

Karl - smart thinking - no reason why not....