I know this is going to be brilliant for some readers, confusing or irrelevant for others. I’m okay with that!
Enjoy if relevant!
I’ve been making the cholent (Sabbath stew for the uninitiated…) for my shul (congregation…) once a month. After a number of months, I’ve got a system down that is super quick and easy. Enough people have asked me for the recipe, that I thought I would just type it up and send it out! Share amongst yourselves!
For the gigantic slow cooker at shul, these are the amounts that I use. For your own normal slow cooker at home, you will obviously need a lot less of the ingredients. If you are an especially proficient cholent maker, you may just take some short cut tips from this.
Can you open cans and bags and pour ingredients in? Congratulations! You can make my short cut cholent! Prepare to be liberated from chopping, peeling, crying from onions…!
Place the following ingredients in the slow cooker:
1 bag frozen chopped onions OR 1 container fresh chopped onions (Shoppers Food Warehouse has fresh cut onions with a hechsher)
2 containers peeled and cut up sweet potatoes (Again, Shoppers Food Warehouse has this with a hechsher in the produce section)
2 steam bags of small golden potatoes. I buy the bags because they have uniformly small potatoes that are already cleaned. No peeling and no cutting necessary.
1 and 2/3 bags pearled barley or the larger box of pearled barley (Quaker)
1 large can diced fire-roasted tomatoes (preferably with basil and oregano)
1 bag baby cut carrots
1 large can kidney beans or 2 15 oz cans of 1 kidney and 1 white bean
Spices:
A heavy hand with: Salt, Pepper, Garlic Powder, Onion Powder, Chili Powder, Italian seasoning, Paprika
A touch of: All Spice and Cayenne Pepper
Add water. How much? Ah, that is always the eternal question when making cholent! Add water until all of the ingredients are covered.
Turn the slow cooker on low and come back the next day! Done!
Let me know how it goes.
Shabbat Shalom!