Food, food, and more food

The Frum Family spends a lot of time thinking about food. We are self-professed foodies and are always on the lookout for delicious, healthy, and easy recipes.

Obviously we are strictly kosher. There are currently no kosher restaurants in our small city. We used to spend a lot of time lamenting this fact until I finally managed to convince Soulmate that kosher restaurants by-and-large are poor step-cousins to their treif counterparts. Perhaps this isn't true in NYC, but it's true in Chicago, Seattle, Vancouver, New Jersey, Detroit, Cleveland and many other places I've eaten in kosher establishments. Our rabbi once described the fleishig restaurant in the nearest city of any size as "where you get hospital food at French restaurant prices. Too true.

So, we've come to terms with the fact that we are responsible for creating our own fabulous food and I'll be pleased to share our successes (and maybe some of our failures, if they are spectacular enough).

I'll start with our Hungarian cholent. We aren't big cholent fans around here and generally consider it a waste of good meat. As such, we tend to use leftover meat. Our Hungarian cholent is the exception to this rule. Not only do we use fresh meat, but we even keep the leftovers, if there are any. Last night I made biscuits and dropped them into the bubbling leftover cholent I had reheated. We also added the chicory and mei qing choi that came in our organic veg box last week. Voila - a healthy, easy, and yummy Sunday night supper.


Here's the recipe - adjust to your tastes:

Hungarian Cholent

1 lb of stew meat, browned
1 onion, chopped
carrots (2? 3?)
1 parsnip (I used a turnip last week and liked it better.)
1 sm can tomato paste
1 large can tomatoes
3-4 large potatoes
1 tsp carraway seed
1-2 Tbsp paprika - the hot Hungarian Szeged stuff
salt and pepper to taste

Toss in crock pot on 'Low' and cover with water - cook overnight.