Cholent 2

Ingredients:

salt

pepper

sweet paprika
pearl barley (gershli)
large white beans
smoked goose breast(Adam orders from a poultry specialist who smokes his own and delivers them once each week when chulent is on the menu)
garlic
eggs
goose fat/grease/drippings

In a heavy cast iron post, mix the beans together with salt, pepper, sweet paprika and goose fat, then cover and leave for an hour at room temperature.

Pour water to cover, and put in the smoked goose breast (do not slice), cover and place in the oven. Bake at a medium heat and check it after 2 hours. If it needs more water, add a bit.

Once the meat is tender, put in the pearl barley (an equal amount to the beans) and the eggs (with their shells on). Remove the lid and cook either in the oven or on top of the stove to boil down the liquid until it is absorbed into the beans. This can take a good hour. Just keep watching.

To serve, place the chulent in a large flat dish (you should have cooked out enough of the liquid so that it's not at all soupy), peel an egg and place it on the chulent. Now slice your goose breast and lay it, fan shaped, over the chulent. Serve with a good red wine, like a Hungarian Egri Bikaver.

The restaurant's manager, Terez Balog, says “we must be doing something right. Whenever Adam puts chulent on the menu, it never makes it to dinner. In fact, it's gone by 1:00 pm.”

[Dora's note: I'm not sure if this is real origin of the world chulent, but I have always been told it is taken from two French words: chaud lit, meaning warm bed]