PLANNING FOR HOLIDAY MEALS

 

Roast chicken with fruit stuffing, a festive dish for a holiday meal.

Rosh Hashana, the Jewish New Year, begins at sundown on Monday, September 22—coincidentally the first day of autumn. Those of you who observe the holiday have probably long since planned a special menu and, likely, have even begun the cooking. This is the first of fall/winter holidays, from Rosh Hashana to All Saints/All Souls (Halloween), Thanksgiving to Christmas, Hanukkah to New Year’s, with many occasions to gather friends and family for festive dining.

To help you plan holiday meals, have a look at my new cookbook, Flavors of al-Andalus, The Culinary Legacy of Spain. A section of Menu Suggestions at the back of the book shows you how to use the recipes in your life. 

Here are the menu ideas for an Autumn/Winter Holiday Meal--appetizers, starters, mains, desserts, cookies, and confections. Recipes for all of the dishes listed can be found in Flavors of al-Andalus. (The recipe for Roast Chicken with Fruit Stuffing follows.)

Chicken and Liver Pâté (Morteruelo) accompanied with toasts

Winter Gazpacho with Oranges (Gazpacho de Invierno)

Savory Almond Soup (Sopa de Almendras)

Hake in Saffron Sauce (Merluza al Azafrán)

Roast Chicken with Fruit Stuffing (Pollo Relleno con Frutas) 

Cauliflower (or cardoons) in Almond Sauce (Coliflor en Salsa de Almendras)

Pumpkin Pudding (Arnadí)

Crumbly Olive Oil Cookies (Mantecados de Aceite)

Fig Pâté (Pan de Higos)

Honey-Almond Logs (Alfajores)

The roast chicken is a gorgeous dish for any holiday, but it is especially appropriate for Rosh Hashana because its roots are in Spain’s Sephardic Jewish cooking.

Quite a few of the recipes in Flavors of al-Andalus have come down to us from the community of Sephardic Jews. Sepharad was the name that the Jews gave to the Iberian peninsula, where, for more than 13 centuries, Jews lived alongside Romans, Visigoths, Muslims and Christians in communities throughout the country. The Jews were expelled from Spain in 1492 by the same Catholic monarchs, Ferdinand and Isabella, who, having defeated the last of the Moors in the kingdom of Granada, funded Columbus’s scheme to sail west to look for the Spice Islands.

(Note: The recipes in Flavors of al-Andalus with their roots in Islamic Spain are not kosher nor halal. However, they are easily adapted to respect those dietary laws. For instance, Jews can substitute chicken in recipes for rabbit; Muslims can substitute fruit juice for wine. None of the recipes calls for pork, ham or chorizo.)

Roast Chicken with Fruit Stuffing

Pollo Relleno con Frutas

Chicken stuffing is a mixture of dried fruits, apples, and breadcrumbs with Sherry.

(Excerpted from Flavors of al-Andalus, The Culinary Legacy of Spain)

A recipe for “a Jewish dish of chicken with stuffing” appears in an anonymous Arabic manuscript from the 13th century. It calls for the chicken liver and gizzard to be ground up with almonds, pine nuts, fennel, cilantro, spices and beaten eggs. Once the chicken is done and the stuffing set, the recipe instructs the cook to “ladle it out and put the stuffing around it, garnish with cut rue and fennel, eyes of mint, and toasted almonds, and present it, God willing.”

Fast-forward to the 21st century, and we find a recipe from Catalonia (the eastern Mediterranean region where Barcelona is located) for roast, stuffed chicken or turkey that is prepared for the Christmas feast. It is stuffed with pork sausage meat, nuts and dried fruits. The origin of the recipe may well be medieval Jewish, when it would have been made with a forcemeat of minced chicken or veal instead of pork. It is a very festive dish.

A medium-dry Sherry such as amontillado or oloroso seco flavors the stuffing and the pan juices. If not available, use any white wine. Use any combination of dried fruits. Truffles are an optional, luxurious, addition to the stuffing mixture. Small onions, carrots, and turnips can be added to the roasting pan, if desired.

The stuffing can also be used for small birds such as squab, Cornish game hens or for turkey (although turkey is not included in recipes in Flavors of al-Andalus because it is a fowl from the New World, unknown in Moorish Spain).

Serves 8.

1 roasting chicken or capon (5 to 6 pounds)

1 teaspoon salt + more for sprinkling

Freshly ground black pepper

1 tablespoon + ½ cup medium-dry Sherry

1 cup chopped dried fruits (raisins, apricots, prunes, figs)

¼ cup hot water

8 ounces ground chicken or veal

3 tablespoons olive oil

¼ cup pine nuts

½ cup chopped onions

1 cup fresh breadcrumbs

1 cup diced apple

¼ teaspoon cinnamon

Pinch of cloves

Pinch freshly grated nutmeg

3 tablespoons chopped parsley

Pinch dried thyme

Truffles, diced (optional)

1 tablespoon capers 

Small onions, carrots, turnips (optional)

½ to 1 cup chicken stock

Sprinkle the chicken inside and out with salt and pepper. Rub the cavity with 1 tablespoon of the Sherry. Allow the chicken to come to room temperature.

Preheat the oven to 450ºF.

Soak the dried fruits in hot water for 10 minutes to soften them. 

Combine the ground chicken in a large bowl with the dried fruits and their soaking water. Heat 2 tablespoons oil in a small skillet and toast the pine nuts until golden. Skim them out and add to the bowl with the ground chicken. Add the onion to the skillet and sauté until softened, 3 minutes. Add the onion to the bowl along with the breadcrumbs, apple, cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, parsley, thyme, truffles if using, capers, 1 teaspoon salt, and pepper. Combine well.

Stuff the chicken with the mixture. Skewer the neck and body openings closed and truss the chicken with kitchen twine. Place in a heavy roasting pan or in a large ovenproof skillet. Drizzle with the remaining 1 tablespoon olive oil. (Add vegetables to the roasting pan, if desired.)

Place the pan in the oven and turn the oven temperature down to 350ºF. Roast the chicken for 30 minutes. Add the remaining ½ cup Sherry and ½ cup stock to the pan. Spoon some of the juices over the chicken. Roast for 30 minutes more, basting occasionally. Add up to ½ cup additional stock if the pan looks dry. Roast 1 hour more or until internal temperature of the stuffing reaches 160ºF when tested with an instant-read thermometer.

Transfer the chicken to a cutting board and allow to rest 20 minutes. Carve the chicken and scoop the stuffing into a serving bowl. Skim the fat from the remaining pan juices. Spoon some of the juices over the chicken and serve the rest in a bowl.

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More recipes for Rosh Hashana:

Stuffed Chickens Roasted in a Clay Pot (from Sabores de Sefarad by Javier Zafra).

Chicken Braised in Spiced Grape Juice

Chicken Marbella (my version)

Black-Eyed Peas for the New Year

Apple Cake with Honey-Wine Syrup

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***Anyada buena, dulce i alegre.*** Feliz año nuevo.***Happy New Year.***

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FLAVORS OF AL-ANDALUS 

The Culinary Legacy of Spain

has menus and recipes for Tapas Party, Brunch, Summer Barbecue, Family Dinners (one vegetarian), Sunday Lunch, Dinner Party, Spring Holiday Meal, and Autumn/Winter Holiday Meal. From your favorite bookseller or click below to order. 

This cookbook explores the fascinating story of the deep and lasting influences that Islamic culture has left on modern Spanish cooking. 

Author and Spanish cooking expert Janet Mendel tells the story of the Moorish influence on Spanish cooking through 120 recipes and photographs for modern-day dishes, from salads and vegetables to fish, poultry and meat to sweets and pastries, that trace their heritage to foods served in medieval times. Dishes from this era include exotic spices such as saffron, the use of fruits and almonds with savory dishes, and honeyed sweets and pastries. The flavors of al-Andalus live on in modern Spanish cooking and are what makes Spain’s cuisine distinctive from the rest of Europe. (Hippocrene Books)    

 Order on IndiePubs

Use PROMO CODE HIPPOCRENE40 for 40% off on all Hippocrene titles at IndiePubs online bookstore.

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FLAVORS OF AL-ANDALUS by Janet Mendel is the #1 New Release in Spanish Cooking on Amazon!

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***   ***   ***

SAN ANTÓN AND THE MUTATION OF A STEW

 

(Photo by Mijas Comunicación)

How did a hermit-saint who consumed nothing but bread and water come to be associated with lusty stews replete with pig’s trotters, ears, tripe and belly? Such is the commemoration of the day of San Antón Abad (January 17). Many towns, including Madrid, mark the saint’s day with mass and festivities, often including giant stew pots of pork and garbanzo stew. 

San Antón was known as the protector of all animals, so, in many locales, the priest concludes the mass with blessings for household pets brought to the shrine by villagers. 

San Antón, whose torments by wild beasts have been depicted by artists from Hieronymus Bosch to Salvador Dalí, is often shown accompanied by a pig. The pig in the picture derives from a legend that a wild sow approached the hermit in the desert with her blind boarlets. The saint cured their blindness and, henceforth, the sow accompanied him, fending off all threats. 

The stew, called Olla de San Antón in the Granada and Almería region, contains chickpeas and/or beans and/or dried fava beans, wheat berries, wild fennel, and pig’s ears, trotters, ribs, bacon, plus morcilla, blood sausage. 

  

Interestingly, a recipe for a similar stew, with chickpeas and wheat berries, appears in a 13th century cookbook written by an anonymous Moorish cook—made with beef instead of pig parts! That recipe has survived to the present day in the Sephardic Moroccan-Jewish recipe for oriza, a stew with chickpeas and wheat cooked with beef. 

No pig parts in this stew! It is a Sephardic recipe, similar to the San Antón stew, but with beef instead of pork, chickpeas and wheat kernels.

Wheat berries.

Wheat berries are the whole wheat kernels without husk. Soak them overnight before cooking. Even with slow cooking, they remain quite chewy. Whole-grain rice or pearl barley could be used instead of the wheat.

Wild fennel shoots.

In Granada, it is customary to pick the first tender green shoots of wild fennel to cook with this stew. As most city folk will not have that ingredient, use chopped cultivated fennel bulb. 

Pork and Wheat Stew with Fennel, Granada Style

Olla de San Antón, Estilo Granadino

Pork belly and blood sausage go into this stew with chickpeas, wheat berries and vegetables. The authentic version would also include pig trotters and ears! 

 

If wild fennel shoots are not available, use a bulb of cultivated fennel.

1 cup wheat berries

4 ounces pancetta or bacon

1 cup chopped wild fennel stems or fennel bulb

1 carrot, sliced

2 teaspoons salt

8 ounces morcilla de cebolla (blood sausage with onion)

2 cups cooked or canned chickpeas

2-3 potatoes, cut in pieces

1 thick slice bread

1 tablespoon vinegar

3 cloves garlic

½ teaspoon pimentón (paprika)

Fennel leaves for garnish

Pour 1 cup of boiling water over the wheat berries and let them soak for 12 hours.

Drain the wheat and add to a soup pot with the pancetta, fennel, carrot and salt. Add 6 cups of water.  Bring to a boil, skim off froth that rises. Lower heat and simmer 30 minutes.

Add the morcilla, cooked chickpeas, and potatoes. Simmer 30 minutes more, skimming off excess fat occasionally.

Place the bread in a bowl and sprinkle it with the vinegar. Let it set until vinegar is absorbed. Place the bread in a mortar or blender with the garlic and pimentón. Ladle in enough of the liquid from the soup pot to soften the bread. Blend until smooth.

Stir the mixture from the blender into the soup and cook another 15 minutes. Remove the piece of pancetta and the morcilla from the soup. Use kitchen scissors to cut them into pieces. Return to the soup.

Allow the soup to settle for 10 minutes before serving. Garnish with chopped fennel leaves.

Boiled Beef with Wheat Berries

Olla de Trigo con Añojo (Oriza)

This Sephardic stew with beef often has sweet potatoes instead of regular potatoes.

Smash cooked garlic on toasts.

Use stewing beef such as shin, brisket, chuck, cheeks, or breast for this recipe. Both the wheat berries and the chickpeas need to be soaked overnight before cooking.

A whole head of garlic cooked with the meat flavors the broth. After cooking, the softened cloves of garlic can be served spread on toasted bread with olive oil to accompany the stew. 

A net bag is useful for cooking the chickpeas, so they can easily be removed from the cookpot. Also, you can cook double the amount of chickpeas and save some for another use.

1 cup wheat berries (6 ounces)

1 ¼ cups dry chickpeas (8 ounces)

Hot water

1 pound boneless stewing beef

1 onion

3 cloves

2 carrots

1 sweet potato, cut into pieces

1 whole head of garlic

1 bay leaf

10 peppercorns

1 teaspoon pimentón (paprika)

1 tablespoon salt

Fennel or mint sprigs to garnish

Day before cooking the boiled beef: Put the wheat berries in a small pan with water to cover. Bring to a boil and cook gently for 10 minutes. Remove the pan from the heat. Put a lid on it and wrap the pan in a kitchen towel. Let the wheat soak 12 hours.

Place the chickpeas in a bowl. Add hot water to cover them by 3 inches. Allow the chickpeas to soak 12 hours. 

When ready to cook: Drain the chickpeas and the wheat. Cut the beef into three or four chunks. Place 10 cups of fresh water in a large soup pot and bring to a boil. Stick the onion with the cloves and add to the pot with the peeled carrots. Slice the top off the head of garlic and add to the pot. When the water begins to bubble, add the pieces of beef, the wheat berries and the chickpeas. As the water comes to a boil, skim off the skum that rises to the top. Add the bay leaf, peppercorns, pimentón, and salt. Lower the heat to a gentle simmer, cover the pot, and let it cook 60 minutes. 

Taste for salt and add more, if needed. Add the sweet potatoes and cook until meat and chickpeas are very tender, 30 minutes more. 

Skim out the chunks of beef. Cut them into bite-size pieces and return to the pot. Skim out the carrots, slice them and return to the pot. Discard the bay leaf. Skim out the head of garlic to serve separately. 

Remove the pot from the heat and allow the contents to settle 5 minutes before serving. Garnish with sprigs of fennel or mint.

Pictured at left, one of several pots of Potaje de San Antón as made in my pueblo, Mijas. It contains chickpeas, tripe and blood sausage, but not wheat berries.

More photos and a recipe for San Antón Day: The Saint and the Pig. 

ARTICHOKES—TO CELEBRATE SPRING HOLIDAYS

The sun peeps out from behind the clouds and, right on cue, the folks renting the house next door for Easter week are splashing in the pool. Me, I’m still wearing a warm sweater and wool socks. Indoors, the house takes a long time to warm up. 

Orange blossom.

But, it’s definitely springtime. Wildflowers are abloom and orange blossoms perfume the garden. It´s a week of spring holidays. Easter, Passover and Ramadan all are celebrated this week. 

A friend brought packs of matzo (unleavened bread for Passover) from the U.S. (thanks, Jesse), so we are having a mini-seder, all vegetarian. It seemed only appropriate to serve Sephardic foods, in honor of the Jewish communities of medieval Spain and of those who have returned to Spain.  

This recipe for artichoke-orange salad was given to me by a Sephardic acquaintance from North Africa whose family, a few centuries ago, was from Toledo. They resettled in Spain in the1980s. She told me the salad is served for Passover. 

Salads of vegetables with oranges are very typical in Spain and in Morocco. This one might also include spring fava beans and, in Turkey, green almonds. It can be prepared up to three days before serving. Serve it at room temperature, as a starter or side dish. 

Artichoke bottoms are cooked with citrus and olive oil, served room temperature with sliced oranges.

Mint leaves add a fresh flavor to the artichokes.

Serve the salad as a starter or side dish for a spring holiday meal.

Trimmed artichokes are tender enough to eat the whole piece. 

Artichoke and Orange Salad

Ensalada de Alcachofas con Naranjas

I’ve used medium-sized artichokes. Trimmed down to the bottoms, they are cut in half before cooking. If you’ve got really big artichokes, cut them in quarters. You need to remove all the exterior leaves and fibrous choke so that the whole piece of cooked artichoke is edible. 

If available, use sour (bitter) Sevilla orange juice instead of lemon to cook the artichokes. The acidic juice keeps the artichokes from darkening. Use ordinary sweet oranges to finish the salad. 

Serves 6.

2 lemons (or sour oranges)

10 medium artichokes (3 pounds)

2 oranges

1 teaspoon salt

¼ cup + 3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

1 clove garlic, slivered

1 tablespoon Sherry vinegar

Romaine leaves to serve

2 tablespoons chopped fresh mint to garnish

Put the juice of ½ lemon (about 1 tablespoon) in a bowl and fill with water. Snap off 3 or 4 layers of the outer leaves from the artichokes. Cut them about a third of the way from the bottoms, discarding the upper leaves. Using a spoon or melon baller, scoop out and discard the fuzzy choke. Cut the bottoms in half. Place each artichoke bottom as prepared into the lemon water. If desired, the stems can be peeled and cooked with the artichoke bottoms

Pull off three or four layers of outer leaves. 

Use a spoon or melon ball tool to scoop out the fuzzy, fibrous choke in the center.

Place the artichokes in a saucepan just large enough to hold them. Peel and slice 1 lemon and 1 orange and tuck the slices in with the artichokes. Pour the juice of remaining half lemon over them. Cover with 6 cups of water. Add the salt, oil and slivered garlic.

Bring to a boil, then simmer, covered. Artichokes are done when an outer leaf pulls off easily, about 20 minutes. Let them cool in the liquid.

The artichokes can be refrigerated, covered, in their liquid up to 3 days. Bring them to room temperature to serve.

Before serving, drain the artichokes in a colander or use a slotted spoon to remove just a few. Discard the pieces of cooked orange and lemon. Arrange the artichokes on a bed of romaine leaves. Peel and slice the remaining orange and tuck the slices in with the artichokes. Stir together the 3 tablespoons of oil and vinegar. Spoon the dressing over the artichokes and oranges. Sprinkle with mint.

Artichoke salad served at the seder dinner.

Spring herbs for our seder table. I've gathered parsley, dill, wild fennel, celery, mint and cilantro.

Happy Easter. Happy Passover. Blessed Ramadan. Peace.

SALAD WITH AN "EXOTIC" TOUCH

 I came in from the garden with a basket of small carrots, a handful of mint and one lovely rose. And, I had just the recipe to use all three—carrot salad, from Sabores de Sefarad, by Javier Zafra, a book I reviewed in last week’s blog.

Fresh mint.

The book actually has two recipes for carrot salad, both very enticing. One, for raw, grated carrots, calls for mint; the other, for cooked and sliced carrots, is finished with rose petals. No way was I going to grate the tiny carrots culled from my garden, so I chose to combine the recipes, using some of the flavors from both.

The recipes in Sabores de Sefarad are adaptations of foods that might have been prepared in Sephardic homes in medieval Spain. Some of the flavorings  are “exotic” by present-day Spanish standards—fresh ginger, cilantro, orange blossom water, while mint and cumin are very common.

Carrot salad with medieval flavors, garnished with rose petals.

Carrot Salad

Ensalada de Zanahorias

I just happened to have orange blossom water (agua de azahar) left from another recipe, but no rose water. If you don’t have orange blossom water, add a little grated orange zest. 

Pomegranate molasses (jarabe de granadas) is not used in Spanish cooking, but can be bought in Middle Eastern shops. If not available, use honey in its place. Although the recipe does not call for vinegar, to my taste the dressing was too sweet, so I added just a little. The garnish of rose petals is so pretty, but if you don’t have unsprayed roses, just omit the garnish. If pine nuts aren't available, use toasted almonds or pistachios.

If available, use purple carrots for this recipe or a combination of purple and orange carrots. 

Sweet and sour vinaigrette for carrots.

Serves 6.

1 pound carrots

Salt

1 teaspoon grated fresh ginger

1 teaspoon toasted cumin seeds

1 tablespoon raisins

½ tablespoon orange blossom water

½ tablespoon rose water

1 tablespoon pomegranate molasses or honey

3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

Freshly ground black pepper

1 teaspoon Sherry vinegar (optional)

3 tablespoons chopped fresh mint or cilantro

1 tablespoon toasted pine nuts

Rose petals, to garnish

Cook the carrots in boiling salted water until they are easily pierced with the tip of a knife. Drain and refresh them in cold water. When cool enough to handle, peel the carrots. If using full-size carrots, slice them crosswise. If using small carrots, cut them into 1 ½-inch lengths.

In a small bowl combine the ginger, cumin, raisins, orange blossom and rose water, honey or pomengranate syrup and pepper. Whisk in the oil and vinegar until the dressing is emulsified. 

Mix the dressing with the carrots. Allow to stand for 2 hours (or up to 24 hours). 

Stir in the chopped mint or cilantro immediately before serving. Spread the carrots on a platter. Garnish with the pine nuts and a few rose petals.

More recipes for carrot salad:

Sweet and Sour Purple Carrots.

Minted Carrot Salad.

Moroccan Carrot Salad.

SABORES DE SEFARAD--Los Secretos de la Gastronomía Judeoespañola by Javier Zafra is available to order from  https://redjuderias.org/producto/sabores-de-sefarad/

MOTHER OF ALL THE COCIDOS

La madre de todos los cocidos—the mother of all cocidos. Such has adafina been called. Adafina is a one-pot meal prepared by Sephardic Jews, a people who had a long-established community in Toledo before the expulsion order of 1492. The pot with meat, chickpeas and vegetables is put to cook before sundown on Friday and allowed to slowly cook overnight in the embers of the fire, to be served on Saturday for the Jewish Sabbath when it was prohibited to cook. 

Is this the origin of the Spanish cocido? Adafina is a one-pot meal with meat, vegetables and chickpeas that dates back to Spain's medieval Sephardic community. 

The present-day Spanish cocido, one-pot meal, and its antecedent, the olla podrida, probably is descended from this Sephardic dish. In the days of the Inquisition, conversos, Jews who had converted to Catholicism rather than face expulsion, added pork and sausages to the pot to demonstrate good faith. Adafina gradually evolved to be the cocido known in every region of Spain, a meal that, in addition to beef, vegetables and chickpeas, almost always includes pork, sausages and ham bone. 

The name adafina derives from the Arabic, meaning “covered,” as it once was cooked in the coals in earthen pit ovens. Variations of the name (worth knowing if you are searching indexes) are dafina, t’fina, and hamin (which means “hot”). 

In medieval Toledo the pot would not have included potatoes, a vegetable not known until after the New World was“discovered.” But, modern-day adafina, as made by Sephardic Jews from Morocco and Tunisia, does contain potatoes or even sweet potatoes as well as a palette of spices that includes pimentón (paprika), another New World contribution. It often includes whole wheat-berries and/or rice. The grains are seasoned, wrapped in cloth and cooked right in the pot with meat, vegetables and chickpeas.

Unshelled eggs are a typical addition to adafina. The eggs hard-boil in the slow-cooked pot and darken from the meat juices. While the eggs are not found in a Spanish cocido, the relleno, meatballs or rolls of ground meat or chicken that cook with the meats and chickpeas, definitely is very much a part of many Spanish cocidos and pucheros. Another difference: the adafina usually has honey, date syrup or even caramel, adding a subtle sweetness and emphasizing the deep color of the broth. 

This recipe is adapted from the adafina I enjoyed at Restaurante Adolfo in Toledo, during a week of special events devoted to Jewish heritage in Europe (see below for link). 

 The meat, chickpeas, and vegetables cook 3 or more hours in a slow oven. Should you wish to cook the adafina overnight, after bringing the water to a boil, cover the pot with a tight-fitting lid and place in the oven preheated to 225ºF. Cook the adafina for 6 to 10 hours. Modern-day Sephardic cooks usually leave the pot on an electric hot-plate (placa) to stay warm overnight.

Strained broth can be served alongside.

The broth cooks down considerably in the long cooking and, unlike cocido, it is not usually served as a separate soup course. However, I decided to strain it and serve small cups of the caldo (broth) to my guests. 

You don’t have to be Jewish to enjoy this heart-warming meal. Nor does it have to cook all night nor be served exclusively for the Saturday Shabbat midday dinner. I loved waking up to the aromas of that delicious food, knowing that dinner was ready any time I wanted to serve it. 

The adafina is a festive one-pot meal for the Jewish Sabbath.

Meat roll (this one of ground chicken breast with rice), marrow bone and brisket so tender it is falling into pieces.

These carrots roasted all night alongside the pot of adafina. I sprinkled them with olive oil, salt and pepper and wrapped them in foil. Deliciously sweet.

Serve meat, vegetables and chickpeas with a little of the broth ladled over.

Sephardic Cocido (Meal-in-a-Pot), Toledo Style
Adafina de Toledo

Two days before serving the adafina: Soak the chickpeas in water to cover overnight or at least 8 hours. 

One day before serving: Place meat, vegetables, meat roll and eggs in pot with water and start cooking on stove. Place in a very low oven (225ºF)  overnight (or, at least 4 hours).  

To serve the adafina: Remove cooking pot from the oven. Slice the meat roll and place on a platter with the meat and potatoes. Peel the eggs, cut them in half and place on the platter. Ladle some of the broth over the meat. If making the ajada sauce, separate one potato and the head of garlic. If you intend to serve broth, ladle it through a strainer.

To cook the adafina you will need a large (6-quart) stew pot with a tight-fitting lid that can go from stove-top to oven. A full pot is extremely heavy, so take care moving it into and out of the oven.

Serves 6-8.

For the meat roll:
Most recipes for adafina call for ground beef to make the meat roll or balls that cook in the adafina pot. I chose to substitute ground chicken breast.

1 pound ground chicken or veal
1 egg, beaten
½ cup uncooked rice
3 tablespoons minced onion
3 tablespoons chopped flat-leaf parsley
½ teaspoon salt
Freshly ground black pepper
1/8 teaspoon grated nutmeg
½ teaspoon ground ginger
Pinch of ground cloves

To prepare the meat roll:

Wrap meat roll in cloth.

Combine the ground chicken or veal, egg, rice, onion, parsley, salt, pepper, nutmeg, ginger and clove in a bowl. Knead the mixture to combine well.

Cut a double-layer of cheesecloth into a 14 x 8-inch rectangle. Shape the chicken mixture into a 12-inch log and place it on the cheesecloth. Roll the log in the cheesecloth. Tie the ends with kitchen twine. Cook in the adafina pot.

For the adafina:
1 ½ cups dried chickpeas (about 10 ounces), soaked 6 to 12 hours
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 turnip, peeled
1 stalk celery
1 onion, unpeeled
1 meaty shin bone or marrow bone (12 to16 ounces)
2 ¼ pounds beef brisket
8-10 cups water
1 tablespoon salt
1 head of garlic, not peeled, top sliced off

Meat roll (recipe above) wrapped in cheesecloth

6-8 small red potatoes (about 1 pound), peeled
2-inch cinnamon stick
½ teaspoon peppercorns
1 bay leaf
6 medjool dates
6 whole eggs, room temperature
Sprigs of parsley to garnish
Ajada garlic sauce to accompany (optional)

Ready to fill the big pot--at the top, brisket cut into two pieces and marrow bones; potatoes, garlic, celery, onion and turnip; and, on the platter below, a mesh bag containing chickpeas that have soaked overnight, a meat roll wrapped in cheesecloth, raw, unshelled eggs and a few dates. If you don't have a mesh bag for the chickpeas, just add them loose to the pot.

To prepare the adafina pot:
Drain the chickpeas. Place them in a mesh bag for cooking legumes.

Put the olive oil in the bottom of a large oven-safe stewpot. Put in the turnip, celery and onion. Place the shinbone and brisket on top. Add the water and bring to a boil.

As the water comes to a boil, keep skimming off the froth that rises to the top.

Skim off all the froth that rises to the top. Lower heat so the water bubbles gently. Carefully place the bag of chickpeas, the wrapped meat roll and the potatoes into the pot. Bring again to a boil and skim. Add the salt. Tuck the head of garlic in with the cinnamon stick, peppercorns, bay leaf and dates. Carefully lower the eggs into the pot. 

Cover and simmer the pot 1 hour.

Heat oven to 400ºF.

Remove lid and check to make sure that enough water remains—there should be enough liquid to almost cover the meat and potatoes. Add more water if needed.

Lower oven temperature to 225ºF. Very carefully transfer the pot to the oven.  Cook the adafina in the low oven at least 4 hours and up to 8 hours. (If the adafina will not be served for several more hours, turn the oven to “warm” (180ºF).

Remove the meat roll from the pot and discard the cheesecloth and twine. Slice the roll crosswise and arrange the slices on a platter. Remove the shin beef and brisket to the platter and cut them into serving pieces. 

Slow-cooked chickpeas are unbelievably tender. They darken from cooking with the beef.

With a slotted spoon, ladle the chickpeas onto the platter with the meat. Tent with foil and keep warm. Skim out the head of garlic and reserve it  and one potato to make ajada sauce, if desired.

Slow-cooked eggs darken too.

Remove the eggs and peel them. Place them whole or sliced on the platter. Arrange the potatoes and turnip around the meats on the platter. Discard cooked onion, celery, cinnamon and bay leaf. Spoon some of the hot broth over the meats and vegetables. 

Garnish the platter with sprigs of parsley. Serve immediately accompanied, if desired, with ajada garlic sauce.

White Garlic Sauce
Ajada Blanca

Sauce for meat and chickpeas.

Serve this sauce with the cooked meats, potatoes and chickpeas.

1 cooked head of garlic
1 small cooked potato
3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
Salt

Mash cooked garlic. 

Squeeze the cloves of garlic out of their skins into a small bowl. Mash them with a fork. Add the potato, cut in pieces, and mash it well. Stir in the oil and lemon juice. Season to taste with salt. If necessary, thin the sauce with a little broth from the cooking pot. It should be the consistency of thick cream.

Recipes for traditional Spanish cocidos:

Puchero Andaluz.

Cocido Madrileño.

Puchero Canario.

This year the Semana Sefardí in Toledo takes place 16-24 of March. More information and programming:

https://toledoguiaturisticaycultural.com/semana-sefardi/ 

https://redjuderias.org/ 

References for adafina recipes:

The Book of Jewish Food by Claudia Roden (Alfred A. Knopf; 1996).
The Scent of Orange Blossoms, Sephardic Cuisine from Morocco by Kitty Morse (Ten Speed Press, 2001).
A Drizzle of Honey, The Lives and Recipes of Spain’s Secret Jews, by David M. Gitlitz and Linda Kay Davidson (St. Martin’s Press; 1999).
La Cocina Hebrea, La Gastronomía Melillense Conserjería de Cultura de Ciudad Autónoma de Melilla, 1997.
La Cocina Judía by Uriel Macías Kapón and Ana Benarroch de Bensadón (Red de Juderías de España; 2003).

Facebook groups: Sephardic Recipe Swap; SEC FOOD (Sephardic Educational Center).