Variations · 3/5

Variation · for a crowd

The big Sabbath pot

Beef and chicken, whole eggs that come out caramel-coloured, turnips and a green lid of chard. For a full table.

  • 8–10 servings
  • 40 min prep
  • 16 h in the oven

You'll need

  • 1 kg beef or mutton, in cubes
  • 1 kg chicken thighs and drumsticks
  • 6 tbsp olive oil
  • 3 onions, sliced
  • 600 g cooked chickpeas
  • 3 turnips, quartered
  • 6 eggs in their shells, washed
  • 1 bunch chard, chopped
  • 700 ml water, and salt
  • Fresh coriander or mint, to serve
  • 150 g plain flour + water, to seal

Spices

  • 1½ tsp black peppercorns
  • 1½ tsp coriander seed
  • 1 tsp cumin
  • 2 cm fresh ginger, grated
  • 2 cm cinnamon stick and 1–2 cloves

How to make it

  1. The day before, soak and cook the chickpeas (or use cooked). Wash the eggs well. Pound the spices.
  2. Friday afternoon, the browning. In a big ovenproof pot (6 litres), cook the onions in the oil over medium-low heat until golden, 15–20 minutes, and lift them out. Turn up the heat and brown the meat in batches, then the chicken skin-side down until the skin is golden. Return the onions and add the spices.
  3. Build the pot. Scatter the chickpeas (half mashed) and turnips among the meat. Add 1½ tsp salt and the water. Nestle the eggs in their shells in the middle, covered by the broth.
  4. The green lid. Cover everything with the chopped chard, pressing it down with your hands. It wilts and shields the meat overnight. Put the lid on and seal the rim with a rope of flour-and-water dough.
  5. Before sundown, into an oven preheated to 100–110 °C.
  6. Saturday at noon, break the seal. Lift out the eggs and peel them: the whites turn brown and the yolks creamy. Serve the meats, chickpeas and turnips with the chard, the eggs halved, and coriander or mint on top.
The story behind it

Beatriz Mendes, another New Christian in Pernambuco, cooked chicken “na panella com azeite e com huã pequenina de cebolla”, in the pot with olive oil and a little onion (Denunciações, p. 387). A Toledo household covered its pot with crushed chard (Piñer, Jews, Food, and Spain, p. 200). Long-cooked eggs are in every Sephardi adafina (Roden, p. 368).

Sources