The Second Avenue Deli Cookbook (28 page)

SERVES
8

We talked about the history of
cholent
, the esteemed culinary centerpiece of midday Sabbath meals. In Europe, Jews were so sentimental about cholent that nineteenth-century German poet Heinrich Heine even wrote an ode to it: “Cholent, ray of light immortal! Cholent, daughter of Elysium.…” But as Jews assimilated in the New World, they adopted American quick-and-easy cooking methods (canned vegetables, frozen dinners, cake mixes), and labor-intensive dishes like cholent became a rarity at the dinner table. Happily, their baby-boomer offspring rebelled against American blandness, and authentic, complex dishes like cholent came back into fashion—both in cookbooks and in Jewish restaurants. Though not quite as eloquently as Heine, Second Avenue Deli trucks' license plates proudly proclaim, “Cholent”!

1. In a large bowl, thoroughly mix paprika, garlic powder, onion powder, 1 tablespoon of salt, and 1 teaspoon of pepper. Toss chicken pieces in mixture, coating thoroughly. Cover, and refrigerate for 4 hours or longer.

2. Place lima beans and chickpeas in a large saucepan, and add enough water to cover by 2 inches. Bring to a boil for 2 minutes, remove from heat, cover pot, and let it stand for 1 hour. (Alternately, you can soak both overnight the night before.)

3. In a large skillet, heat 2 tablespoons of the corn oil, and brown chicken pieces (it's best to do it in batches, so all pieces brown evenly). Set aside.

4. Place chicken soup and 3 cups of water in a large stockpot, and bring to
a boil. Drain chickpeas and lima beans in a colander, add them to the stockpot, and simmer uncovered for 40 minutes.

5. Preheat oven to 300 degrees. While beans are cooking, heat 2 tablespoons corn oil in a large clean skillet, and sauté onions until brown. At the last minute, add garlic and brown quickly. Set aside in a bowl.

6. Toss potatoes with the remaining 2 tablespoons corn oil and paprika, coating them thoroughly. Bake for 20 minutes. Set aside.

7. Add chicken, onions, and garlic to the pot. Continue simmering for another 30 minutes.

8. Add derma, salt (if needed), pepper, and potatoes. Simmer for 20 minutes more, or until everything is fully cooked and almost all the liquid is evaporated. Add a little water only if necessary to keep from burning. Cholent is a very thick stew.

9. Just before serving, add spinach leaves, and stir in until they just begin to wilt. (If you're saving some cholent for later, remove it from the pot before adding the spinach leaves; add fresh spinach leaves to the leftover cholent when you reheat it.)

SERVES
6

1. In a bowl, mix garlic powder, salt, and pepper. Rub turkey legs with the mixture, covering them thoroughly. Place legs on a platter and refrigerate for at least 4 hours.

2. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Place chopped onion and celery in a baking dish at least 2 inches deep and large enough to hold all the legs (if you use more than 1 baking dish, put the same amount of onions and celery in each). Place turkey legs on top of vegetables, add 1 inch of water, and bake for 45 minutes, basting about every 20 minutes with pan juices.

3. Turn legs, reduce oven temperature to 375 degrees, and bake for another 45 minutes (still basting occasionally), or until legs are well browned and meat is cooked and tender. Remove from oven, and turn oven temperature
to warm. Remove turkey legs to a platter, and strain pan juices into a saucepan. Discard celery and onions, retaining 2 cups of pan juices in the saucepan. Return turkey legs to baking dish and keep them warm in the oven while you prepare the gravy.

4. Add Kitchen Bouquet and poultry seasoning to pan juices, and simmer on low heat.

5. In a small bowl, dissolve cornstarch by mixing it thoroughly in 3 tablespoons cold water. Add 1 cup gravy, a little at a time, and stir until smooth. Transfer cornstarch mixture back into gravy pot, and, stirring constantly, boil for 2 minutes. Add salt to taste. Serve over hot turkey legs. Or skip the gravy and serve the turkey legs cold.

SERVES
8

At the Deli, we do a big Thanksgiving business every year, both in the restaurant and in take-out orders. This is how we prepare our holiday turkeys. As with our roast chickens, we first marinate turkeys overnight in a spice mixture.

1. Wash the turkey thoroughly in cold water, and clean out its cavity. In a bowl, combine onion powder, garlic powder, paprika, salt, and pepper; mix thoroughly. Dredge the turkey (outside only) in this mixture, making sure
all parts are well covered. Place in a dish covered with aluminum foil, and refrigerate overnight.

2. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Heat 2 tablespoons of the corn oil in a large skillet, and sauté onions until brown. Remove with a slotted spoon to a large bowl. Add 1 tablespoon corn oil to skillet, and sauté celery and carrots until crisp and lightly browned. Remove with a slotted spoon to bowl with onions. Add remaining 2 tablespoons corn oil to skillet, and brown mushrooms. Remove with a slotted spoon to bowl with onions.

3. Place bread cubes in a colander, run cool water over them to soften, and squeeze out excess liquid. Add bread and all other stuffing ingredients to bowl with sautéed vegetables, and mix thoroughly.

4. Stuff the mixture into the cavity of the turkey. Don't pack it in too tightly, because it will expand a bit during the cooking process. Tie legs together with string, and skewer or sew the cavity skin closed. Place in a baking pan with 2 inches of water. Bake, breast up, for 4½ to 5 hours (or until the turkey is nicely browned and the legs move easily up and down). Baste every 20 minutes with pan juices (since there won't be much in the way of pan juices after the first 20 minutes, you can use vegetable oil instead for the first basting). Place extra stuffing in a separate baking dish (see
Note
), and bake it along with turkey (for 75 minutes only; then refrigerate until needed), spooning pan juices on it every 20 minutes (when you're basting the turkey) to keep it moist. Before serving, combine stuffing cooked outside the turkey with stuffing cooked inside it, add pan juices, adjust salt to taste, mix thoroughly, and warm briefly on stove.