Rabbi Leban’s Famous Cholent
When you get compliments on how delicious your cholent is, tell them “what makes a good cholent is good guests.”
When you get compliments on how delicious your cholent is, tell them “what makes a good cholent is good guests.”
Here are a few special succot recipes to enhance your chag! These are perfect dishes to serve as fall starts to come in and we take advantage of the seasonal delicacies. Enjoy!
As we finish Rosh Hashasha, I get to thinking about succos and one of my favorite things. I love sitting in the chill autumn air, with the family, in a beautifully decorated sukkah. Every year my mother would make this delicious potato leek soup and it was the perfect thing to warm us up on the chilly nights. I loved it so much that it was the soup I requested to have on my Bat Mitzvah. However, due to it being spring and us being inside, it was not the same. This soup will never taste as good as it does when we are all enjoying it together in the sukkah.
I discovered this recipe about 13 years ago, labeled as a variation in the classic purple Spice and Spirit cookbook. I make it in bulk, without the pinch of sugar and keep it in the fridge. Spoiler: I use this on every kind of salad!!! Vegetables with green salad, cabbage salad, quinoa salad, you name it!
My husband teases me that I casually mentioned to him once while we were dating, “Oh, by the way. I
don’t know how to cook.” Being that my mother-in-law is a fantastic cook, he simply responded, “Oh.”
and politely tried to disguise his concern.
When I was first married and went with my husband to his brother and sister in law for Shabbos, she made this delicious tomato dip to put on the challah, potato kugel and basically everything. My husband asked me to please get the recipe and since then we have been eating tomato dip almost every Shabbos!
I would like to share with you a traditional Romanian recipe from my mom Roza Bin that passed away 14 years ago, Of Blessed Memory. It is especially traditional dairy dish for Shavuoth holiday. It is between a cake and a sweet dairy dinner meal. In my childhood, when I and my brothers were young, my mom used to do “Malai” for fun dinner whenever we asked. Usually, it’s for Shavuot holyday!
Many years ago when I was in college majoring in Chemistry, I got a wonderful lab partner to work with. He had a great understanding of the actual chemistry behind the labs, and I was very strong in math. So he helped me to understand the chemistry and I helped him with the math. We worked together in the lab, and afterwards did the homework and documentation together. One evening we took a little break and he served me a piece of cheesecake that was amazing.
When my husband and I started becoming more observant and began keeping Shabbat, I barely knew how to cook. Fast forward almost 25 years and I’ve learned a thing or two along the way! Through the years we’ve hosted many Shabbat and Yom Tov meals, and have fortunately been invited to many as well. This is how I learned to cook. Lots of trial and error and many requests for recipes.
My great-grandmother lived in Missouri, she was a true southern woman. Church on Sundays, a strong southern drawl and the ONLY ONE allowed in the kitchen. However, whenever we would go to visit, she would sneak me and my brother into the kitchen with her, not letting anyone else in. She would tie an apron around us and hand us supplies to put on the table to get baking.