This one-dish meal is based most
loosely on a recipe for ground beef “Ktzitzot.” My changes include adding
veggies to a “burgers” recipe, more than doubling the seasoning (including the amounts
of onion and garlic,) and adding sesame seeds (also, I’ve reduced the amount
and changed the type of salt.) The template
is in Jamie Geller’s cookbook, Joy of Kosher.
1 medium Italian eggplant, chopped
2 Portabella mushroom caps, chopped—I am sure that you could
use 8 oz of any mushrooms
(Place the eggplant and mushrooms in a medium-sized bowl.)
1 bell pepper, chopped (I used orange, as so much of the
dish is neutral shades)
1 large onion, chopped
6 garlic cloves, minced
(Place the bell pepper, onion, and garlic in another
medium-sized bowl.)
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1 to 1-1/4 lb ground chicken (you can try this with ground turkey—the
flavor will be more pronounced)
1 egg
¾ c matzo meal OR Panko bread crumbs
4 stems of parsley with leaves, chopped
½ Tablespoon sea salt
½ tsp Za’atar seasoning
(a mixture of parsley, sesame seeds, and sumac)
½ tsp cumin
½ tsp cinnamon
Mix together (in a large bowl.) This is easiest with your
hands, but you can use a potato masher instead.
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1 inch of olive oil to cover the bottom of the pot you use—I
used an enamel-coated cast-iron 5-quart Dutch oven.
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Put one piece of the onion into the oil and heat the oil
over a medium flame. When the onion sizzles, add all of the onion, garlic, and
bell pepper. Place the softer veggies (eggplant and mushrooms) on top of the
harder veggies (which are already in the pot.) Cover it and cook for 5 minutes.
Stir.
Add the chicken mixture all in a heap. Use a wooden spoon to
break it into chunks the size of a Damson plum. It doesn’t matter if some bits
of the chicken fall loose or if some chunks are a bit bigger. Cover the pot.
Cook for 15 minutes. Stir thoroughly to incorporate all the
veggies into the chicken. Cover the pot again.
Cook for another 10 minutes. Taste to ensure that you find the
dish salty enough. (Add a small amount of salt if you find it necessary.)
This is a rich dish and so it yields about 7 servings.
NOTE: I cooked this recipe for the Sabbath and was able to
prepare it for the Saturday mid-day dinner. I cooked it completely before Friday
candle-lighting, but because the pan is so heavy, it was able to stay on the blech
without losing moisture. (The combination of the liquid given off by the
veggies and the olive oil produces a considerable sauce.) A note to everyone who
has never heard of a blech: Jews who follow the commandments regarding
not kindling a flame on the Sabbath use a tin sheet that covers at least two
burners of the stove. With a two-burner blech, the cook leaves only one
burner on (before the Sabbath,) and that to “Low,” the lowest setting possible.
The tin retains heat exceedingly. Since a porcelain-covered cast-iron pot also
retains heat, you can leave such a pot about 2/3 over a burner (under the tin blech)
that is off—and the food will not have become a Petri dish of bacteria
overnight. In the early morning, you can shift such a heavy and enameled pot, containing
a recipe with this much sauce, fully to the portion of the blech that is
over the burner that IS turned on (Low.) In those conditions, you likely will
not burn any food if you serve dinner no more than 7 hours after having shifted
the pot.
