Things to do with Pumpkins when they're dead...

My one flight into culinary history involves a recipe of my mother's that we have once a year when oven-size pumkins are available: Carbonada Criolla.

My mother always told me that this stew was made by Gauchos over a campfire with whatever local ingredients were available - with the pumkin as a stewpot. Now, I've always been skeptical of this idea, since I can barely keep the pumkin upright when I bake it, but I never thought much about it until one day I was at the kosher deli in the Jewel on Howard, and I saw something that looked suspiciously like Carbonada without the meat. Since it was unlabeled, I asked a nice lady waiting in line with me what it was. She answered without hesitation "it's Tzimmes - but it's awfully dry; you want to add a little water and cook it up on the stove with some brown sugar, it should have some nice sauce....

Hmm, I thought - so I did some research on Tzimmes (which I've always wanted to try anyway) and found that the dried fruit symbolizes a sweet new year for Rosh Hashanah – here and in Europe, celebrated during the autumn months of September and October. In Argentina, it's Spring, when peaches and sweet corn are ripe. There is another traditional Argentine stew called Locro de Choclo, which essentially is this recipe with sausage and beans added and the Tzimmes taken out.

Interestingly, a historical website shows that a group of Jewish immigrants apparently became Gauchos: "In 1889, 824 Russian Jews arrived in Argentina on the S.S. Weser and became gauchos (Argentine cowboys). The gauchos bought land and established a colony, which they named Moiseville. During its heyday, the Association owned more than 600,000 hectares of land, populated by more than 200,000 Jews."* In many recipes, this dish is referred to as "Argentine tzimmes."

Here’s my mother’s recipe. Since discovering its history, I now make it with beef brisket, which greatly improves the flavor:

· One Jack-O-Lantern size pumpkin that will fit in your oven
· Butter and sugar to coat inside of pumpkin (I skip the sugar)
· 2 tbsp Olive Oil
· 2 lb lean beef chuck cut into 1” cubes
· 1 cup chopped onions
· ½ cup choppped green pepper
· ½ tsp finely chopped garlic
· 4 cups beef stock
· 2 cups cold water
· 3 medium tomatoes, peeled, seeded and chopped
· ½ tsp dried oregano
· 1 bay leaf
· 1 tsp salt
· fresh ground pepper to taste
· 1 ½ lb sweet potatoes, peeled and cut into ½ “ cubes
· 1 ½ lb white potatoes, peeled and cut into ½” cubes
· ½ lb zucchini, scrubbed and cut into ¼” slices
· 3 ears of fresh corn, shucked and cut into 1 inch wide rounds (this can be difficult and messy, but it’s crucial, prepare to spend some time on it)
· 4 fresh peaches, peeled, quartered, and pitted (or canned ones, rinsed)

Prepare pumpkin: preheat oven to 375. Cut a round lid off the top of the pumkin with the stem as a handle, using an angled slice. (I usually carve out a notch for the serving spoon in the lid) Scrape the insides out of the pumpkin carefully (word of warning: don’t scrape the bottom stem end too hard or you’ll wind up with a leaking vessel when it’s cooked) brush the inside with butter and pour the sugar inside, shaking to coat. Dump out excess sugar. Bake for 45 minutes in a shallow roasting pan until tender but still firm.

Heat the oil in a largeish dutch oven and brown the meat in small batches. Remove beef from pot and lower the heat, add onions, pepper and garlic and sweat until soft. Add stock and water, stir, and add remaining ingredients - including the beef - up to potatoes. Cook 15 minutes. Add potatoes and cook 15 minutes more. Add zucchini and cook 10 minutes. Add corn and peaches, cook 5 minutes.

To serve, place pumpkin in a deep serving dish, just in case you have a catastrophic structural failure. Add hot stew. Serve – making sure you scrape some pumpkin into each serving.

*The Virtual Jewish History Tour Argentina by Rebecca Weiner

Mhays wrote:I was at the kosher deli in the Jewel on Howard, and I saw something that looked suspiciously like Carbonada without the meat. Since it was unlabeled, I asked a nice lady waiting in line with me what it was. She answered without hesitation "it's Tzimmes - but it's awfully dry; you want to add a little water and cook it up on the stove with some brown sugar, it should have some nice sauce....

Hmm, I thought - so I did some research on Tzimmes (which I've always wanted to try anyway) and found that the dried fruit symboizies a sweet new year for Rosh Hashanah – here and in Europe, celebrated during the autumn months of September and October.

A tzimmes can be any kind of sweet stew, though typically in this country it means one made with carrots and/or sweet potatoes, often with dried fruit such as prunes. It usually has a small amount of meat, traditionally flanken (short ribs), in it. Some people add regular potatoes too, but I wouldn't.

Tzimmes is a Yiddish word based on old German for "light meal" as well as a kind of pun on zum essen ("to eat"). In common usage, which stems from the dish, the Yiddish word means a something all mixed up, elaborate or fussy. "Nisht machen a gantze tzimmes!" means "don't make a big to-do."

Gil Marks dates the dish to medieval Germany.

Tzimmes is served on all kinds of occasions, including Passover and the Sabbath, but the carrot version is especially traditional for Rosh Hashana. Not only is the dish sweet -- and all kinds of sweet dishes make their way into New Year's menus to represent hopes for a sweet coming year -- but the Yiddish word for carrots, meren, means "to multiply." To the pious, this symbolizes the hope that one's good deeds will increase in the coming year. However, I've also heard it expressed as a hope that the Jews will multiply and become a mighty nation. And -- reinforced by the symbolism of the golden coin shape of cut carrots -- as a wish for prosperity in the new year.

Google will find you all kinds of recipes.

This is a Persian-Jewish recipe that seems a little closer. You can serve it from a hollowed-out pumpkin if you like.

Mizrahi pumpkin stew

1 pound cubed lamb or beef stew meat
1/8 cup olive oil
1/2 medium onion, chopped
1 1/2 cups water
2 tablespoons tomato paste
1 teaspoon turmeric
1/8 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon saffron threads, crumbled (optional)
Salt and pepper to taste
2 small cooking pumpkins (about 3 pounds each) or large butternut squash, seeded, sliced into 2-inch cubes and peeled
1/2 cup pitted prunes
Hot, cooked rice

In a large dutch oven over high heat, brown the meat in half the oil; add the onions when the meat is partly browned and cook until golden.

Stir in the water, tomato paste, turmeric, cinnamon, saffron and salt and pepper. Bring to a boil, reduce the heat, cover and cook at a simmer for 1 1/2 to 2 hours, until the meat is tender and nearly falling apart. Add water if needed to keep it from drying out as it cooks.

Meanwhile, in a large skillet over medium high heat, brown the pumpkin on both sides in the remaining oil. Add to the meat and cook, covered, an additional 20 to 30 minutes, until the pumpkin is tender. A fork should penetrate the pumpkin easily but not break it up.

Add the prunes in the last 5 minutes of cooking. Serve over hot, cooked rice. 6 to 8 servings.

Thanks, Laz - never seen the pumpkin connection before. Also interesting to note that while carrots are an old world vegetable, sweet potatoes originated in or near Peru. I don't remember carrots appearing in any of my mother's Argentine dishes, except for escaveche.

I love seeing how food makes its way around the globe - family histories may be lost and forgotten, but you can track some of your ancestry and its influences by your "family dishes."

LAZ wrote:A tzimmes can be any kind of sweet stew, though typically in this country it means one made with carrots and/or sweet potatoes, often with dried fruit such as prunes. It usually has a small amount of meat, traditionally flanken (short ribs), in it. Some people add regular potatoes too, but I wouldn't.

I thought flanken was flank steak? That's what my grandmother called it.

Diannie

Diannie wrote:I thought flanken was flank steak? That's what my grandmother called it.

I hesitate to say that your grandmother was mistaken. Perhaps you were to young to realize what you were actually being served?

Flanken is short ribs cut crosswise in a strip. Flank steak is a boneless cut taken from the hindquarters just below the loin and is not a kosher cut of meat in the United States.

This illustrates the difference between flanken and flank steak fairly well:
http://www.foodsubs.com/MeatBeefB&F.html

Here is a somewhat more precise definition and photo of flanken:
http://www.hormel.com/kitchen/glossary.asp?id=35127

This implies that the term has come into English from Yiddish, with a different pronunciation: http://www.bartleby.com/61/57/F0165700.html (in Yiddish one would say FLAHNG-ken, not FLANG-ken).