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From: smnmcard@mail.telepac.pt (Sergio Cardoso)
Newsgroups: rec.food.recipes
Subject: Prune Tzimmes (Meat and Potato Stew with Prunes)
Followup-To: rec.food.cooking
Date: 1 Jul 1997 03:45:41 -0600
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Prune Tzimmes (Meat and Potato Stew with Prunes)

Serves 8 or more

Tzimmes is a general term for a sweet vegetable or meat dish. Just as
Oriental Sephardi Jews inherited a taste for meat with fruit from the
tenth-century Baghdad, Ashkenazi Jews acquired similar tastes in
medieval Germany. This meat-and-prune tzimmes is by far the most
popular. South African Jews of Lithuanian origin seem the most fond of
it. It is traditionally served for Sukkot, the harvest festival, which
celebrates farming and nature and fruit picking, when fruit is the
theme of meals taken in the festive booths. I wondered about adding
sugar when I cooked it, but the result was very good.

2 lbs (1 kg) slightly fat beef brisket, flank, or rolled rib
3 tablespoons chicken fat or oil
1 1/2 large onions, coarsely chopped
Salt and pepper
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon allspice
A good pinch of nutmeg
2 lbs (1 kg) new potatoes
1 lb (500 g) pitted prunes
2 tablespoons sugar or to taste

In a heavy pan over medium heat, turn the meat in the fat or oil to
brown it all over. Then remove it and fry the onions gently till soft.
Return the meat to the pan and cover with water. Season with salt and
pepper, add cinnamon, allspice, and nutmeg, and simmer for 1 1/2
hours. Add the potatoes and prunes and the sugar and more water to
cover, and simmer 45 minutes longer. You may want to have plenty of
black pepper to balance the sweetness. There should be a lot of
liquid. Serve hot.

VARIATIONS:

4 large carrots cut into pieces may be added.

In America, sweet potatoes, cut into cubes, are used as an alternative
to potatoes.

Add 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger.

Sweeten with 2 tablespoons of honey instead of sugar.

Some red wine could be added to the water.

Sergio Miguel Cardoso - Senior Medical Student
Faculty of Medicine, University of Lisbon, Portugal
E-mail: smnmcard@mail.telepac.pt
Tel/Fax: ++(3511)4573677

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