Make Ahead
Tzimmes
- Serves At least 12
Author Notes
This is my mother's tzimmes. Or I should say my interpretation of my mother's tzimmes. She made it every year for Passover but every year it was a little different. There was never an actual written recipe. Now , most years I make it and my sister makes it. Hers and mine are both good but they are different. We are both aiming for something like my mother's tsimmes but it never comes out the same.
There is a lot of leeway here and the ingredients can be changed to suit your family's taste. you could leave out the meat and make it vegetarian (I have done this) but the taste is not the same.It is important to start the Tzimmes at least a day before you intend to serve it. It is a long recipe with many ingredients but there is only about an hour of actual work. For most of the time you can do whatever you like while the tsimmes bakes. I use kosher meat which is salted so I don't add additional salt. If you are not using kosher meat you may need to add salt. —judye
Ingredients
-
3 pounds
Organic sweet potatoes peeled and cut in large chunks
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2 pounds
White potatoes peeled and cut in large chunks
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1 bunch
Organic carrots peeled and cut in large chunks
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2-4 tablespoons
Olive oil
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2 pounds
beef cut for stew
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1 pound
Flanken separated between each bone (leave bones in)
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1
Large sweet onion sliced in thin strips
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1 bottle
Red Wine (not dry)
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2 cups
Pitted prunes
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2 cups
Assorted dried fruit
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1/2 cup
Honey
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1 tablespoon
Ground cinnamon
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2 tablespoons
Grated fresh ginger
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2 tablespoons
Orange marmelade (optional)
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1
lemon - juice and zest (optional)
Directions
- Oil a large deep roasting pan.
- Arrange sweet and white potato and carrot chunks in the roasting pan.
- Preheat the oven to 350
- In a large deep sauce pan over medium high heat brown the meat in 2 tablespoons of olive oil adding more oil as necessary. Nestle the chunks of meat among the potatoes as you remove them from the pan.
- Turn the heat down to medium and caramelize the onion slices
- Deglaze the pan with a little of the wine scraping up all the brown bits. Add two more cups of wine (You don't need to be too precise here - Just pour the wine into the po.
- Add the honey, dried fruit, cinnamon, ginger, and marmelade and lemon if using. Bring everything to a boil
- Remove pan from the heat and carefully pour over the meat and potatoes. Make sure that the fruit and the onions are evenly distributed among the meat and potatoes. There should be about 1.5-2 inches of liquid in the roaster. If necessary add more wine.
- Cover the roaster tightly with foil and place on the center rack of the oven.
- Bake for about 4 hours. If it seems dry, add more wine. You may or may not use the whole bottle.
- Uncover the roaster and bake until the top is brown but not burned. Remove from the oven, cool somewhat and refrigerate over night.
- About 21/2 hours before you want to serve it, preheat the oven to 350. Remove the tzimmes from the refrigerator and skim as much of the fat as you can. Cover the pan tightly foil and bake for about 2 hours. Uncover and bake until brown. If you like you can actually refrigerate the tzimmes again and repeat this step the next day. You really can't overcook it as long as you keep adding enough wine so it doesn't burn.
- Serve on a platter deep enough to contain the juices or serve from the roasting pan.
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