Oh my goodness, it is so satisfying making chamin. How exciting it is when the huge pot comes out of the oven, permeating the entire house with its insane aroma, and you open it up to find deep brown potatoes, browned eggs, tons of soft, tender beans coated in sauce, and meat that melts in your mouth. And to think that this wonderful thing is also so easy to make.
And this time, in the spirit of good atmosphere and the rain this season brings, I decided to combine several types of chamin in one: taking all the best each cuisine has to offer and combining them.
Here, you will find 2 types of beans along with pearl barley that form the basis for Ashkenazi cholent, an oven bag of chickpeas that are like butter after cooking, and another oven bag with round rice (it keeps its shape even after long hours in the oven) reminiscent of Iraqi t’bit. On top, to add flavor and in honor of my father, I added ready-made kishka (found in the freezer section of the supermarket). But there are a lot of people who put ready-made frozen jachnun on top of their chamin, instead of kiska, and you can totally adopt this custom too.
What’s amazing about this dish is that it really doesn’t require much work. Cook the onion and garlic, add the meat and the legumes, season and pop it in the oven.
And the really hard part? Waiting until the next morning to eat it, not to mention the smell that keeps you up all night.
- Please note: the following need to be soaked overnight in plenty of water, before cooking – 2 types of beans, pearl barley, chickpeas, rice. The rice can also be soaked for just an hour.
- And one more thing, the chickpeas and rice are cooked in an oven bag. If you don’t want to use the bags, you can omit the chickpeas and rice or you can add the chickpeas to the chamin without a bag. I do not recommend adding the rice if you’re not using a bag.