Moroccan and Tunisian adafina (or dafina, t’feena, s’heena, s’cheena) is a dish of chickpea, meat and vegetables that is cooked overnight for Shabbat. Its roots go all the way to Medieval Spain. In fact, Madrid’s national stew, cocido madrileño, has its roots in the same Jewish adafina as well.

Moroccan chickpea and meat Shabbat stew (adafina/s’heena)

Recipe by Vered GuttmanCourse: Main courseCuisine: Moroccan, Israeli, JewishDifficulty: Medium

Servings

servings

Prep time

minutes

In the oven

hours

Moroccan adafina is a dish of chickpea, meat and vegetables that is cooked overnight for Shabbat. Its roots go back all the way to Medieval Spain.

The addition of wheat to adafina is a recent invention created in Israel, where Shabbat overnight stews are popular and a tradition of mix-and-match results pots of Ashkenazi cholent topped with Yemeni jachnoon, and this adafina mixed with wheat berries from the hareesa. It’s tasty! and it works well! but just know that the original adafina was plainly chickpeas, meat and veggies.

*Note: Moroccan paprika is a sweet paprika that’s mixed with oil. It’s available at some Israeli supermarkets and Middle Eastern online stores.

INGREDIENTS

2 cups chickpea , soaked in water overnight and drained
6-8 Yukon Gold potatoes, peeled and halved
2 LB. beef chuck in 1 inch cubes or 4 lbs. beef short ribs with the bone
3-4 beef marrow bones
2 yellow onions, diced
4 tablespoons corn or vegetable oil
½ teaspoon ground black pepper
1 teaspoon turmeric
1 teaspoon regular paprika or Moroccan paprika (*see note above)
!/2 teaspoon cumin
Kosher salt
6-8 eggs (optional), washed well
For the wheat
1 cup wheat (sometimes called wheat berries), soaked in water overnight and drained
½ yellow onion, chopped
2 tablespoons oil
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1 teaspoon sugar
½ teaspoon cinnamon
½ teaspoon paprika

DIRECTIONS

Turn oven to 200 degrees F.
In a large Dutch oven or oven-proof pot put chickpeas, potatoes, beef cubes, marrow bones, onion and oil and mix. Add 1 tablespoon salt and spices and mix, cover with water, bring to boil on medium-high heat, skim any foam, and cook for 10 minutes on low simmer.
In the meantime, mix all of the wheat ingredients in a medium bowl. Put 4 layers of cheesecloth over a medium bowl, transfer wheat mixture into cheesecloth, gather cheesecloth and tie, leaving some room for the wheat to expand.
Add wheat in cheesecloth and eggs to the top of the pot, cover pot and cook for another 20 minutes. Transfer pot to the oven and cook overnight. Let pot rest at room temperature for 10 minutes before serving it the next day for lunch.