 Chamin
(or hamin, (חמין) is a stew-like dish served
at the Shabbat morning meal in Sephardi
homes. The word chamin is derived from the
Hebrew word חם—"hot", as it is always served
fresh off the stove, oven, or slow cooker.
The source for the word comes from the
Mishnah Shabbat where chamin refers to "hot
[water]". In some parts of the Sephardic
world, this type of dish is referred to as "s'chinah"
or "sh'chinah" from another Hebrew word for
"hot" (which, interestingly, is the origin
for the name of the Egyptian plague of
boils, "Sh'chin".)
Like its Ashkenazi equivalent, cholent,
chamin is eaten on Shabbat morning to affirm
the family's adherence to the Oral Law
(Talmud) and the directives of the
rabbinical sages. While the written Torah
proscribes kindling a fire on the Shabbat,
the oral law explains that one may use a
fire that was lit before Shabbat to keep
warm food that was already cooked before
Shabbat. The Karaites, a splinter sect of
Judaism, however, denied the veracity of
Judaism's oral law and its rabbis, and only
ate cold food on the Shabbat. To distance
themselves from those whom they considered
heretics, Rabbinical Jews therefore prepare
such dishes as chamin and cholent, which
improve in taste and texture the longer they
cook, to eat hot on the Shabbat day.
The ingredients and spiciness of chamin
varies from area to area. Sephardic Jews
from Kurdistan, for example, first stuff
whole vegetables such as green and red
peppers, tomatoes, eggplant halves and
zucchini with a beef and rice stuffing, and
then place the vegetables into the pot
beside pieces of kosher meat or chicken and
chickpeas to slow-cook overnight. Iraqi Jews
will stuff a whole chicken with rice and
place it atop the simmering stew, this
version is called tebit. Jews from Morocco
or Iberia make a version called dafeena
which calls for spices like garlic,
cinnamon, allspice, ginger, and pepper, as
well as raw eggs which turn brown and creamy
during the long cooking process. The Spanish
"cocido" containing chicken and chick-peas
is a likely offshoot of the traditional
chamin of the Spanish Jews. |
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