Recipe: Tafina (Veal, Chickpea, and Potato Stew with Turmeric)

Tafina
(Tunisian Jewish)
Veal, Chickpea, and Potato Stew with Turmeric

The sabbath adafina of Spanish Jews was a kind of stew or hotpot, which belongs to the same family of dishes as the Catalan escudella, the Andalusian cocido and olla, l'ollada from the French Roussillon, the famous cassoulet as well as the pot-au-feu and bollito misto.

Adafina has died out among the Sephardic Jews who left for Turkey and Greece, but it is still popular among Algerian and Tunisian Jews as tafina, a sumptuous meal reserved for festival days and most often made by Jewish housewives on Friday and kept warm over the ashes of a kannuna, a brazier, to be served for Saturday lunch. It is sometimes accompanied by couscous. Lamb's feet can usually be bought at kosher or halal butchers, who are often found in metropolitan areas with recent Jewish or Muslim emigre populations.

1 pound veal bones
1 beef or veal foot, or 4 lamb's feet
4 pounds veal breast, trimmed of fat
1 large onion, peeled and finely chopped
1 cup dried chickpeas (about 1/ 2 pound), soaked in water to cover overnight, rinsed and picked over
1 pound boiling potatoes, about the size of a lime, peeled and left whole
1 head garlic
2 large eggs
1 tablespoon salt
1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 cinnamon stick
1 tablespoon ground turmeric
1 bay leaf
1 cup extra virgin olive oil
2 1/2 quarts water

In a large casserole, stew pot, or the bottom portion of a couscousiere, place the veal bones and feet. Cover with the veal breast and the remaining ingredients in the order in which they are listed.

Place the casserole over a very low heat (or use a heat diffuser) at about 6:00 pm, leaving it partially covered. Cook slowly until noon the next day. Check two or three times to see that the water level is fine, which it should be. Serve with rice or couscous.

Note: If you feel uncomfortable with an unattended flame, preheat the oven to 170 degrees F and place the casserole in until noon the next day.

Makes 4 servings