The chicken, flank, potatoes, carrots, dried peas and barley in the pot emitted an aroma that made the offerings prepared by the caterer brought in by my friend's husband pale in comparison.

"This is Lynda's favourite food," her mother said, dipping a ladle into the depth of the pot and asking me to take a taste.

I wasn't expecting to swoon.

"What is this?" I asked.

"Cholent," she said. "But in our family, we eat it all the time."

This party was 22 years ago and my first taste of cholent. I immediately asked for her recipe, which I have been making ever since.

With Yom Kippur beginning this year on a Friday, it occurred to me that the best thing to eat before the fast begins would be chicken cholent. Many Jews customarily consume chicken and rice on erev Yom Kippur.

A one-pot meal brimming with nutritious foods, cholent is a traditional Sabbath dish.

My friend's mother, who was born in Germany in the 1920s, told me that every Friday before dusk the Jewish women in their neighbourhood brought pots full of raw stew ingredients to the Jewish bakery.

With sundown approaching, the women would place their stew pots in the oven, just minutes before the baker turned off his oven for Shabbat.

Over the next 24 hours, the meat, potatoes and barley, which started out swimming in water, turned into a chunky, mouth-watering cholent to be served steaming hot immediately after Shabbat.

A signature dish of Ashkenazim, cholent can be made from almost anything.

One reason is because in the Old Country, Jews were poor and threw any scrap of food they could find into their stews. However, a traditional cholent is made with meat and meat bones, potatoes, beans and barley. More modern recipes for vegetarian cholents dotted with tofu now abound.

Not to be outdone, Sephardim for centuries have prepared spectacular Shabbat stews infused with the most marvellous seasoning.

These aromatic recipes are often called hamim, or hot in Hebrew.

In Morocco, this style of stew is called tagine, named after the conical pots in which the dish is prepared. Shabbat stews hail from Egypt, Iraq, Syria and any country where Jews have settled.

Jewish women in Morocco traditionally have paid a non-Jew to set up a pile of hot coals. Before sundown on Shabbat, they carried their tagines full of stew ingredients and sunk them into the coals.

Guarding against thieves, the non-Jew watched over their food, which barely bubbled on red hot coals that gradually cooled over the course of a full day.

The key to a good cholent, hamim or tagine is gently to simmer the medley of ingredients for many hours.

Original recipes entailed 24 hours of low-heat cooking. However, many people new to this lengthy preparation are hesitant to keep food on a fire overnight while they are sleeping. Most recipes turn out well after six to eight hours with the right amount of water.

Cholent is a flexible and forgiving dish that can be made in crockpots, inside the oven or on a stovetop.

Detractors of cholent, and there only a few, complain that the stews are brown and unappetising, with ingredients blurring together until they lose their characteristics.

Yet I find the blend of flavours irresistible and have learned that by adding some ingredients with perky colours, such as tomatoes and carrots, you can overcome the potential of ending up with a khaki-coloured meal. With erev Yom Kippur falling as tShabbat begins, this one-pot meal is ideal to serve before the fast.

A hearty dish that is filling but not fancy, cholent is in line with Yom Kippur's solemn theme. As it can be prepared hours in advance, cholent is a practical dish for home cooks who want to avoid the last-minute rush that often precedes arriving at Kol Nidrei services on time.

I suggest serving rice with your stew of choice. It's easy to digest, and rice is a balanced accompaniment to a one-pot meal brimming with vegetables and chicken.

A word about water: Most stew recipes do not indicate how much water is needed, which many cooks find maddening.

However, it's almost impossible to gauge quantities of water because so many factors influence the result, such as temperature and consistency of the heat and the thickness of the pot.

However, if you add too much water to the pot, you'll end up with soup, which is not a terrible fate. Should this happen, it can be remedied by leaving the pot uncovered and raising the flame to cook off some of the excess water.

If you put too little water into the pot, the ingredients are in danger of drying out or even burning. You can always add more water and stir it to combine evenly.

Keep an eye on the pot to check for water levels. Stir at least once every half hour. Ideally the ingredients in your cholent should yield a thickened gravy. However, it doesn't matter how a cholent turns out because thick or thin, this foolproof dish is always delicious and sustaining.

Chicken Cholent Ashkenazi style

Method

Use a large stockpot, preferably non-stick. If not using a non-stick pot, spray its interior generously with non-stick vegetable spray.

Rinse chicken under cold water and place in the pot.

Scrape skin from sweet potatoes and cut each into 8 chunks. Scrape carrots and parsnip and cut into 1-inch chunks. To the pot, add the sweet potatoes, carrots, parsnip, onion, garlic string beans and dill.

Add enough cold water to just cover the ingredients. They shouldn't slog around in excess water. Gently stir ingredients. Cover the pot and place it on a medium-high flame until the water simmers. Reduce to the lowest possible flame. Let cholent simmer for 6 to 8 hours, or longer if you've got the time, until the gravy thickens. For safety sake, do not leave cholent pot unattended.

Add salt to taste. However, for the erev Yom Kippur meal, use salt sparingly so as not to cause thirst and undue comfort during the fast.

Serve over rice in large soup bowls. Garnish with parsley, if using. Serves eight.

Chicken Tagine Moroccan Style

Method

Use a large stockpot, preferably non-stick.

If not using a stick-resistant pot, spray its interior generously with non-stick vegetable spray. Rinse chicken under cold water and place in the pot.

Scrape skin from potatoes and cut each into 8 chunks. To the pot, add chicken, potatoes, onion, ginger, canned tomatoes, chickpeas, courgettes, chopped tomatoes, cumin and cinnamon.

Add enough cold water to the pot to just cover the ingredients. They shouldn't slush around in excess water. Gently stir ingredients. Cover the pot and place it on a medium-high flame until the water simmers. Reduce to the lowest possible flame.

Let tagine simmer for 6 to 8 hours, or longer if you've got the time, until the gravy thickens. For safety sake, do not leave cholent pot unattended.

When ready, add salt to taste. However, for the erev Yom Kippur meal, use salt sparingly so as not to cause thirst and undue discomfort during the fast. Serve over rice in large soup bowls. Garnish with coriander, if using. Serves eight.

Foolproof Rice (Parev)

Method

Rice may quadruple in size while cooking, so select a large, deep pot. Heat oil inside the pot on a medium flame for 1-2 minutes. Pour the rice into the pot and stir until each grain of rice is lightly coated with oil.

Add salt and stir to combine. However, for the erev Yom Kippur meal, use salt sparingly so as not to cause thirst and undue discomfort during the fast.

Continue stirring until rice appears transluscent, about 2 more minutes. Pour in water and stir again. Cover pot and drop heat to a low flame.

Check rice's progress after 10 minutes. If it appears to be soaking up most of the water, add more water 1/4 cup at a time. Stir to combine and cover pot again.

In another 10 to 15 minutes, rice should have absorbed all the water and be ready to eat. Take it off the flame and let it rest for 1-2 minutes in a covered pot. Move immediately into a serving bowl. At the table, spoon rice into individual soup bowls and ladle cholent or tagine on top of it. Serves eight.