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Koshary

Four starches cooked separately and layered, never cooked together, under three separate sauces.

Vegan.

Ingredients

the four starches

the onions

the tomato sauce

the garlic vinegar

Method

  1. FOUR STARCHES ARE COOKED SEPARATELY AND LAYERED, NEVER COOKED TOGETHER. Lentils, rice with vermicelli, macaroni and chickpeas -- four pans, four different cooking times, and they meet only in the bowl. That is the whole structure of the dish and it is also the only way it can work: lentils want thirty minutes, rice twenty, macaroni ten, and chickpeas are already done. Cooked in one pot, something is always wrong -- either chalky lentils or pasta reduced to paste. The reward for four pans is that every component holds its own texture in a bowl where nothing is sauced until it is served.
  2. THE VERMICELLI IS FRIED IN THE PAN BEFORE THE RICE GOES IN. Broken small and stirred in a little oil until it is genuinely brown and smells toasted, then the rinsed rice added and the water poured on. That browning gives the rice its characteristic colour and nutty taste; added raw with the rice, the vermicelli is just pale thread.
  3. THERE ARE THREE SEPARATE SAUCES AND THEY ARE NOT MIXED. A cooked tomato sauce, a raw garlic vinegar, and the fried onions -- each added at the table in whatever proportion the eater wants. Combining them into one dressing before serving removes the point: the garlic vinegar is sharp and raw, the tomato sauce is sweet and cooked, and the contrast between them is what the dish is eaten for.
  4. THE ONIONS ARE TOSSED IN FLOUR AND FRIED UNTIL DARK. Sliced thin, dried, tossed with two tablespoons of flour, and fried in deep oil until properly brown. The flour is what makes them shatter rather than go leathery, and it keeps them crisp for an hour. Fried bare they soften within minutes of hitting the hot bowl.
  5. THE ONIONS GO IN BATCHES AND ARE DRAINED ON PAPER, SALTED. Crowded, they steam and stew. Three batches, each lifted the moment it is deep brown -- they darken further on the paper, so they come out a shade earlier than looks right.
  6. IT IS ASSEMBLED IN LAYERS AND EATEN IMMEDIATELY. Rice at the bottom, lentils, macaroni, chickpeas, then the sauces and the onions. Stirred together in the kitchen it becomes a uniform brown bowl; layered, each spoonful down through it is different.
  7. The lentils simmered in plenty of unsalted water 30 MINUTES, until tender but whole. Drained and salted.
  8. SEPARATELY, the vermicelli fried in a little oil until GENUINELY BROWN, then the rinsed rice stirred in and water added to cook 20 MINUTES, lid on.
  9. SEPARATELY, the macaroni boiled in salted water and drained.
  10. The chickpeas warmed through.
  11. THE ONIONS: sliced thin, patted dry, tossed with the flour, and fried in the oil in 3 BATCHES until DEEP BROWN. Drained on paper and salted.
  12. THE TOMATO SAUCE: a little of the onion oil heated, the garlic in for 30 SECONDS, then the purée fried 2 MINUTES, the tomatoes, coriander, chilli and salt added and cooked 15 MINUTES. The vinegar stirred in at the end.
  13. THE GARLIC VINEGAR: the crushed garlic, vinegar and cumin stirred together RAW and left to stand.
  14. ASSEMBLED IN LAYERS in each bowl: rice, lentils, macaroni, chickpeas.
  15. The three sauces and the onions taken to the table SEPARATELY and added by whoever is eating.
  16. TESTED: the lentils should be whole, the macaroni still firm, and the onions should crunch. Soft onions mean they were fried bare or piled up wet.

Our own recipe. This one was written for this site rather than taken from anywhere, so there is no source to point you at. The quantities and the order of the steps are choices, not the only way to do it.

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