Mujaddara

The onions are fried until they are almost burnt, and half of them go in while half stay on top.

Vegetarian, but not vegan — contains dairy (yoghurt).

Ingredients

• 250 g brown or green lentils
• 200 g long-grain rice, rinsed
• 4 large onions, sliced thinly
• 200 ml olive oil
• 2 teaspoons ground cumin
• 1 teaspoon ground coriander
• ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1 litre water, roughly
• salt and black pepper

to serve

• 200 g thick yoghurt
• cucumber and tomato

Method

1. THE ONIONS ARE FRIED UNTIL THEY ARE ALMOST BURNT, AND HALF OF THEM GO IN WHILE HALF STAY ON TOP. Four large onions, sliced thin, in a lot of oil over a steady heat for thirty or thirty-five minutes -- well past golden, past brown, to a deep mahogany with blackened edges and a slight bitterness. That bitterness is the flavour the dish is built on: lentils and rice are mild and sweet, and without something dark against them the pot tastes of very little. Half are stirred through so the whole dish carries it, and half are kept crisp for the top. Onions softened to a pale sweetness in ten minutes make a perfectly nice pilaf and not this.
2. THE LINE BETWEEN ALMOST BURNT AND BURNT IS ABOUT TWO MINUTES WIDE. Deep mahogany with dark edges is right; uniformly black is bitter in a way that cannot be diluted out of a whole pot. They are watched constantly from about twenty-five minutes and lifted the moment they look nearly too far.
3. THE ONIONS FOR THE TOP ARE DRAINED ON PAPER AND SALTED. They go crisp as they cool and stay crisp if they are not piled up wet. Left in the oil they slump.
4. THE LENTILS GO IN FIRST AND GET A HEAD START. Twenty minutes on their own before the rice joins them. Brown lentils want about forty minutes and rice about twenty, so adding them together gives either chalky lentils or rice reduced to paste.
5. THE FRYING OIL IS THE COOKING FAT AND IS NOT THROWN AWAY. The onions have given it everything; it goes into the pot with the lentils. Discarding it and starting with fresh oil loses most of what the thirty-five minutes was for.
6. IT IS LEFT TO STAND, LID ON, FOR TEN MINUTES OFF THE HEAT. The last of the liquid is absorbed and the grains separate. Served straight from the boil it is wet and claggy.
7. The onions sliced thin and fried in the olive oil over a steady heat 30 to 35 MINUTES, to a DEEP MAHOGANY with blackened edges. WATCHED from 25 MINUTES.
8. HALF lifted out onto paper and salted, to go crisp.
9. The lentils added to the pan with the remaining onions AND THE OIL, with the cumin, coriander and cinnamon.
10. The water poured in and simmered 20 MINUTES.
11. The rinsed rice stirred in, topped up to just cover, and seasoned.
12. Simmered, lid on, a further 20 MINUTES until the liquid has gone.
13. TAKEN OFF THE HEAT and left to STAND, lid on, 10 MINUTES.
14. Forked through and the CRISP onions piled on top.
15. TESTED: the dish should taste faintly bitter behind the sweetness, and the onions on top should crunch. Pale onions mean it will taste flat.
16. Served warm with yoghurt.

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.

Filed under Lebanon · All recipes