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One of My 100 Favorite Foods
"This is one of my 100 favorite foods," my friend Cecilia, the Baronessa, has said more than 100 times. Like anyone who loves to eat, she could never name just one. I can tell you that I wouldn't want to live without spaghetti and tomato sauce, but one single favorite food? I'm like Cecilia, I have at least 100.
Now that I am not testing recipes for the Southern Italian book that will be published this fall by Clarkson Potter, I have had the opportunity to cook some of those 100. Not that I don't have some favorites in the new book (I still can't stop baking Zia Delia's Walnut Date Cake - put "walnut date" in the search box at thefoodmaven.com and it will be the first citation listed). For instance, I was just aching for good French onion soup a couple of weeks ago, so I made some and baked it in crocks with a crust of French bread and intensely nutty cave-aged Gruyere. Made with good beef broth and a touch of cognac, it was so much better than any restaurant's, if I say so myself. I cooked kasha varnishkas recently, too. I hadn't eaten that in a while, although I have been eyeing it in the kosher stores I shop in.) And, as I mentioned in early January, I was on a Caesar Salad jag for a time. I know, I know, you can get Caesar Salad in any restaurant, even a diner, but it is so much better made and eaten at home. (Check out the recipe for a classic Caesar on thefoodmaven.com. It was in the Maven's Dairy on January 4.)
Now, I am in a lentil phase. I love lentils almost any which way, but the dish I have been craving the most is Middle Eastern-style lentils and rice, scented with cumin and allspice, tossed with onions fried so brown some of them are black. This, or something like it, is supposedly the "pottage" for which Essau traded his birthright with Jacob, as the story goes in the Old Testament. Once you've tasted it, you'll have an inkling why. In Arabic, the dish is known as mudjadara (spelled other ways also). It's on the menu of many if not most Middle Eastern restaurants, but like French onion soup, kasha varnishkas and Caesar Salad, it tastes so much better when homemade.
MIDDLE EASTERN LENTILS AND RICE
MUDJADARA
Serves about 6
A note about lentils: American lentils are larger than European lentils, and they eventually become mushy, then fall apart, while European lentils keep their shape. I use the tiny brown lentils from Pantelleria, a Sicilian island near Tunisia, which I can buy at a very fair price from D. Coluccio and Sons, the Italian food importers in Bensonhurst). Truthfully, American lentils are just as good in this dish, if not better. Just be careful not to overcook them. They could tenderize in less than the 15 to 20 minutes I give to lentils from Pantelleria.
A note about rice: I have used every kind of white rice for this dish - long grain, short grain, basmati, jasmine - whatever I have in the house. I have never bothered making it with brown rice, however, and I don't think you can cook lentils and brown rice together. I'm sure a decent dish can be made of the brown rice and lentils cooked separately, the rice cooked with the seasoning, then tossed together with fried onions.
3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
4 medium onions, sliced
3 1/2 cups water
1 cup lentils
1 1/4 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1/4 teaspoon ground allspice
1 cup rice
Heat the oil over medium-high heat in a 10-inch skillet and saute the onions until lightly browned, about 15 minutes.
Meanwhile, combine the water and lentils in a medium saucepan. Bring to a boil over high heat. Cover, lower the heat, and simmer for 15 to 20 minutes, or until the lentils are almost but not entirely tender.
Add about 1/3 of the browned onions to the lentils, and stir in the salt, cumin, allspice and rice. Cover again and, over very low heat, simmer gently for 15 to 18 minutes, until the rice is tender.
Meanwhile, continue to fry the onions until they are very brown, even with a little black.
When the lentils and rice are tender, remove from the heat, scrape the remaining browned onions on top, and recover the pot. Let stand 10 minutes, then fluff the lentils and rice with a fork, tossing in the onions on top.
Serve hot or warm, topped or not with plain yogurt or with a chopped salad of tomatoes, cucumber and scallions, with, if desired, chopped parsley or mint. There's no need to dress the salad with olive oil and either lemon juice or vinegar, but do so if you like.
