Mjaddra Hamra – LENTIL PILAF WITH CARAMELISED ONIONS

One of the dishes that always causes a dispute is mjaddara. There are so many variations to the recipe, but the uniting elements are lentils, onions, and bulgur or rice. The debates range from which lentils are used and are they creamed, to whether you use bulgur or rice or spices and is it mjaddara or mdardara? The list goes on… To me, mjaddara is when the proportions of lentils to bulgur/rice is higher. Mdardara uses almost equal proportions and is flavoured with cumin and fried onions on top. Mjaddara safra uses split yellow lentils; mjaddara hamra uses whole ones and gets its flavour from deeply caramelising the onions. Msaffaye means ‘strained’ and is made by pureeing cooked brown lentils, then cooking the rice or bulgur with them until thickened. A recipe in Kitab al-Tabikh, a cookbook compiled in 1226 by al-Baghdadi in Iraq, stated that this beloved vegetarian dish was served with minced (ground) meat in rich people’s celebrations, while the meatless one was the food of the poor.

Mjaddara hamra is what my family used to make. It is common in South Lebanon and Palestine. My grandma called it the ‘nails of the knees’ because of the high iron content. Pair it with some fresh bread, a zesty salad, green olives and lots of fresh veggies.

Last year, at the beginning of 2021, I had made Mjaddara and shared it on Instagram and, to my surprise, so many of my friends also made it the same week.
This year I decided to make it official and annonce the tradition of Mjaddara Week as the first week of every year.

The reason behind everyone making Mjaddara on the first week of the year is because we just want something quick and easy that has nothing to do with the holidays food that we’ve been having for the past two week, and Mjaddara comes to the rescue with its nutritional value and affordability and for the fact that we’d serve lots of seasonal veggies and pickles with it.

Italians have lentils on the new year and consider it a symbol of good fortune for the upcoming year for they resemble little coins and we have Mjaddara.

Therefore, by the power vested in me, I declare the first week of every year to be The National, or rather International, Mjaddara Week.

This recipe is from my book Bayrut The Cookbook, published on October 2021.

Mjaddara Hamra

Serves 2 persons

Ingredients

500 g (1 lb 2 oz) whole red lentils, rinsed
2.25 litres (9 cups) water
600 g (1 lb 5 oz) onions, finely chopped
120 ml (½ cup) olive oil
150 g (scant 1 cup) coarse bulgur wheat
2 teaspoons salt, or to taste
soft Arabic bread or markouk/saj bread, for scooping
Zesty Cabbage Salad
fresh veggies and herbs
pickled chillies & green olives

Procedure

Add the lentils to a large saucepan, cover with 2 litres (8 cups) of the water and bring to the boil, then reduce the heat and simmer for 30 minutes.
Place the onions in a cold sauté pan with the olive oil, set over a medium–high heat and fry until they start to caramelise. Stir often to make sure they are browning evenly, and keep them on the heat until they turn from caramelised to very dark brown – almost but not quite charring. The burnt onions are what gives this dish its special flavour. Once the onions reach this stage, add the extra cup of water and bring to the boil.
Pour the onion mixture into the cooked lentils, then stir in the bulgur.
Season to taste with the salt. Bring to the boil and cook for a further 5 minutes, stirring often, until the bulgur has soaked up the extra liquid.
Ladle onto plates and let cool slightly before serving with your chosen accompaniments. I love to scoop this dish up with soft Arabic bread.

Note on the photo:
I have spent all my morning looking for the photos of Mjaddara I have from 2018 to no avail. I have a chunk of my 2018 photos and recipe, which i have uploaded to the blog then, missing from my storage. I had to resort to the header uploaded back in September 2018 as my recipe photo which is of the lentil porridge mjaddara that is puréed and strained 🥲

Tortilla de Patatas

2020
It’s 4 months into the new year, and some of us already wish it would be over.
I hope we make it out alive. Eight months to go.

None of us imagined this would happen. A few months ago, the world was unstoppable, and even 40 days ago, life still continued even with the rise of the pandemic previously known as epidemic. Most of us are now either isolated, quarantined, working from home, out of jobs, or whatever situation this virus and its repercussions put us in.

It hasn’t been easy the past few months in Lebanon especially. With the financial crisis beginning to loom since last summer, (not caused by the Revolution of October 17, as politicians, analysts, and the media are brainwashing people to believe) and the government that is failing to take responsibility for the mess they are involved in, it has been very stressful to cope. Focus shifted from being creative and productive to ending the day safely and looking for ways to secure an income to pay dues. I am not here to go into details or talk about this now.

Let’s try and focus on things that take our mind off for a little while.

tortilla de patatas - cookin5m2 - 1 Continue reading “Tortilla de Patatas” →

Scrambled Eggs with Desert Truffles

I remember one time walking out of Hamra street, a once vibrant street in Beirut, during the last days of winter and seeing a vendor with styrofoam boxes overflowing with lump-like things held together with clear tape.
The first time I saw these sandy-stone-like produce I thought they were the world prized truffles with the amazing flavor and the unique aroma. I made risotto and shaved* some of those on top. I even buried one in a jar of short grain rice to fragrance it for risotto.

*shaved, more like crumbled it on the box grater’s slicer side only to get grains of sand later with every bite because I didn’t clean them well

PIN- Desert truffle kema kama with eggs recipe - cookin5m2-0010

Only later did I learn that these truffles are not the same thing.
These beautiful spores are called Desert Truffles. They are harvested not using dogs or pigs like western truffles but by roaming the desert landscapes (not desert dunes, but bare lands with rare vegetation) looking for bumps and cracks in the land. They dig their hands down and pull out the sand hoping there’s a something worthy in there.

Desert truffle kema kama food photography - cookin5m2-0012 Continue reading “Scrambled Eggs with Desert Truffles” →

Sautéed Wild Greens

PIN-Sauteed wild greens from tripoli recipe - cookin5m2-0022.jpg

This week is the first week of Lent for Christians following the Western church.

Although we are not fasting this year at home, we still made some Lent recipes.
For more inspiration recipes from the blog, I have posted an old collection of vegan and vegetarian recipes from my blog to try. Continue reading “Sautéed Wild Greens” →

Grilled Vegetables and Halloumi Salad

I go back to the archive and see what recipes should I make and add to keep a variety. I find that I should no longer post any salad recipe. But HOW CAN I? I LOVE SALADS

Mind you, when I say SALAD, I don’t mean lettuce and tomato and cucumber. This is a plain old [BORING] salad.

PIN-Grilled Vebetables and Halloumi Salad recipe-cookin5m2-9778

My salads are usually fun and exciting as I use ingredients that are not typical in restaurants. I love mixing between grains like lentils and freekeh, and big filling vegetables like zucchinis, carrots, peppers, and radishes, and leafy greens like the superfood spinach and rockets leaves and chards. All those are things you can easily get in the produce shops with an average price tag.

Grilled Vegetables and Halloumi Salad recipe-cookin5m2-9778-2.jpg