mujadrah

Last night I felt like cooking something different, and since I hadn’t posted in such a long time, I thought I would come up with something inventive, an ‘eat your dinner’ original recipe! I had about half a cup each of lentils and brown rice, and some onions and garlic, which sounded good already, and I used lots of cumin and curry to give it a nice smoky taste. Turns out, unknowingly, I made and Arab dish! So much for inventive! I ‘googled’ rice and lentils, and not only did I find out my recipe was quite faithful to the original, but I also found out it had a much better name that rice and lentils! Mujadrah! (Pronounced M-Jed'der-a). Anyway, this dish is really good, I highly recommend it. It is also vegetarian and very inexpensive. So here is it! Enjoy.

R E C I P E

This recipe is good for two people, just double, triple if you have more people or are really hungry.

½ cup of French lentils
½ cup of brown rice
1 onion
2 cloves of garlic
1 small bouillon cube
1 teaspoon of cumin
1 teaspoon of curry powder
Pepper to taste
1 tablespoon of vegetable oil
1 1/2 cups of water

Sauté the onions and garlic in the oil. Add the spices, the rice and the lentils. Cook for a couple of minutes, making sure everything is coated with the spices. Add the water and the bouillon cube. When the water starts to boil, turn the temperature down and cover. When all the water has been absorbed or evaporated your dish is ready! If either your rice or your lentils are still hard after all the water has been absorbed, this could happen if your grains have been in your cupboard for a long time, just add more and repeat the process until they are done (boil, lower temp, and cover).
I hope you enjoy this, we sure did!


* I just read this is the dish (pottage) that Jacob sold to his brother, Esau, in exchange for his birthright. Genesis 25:29. People make up all sorts of stuff!

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moroccan.inspired.beans

I haven’t posted in a while, but I had a crazy couple of weeks, that included a 48-hour trip to Marrakech, Morocco. I have to say that I was so impressed by it. It was really beautiful; I loved the ‘medina’ with all its smells, colors, and people (medina literally means ‘city’ in Arabic). Here are some images: top row, my husband and my boss breaking the fast at the Jemaa El Fna Market, middle row, the spice market inside the Medina, bottom row, more images from the market, nuts, dates, and mint tea.

Inspired by all the Moroccan flavors, I came up with a recipe for white beans, which turned out to be really delicious; of course it is not Moroccan AT ALL! It has pork! Enough to make it not Moroccan. But the flavors are definitely Moroccan, and if you like a little variety in your beans, I highly recommend it! So here it is:

R E C I P E

Moroccan Inspired Beans

4 cups of cooked white beans (cook them just like black beans)
1 cup of smoked bacon in small cubes
1 diced small onion
2 cloves of garlic
1 diced celery stalk
1 diced carrot
3 tablespoons of Dijon mustard
2 tablespoons of ketchup
½ tablespoon of red chili pepper
½ teaspoon of cinnamon
½ teaspoon of cumin
2 medium tomatoes (processed)
1/3 cup of brown sugar
2 bay leaves
2 bouillon cubes

There isn’t much science to this recipe, when your beans are soft and there is still some liquid in them, heat a medium pan and add the bacon. When the bacon is sizzling, add the rest of the ingredients in the same order I wrote them on the ingredient list, one by one, gently stirring. Add this ‘flavor mix’ to the beans, and cook over a medium flame until they thicken. Taste, and adjust the salt to your taste. Serve with crusty bread. This is a great cold weather meal, you'll feel like you are under the Marrakech sun!

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