Loving Lentils

The lentil rice was described as 'Seasoned rice, whole lentils, macaroni.'
Macaroni? But this wasn't the kids' menu.
So I asked the owner of the cafe about it and was told that macaroni was a common addition to lentil rice in his native Egypt.
He went on to say that it adds an interesting texture to the rice.
And so it did!
I rarely muster courage to ask for the recipe. The one time I do, all I get is the most vague response "Oh nothing fancy, lots of sauteed onions, roasted cumin, salt, lentils, rice, and macaroni."

Back home I took a shot at making said rice.
So did the rice taste the way it did at the restaurant. Absolutely not!
But does it taste good? You betcha! Also, it is vegan and no, it is not a salad.

Masoor Rice with Pasta
Ingredients
1 cup masoor
1 cup rice, uncooked
½ cup elbow or any small macaroni
2 large onions, sliced
1 tbsp cumin (jeera), roasted
2 tbsp oil
¼ tsp red pepper flakes
salt, to taste
cilantro, for garnishing (optional)

Method
Cook the macaroni the usual way; set aside.

Wash the masoor and add it to a pot of water (about 1 ½ cups).
Add a tsp of salt and mix well.
Cook till the masoor retains a bite. Add more water if necessary.
Drain and set aside.

Wash the rice and cook it the usual way in slightly salted water.
When almost done, drain the water and set aside the rice.

Heat oil and add the sliced onions.
Sauté over low to medium heat till brown. This takes a while but do not rush through it.
Add the red pepper flakes, cumin, and a pinch of salt. Stir well.

Assemble the rice
Grease the bottom of the serving dish with a bit of oil.
Spread half the rice, masoor, pasta, rest of the rice, and lastly the onions.
(Or you could do what I did: just mix it all together.)

The rice can be assembled ahead of time and warmed in the microwave just before serving.
Enjoy!

The is my entry to My Legume Love Affair#17 hosted this month by Sra. This long running blog event was started by Susan of The Well Seasoned Cook.

Masoor Without a Tongue

Masoor Ma Jib (without the jib)

It was in the New Books section of the library and I almost didn't pick it up thinking 'My Bombay Kitchen' was yet another generically titled Indian cookbook. But as the extended title said 'Traditional and Modern Parsi Home Cooking', I picked up the book.
Within minutes of reading the book I knew I had to have it.
'My Bombay Kitchen: Traditional and Modern Parsi Home Cooking' by Niloufer Ichaporia King is a treasure.

The writing is casual (though different from Madhur Jaffery's casual-chatty style), liberally sprinkled with information about Parsi life in Bombay (yeah yeah Mumbai), Parsi customs, eating habits, and evolutions of those over time. Her style of writing and the language used had me absolutely hooked. I read the entire book in a couple of days. The book is chock full of simply brilliant observations. Here are two of my favourite ones:

Most important in cooking is reliance on one's senses, all seven - touch, taste, smell, sight, hearing, sixth, and common .
(emphasis mine)
Reminded me of a dinner party where I overheard a lady very sincerely asking the hostess 'If I skip the mirchi all together, do you think it will be less spicy?'.

It keeps for at least a week refrigerated and can be successfully thawed. (Note, I didn't say 'frozen'. Anything can be successfully frozen).
Of course! Anyone who has ended up with mush instead of the boiled potatoes that were (successfully) frozen knows this.

There are so many recipes and cooking/prepping techniques (for example, grating tomatoes instead of finely chopping them) that I want to try out. If one can disregard the various anatomical parts that go in the preparation (lamb tongue, pig ears to name just two) the seasonings and masalas used for preparing meat sound delicious too.

The first recipe I tried was a masoor preparation as masoor is by far the favourite lentil in our family. This is a modified version of the original Masoor Ma Jib (masoor with tongue).
The original recipe calls for both dhansak masala and sambhar masala (not to be confused with the masala used for making sambaar). As the Parsi sambar masala is not commercially available outside India, I skipped it.
Here is the recipe with some minor modifications of my own.

Ingredients
2 cups whole masoor
1 medium onion, finely chopped
3 medium tomatoes, finely chopped
1-2 cups assorted vegetables (I used carrots and potatoes)
1 green chili, chopped
4-5 stalks coriander leaves (cilantro) finely chopped
2 tsp ginger garlic paste
2 tbsp oil
1 tsp Dhansak masala (though the book has a recipe for this, I used the storebought masala)
1 tsp turmeric powder
salt, to taste

Method
Wash the masoor and let it soak in 3-4 cups of water for a couple of hours.
Heat the oil in a wok/ kadhai.
Add the onions and cook till they soften.
Add the garlic-ginger paste, dhansak masala, chili, turmeric. Cook for a couple of minutes. If the masala starts sticking to the bottom of the pan, add a little water.
Add the tomatoes, the vegetables, masoor and about 4 cups of water.
Cook covered for about 30-40 minutes, till the masoor is cooked through.
Add the salt and cilantro.
Enjoy!

We enjoyed the Parsi-style masoor with brown-rice and a simple salad. The dhansak masala made quite a difference. The book has a recipe for sambhar masala, which I'm now tempted to make as I'm curious to know what it brings to the party!

Faux Pho?

On a recent afternoon, got back from work and headed straight for the kitchen. The kids (I'm hunger Aai, really really hungry.) and the cat (meow) had to wait. I turned my attention to them only after I set a pot of water to boil along with a handful of cilantro, a couple of ginger slices, a jalapeno, peppercorns, and salt.
Thanks to EvolvingTastes and her post about lemongrass and cilantro broth, the kids were sporting what-has-gotten-into-her looks.
Ideally I would've liked to add rice noodles to this broth, in its absence had to make do with buckwheat soba noodles. Carrot peels added some colour and crunch to this delicious pho-style soup.
I will be making broth like often. Thanks ET!