Mujaddara (Arabic: مجدرة mujadarah, with alternative spellings in English majadra, mejadra, moujadara, mudardara, and megadarra) consists of cooked lentils together with groats, generally rice, and garnished with sautéed onions.
I decided to make Mujaddara (or however you spell it). Ken has been making this ever since he had it at a Palestinian restaurant in Jerusalem. He made it for me several years ago, and I found it almost as addicting as his macaroni and cheese. All things considered, it is a much healthier dish. I hunted around on the web, and couldn’t find a recipe that sounded as good as the recipe that he makes, so finally, I broke down and asked him how he makes his. He said, “Look in our cookbook.”
Ken and I have our own hand-written cookbook at home. Ken had received it as a “blank” cookbook from his ex-girlfriend, Julie, when he was in grad school, shortly before we met as a “parting gift.” I thank her for providing a place for us to document our food love 🙂 It is our “recipe box,” full of recipes we have invented, but also full of recipes from friends and relatives, dead and alive. It is also stuffed full of recipes we have used and liked from the Internet. I found his recipe, hand-written, on a numbered page, and it was definitely his recipe, different from anything I found out on the Internets.
1 c. green or brown lentils
1/4 c. olive oil
2 large diced onions
1 c. rice (or other grain, like bulgur wheat)
2 large cloves of garlic, minced
1.5 t cumin
.5 t allspice
.25 t cayenne pepper (or more to taste)
1 large bay leaf
1 cinnamon stick
2 c broth or water
salt to taste
1-2 additional onions for frying to garnish
Instructions:
Preheat oven to 400 degrees farenheit.
Rinse and clean lentils. Place in saucepan with 2 cups of water. Bring to a boil, turn down, and let simmer for about 10 minutes. Lentils will not be soft at this point. Turn off.
In a heavy oven-proof pan, or dutch oven, heat the oil on medium-high. Add onions and cook until they have carmelized to a deep golden-brown. Depending on the onions, this can take from 15 to 30 minutes. Stir them frequently to make sure they don’t burn. Sprinkle with a pinch of kosher salt.
Add garlic, stirring in to the onions for only about 15 seconds. Add grains, and sauté for a couple of minutes, stir in spices, add lentils and broth or water. Add salt and pepper to taste, plus bay leaf and cinnamon stick. Bring to a boil, and place dutch oven, uncovered into preheated oven. Set timer for 20 minutes.
In the meanwhile:
Deep fried onions for garnishing.
Slice 1-2 onions thinly. Add about 1 inch of frying oil (canola, avocado, or peanut) in a heavy pan. Heat oil up over medium heat, test temperature by dropping onions into oil. When it is hot enough, the onion will bubble to top quickly, and will fry with time to a golden color. Remove and dry on paper towel.
Serving Suggestion:
A mixed green salad with lemon and olive oil dressing and Zoë’s homemade croutons, plus a herb yoghurt sauce.
Dish up rice and lentils, and garnish with fried onions. Serve with a lightly dressed salad. We made a lovely herb yoghurt sauce that was super easy to make: a small container of greek yoghurt plus a couple of tablespoons of Trader Joe’s Zhoug Sauce. Harissa is also an excellent accompaniment for this meal.
Every now and then, I just want potato chips with a hamburger for dinner, which is what we had last night. I read a lot of recipes for baked sweet potato chips, but in the end, Ken convinced me that I should just fry them. He was right. One recipe that I looked at suggested soaking the sliced sweet potatoes in warm water with some cornstarch before cooking them, claiming a crunchier result. I am not a Cooks Illustrated type, so I took her at her word and gave it a go instead of setting up an experiment. I had pretty spectacular results.
Time: 1.5 hours total–10 minutes active prep, 15 to 30 minutes soaking, 10 minutes draining, 30 to 45 minutes frying, depending on how many you decide to make.
Servings: 3 medium potatoes makes about 6 servings
Ingredients:
3 medium-sized sweet potatoes (I used Japanese sweet potatoes)
Frying oil (I used a combination of canola and avocado)
1 T corn starch
Salt or other seasoning to taste
Instructions:
Thinly slice potatoes with their skin on. I use a mandolin, but if you are good at hand-cutting, go for it! Put them in a large bowl, cover with warm tap water, and mix in the cornstarch. Let sit for about 30 minutes. Drain potatoes in layers separated with paper towels. In the meantime, pour about and inch and a half of oil into a heavy pan with tall-ish sides. I use a cast iron dutch oven to fry in, because I don’t fry that many foods and do not own a deep fryer. Heat oil to a good frying temperature. If you are the thermometer using type of person, I believe the desired temperature is around 350 to 360 degrees. I usually just test the oil with whatever I am frying and adjust the temperature according to the result I get. I am not anti-thermometer; it is just that my thermometers are almost always broken, or I can’t find them when I need them! When the oil is the right temperature, it isn’t smoking, and when you drop the uncooked chips in they rise to the top immediately in a bubbling craze. If your oil is not hot enough, the chip will sink and stay, yielding an inedible rubbery thing. If it is too hot, you will have a lot of burned stuff and smoke. Make sure you have a lid nearby to smother a fire should one arise.
I use wooden tongs to push chips around and flip. Wood does not suck heat out of the oil the way metal does. Keep a close eye on the chips as they cook, as they go from beginning to toast to burned very quickly. When they begin to darken, start taking them out and draining on paper towels. If you are seasoning them, you can do it right away. After they have cooled and crisped, you can pile them for serving.
The key to perfect guacamole every time is perfectly ripe avocados! There are many different types of avocados, but for guacamole, I prefer the Hass avocado from California; it has the right balance of moisture and “meatiness,” and when perfectly ripe, mashes to sublime creaminess.
Ripe Hass avocados have nearly black skins, and a little “give” when squeezed gently in the palm of your hand. An avocado that is too mushy is likely to have bad spots, and one that is too hard will not mush or have the delicate sweetness required for perfect guacamole. If you purchase unripe avocados, often the only available choice, leave them out on the counter for a few days until they reach perfect ripeness, and then pop them in the refrigerator. They will continue to ripen in the fridge but much more slowly, giving you time to use them for whatever purpose.
The following is less of a recipe and more of a guide. I learned to make it this way in Yucatan, Mexico from a man who was cooking for are large family reunion.
The basic ingredients are quite simple:
3 ripe medium Hass avocados
Jalapeño or Serrano to taste
Lime juice, one lime for each avocado
Salt to taste
I also like to have garlic and /or shallots in mine, and sometimes add finely chopped tomatoes at the end.
In Mexico, they use a mortar and pestle, and begin by grinding the pepper with the lime juice. If you don’t have a mortar and pestle, you can mince the pepper, or puree it. Scoop out the avocado, and blend in. I don’t like to make my guacamole perfectly smooth. I like it pretty textured. That is a matter of personal preference. You can blend it to the degree that best suits you! If I am using garlic, I add it before the lime juice and pepper to get it well mashed first. I mince the shallots.
Serving guacamole with freshly cooked chips is the best, but any sturdy corn chip will do! My current favorite brand is Juanita’s.
A few years ago we started to make a concerted effort at eating a more wholesome diet, relying less on carbs and prepared foods. One of the staples in our diet has become cooked (sautéed, braised, roasted, etc.) greens. This recipe, may be adapted to different greens and vegetables, which makes it an important piece of cooking knowledge to have. We often don’t plan our cooking, and find ourselves rummaging through the vegetable bins for things that might taste good together. This combo is especially good!
Kale and other greens mixed with vegetables are delicious. The varied textures and flavors bring more interest to the dish than it would have otherwise.
Ingredients:
2 T olive oil
1 lb of kale, chopped
1/2 lb asparagus, or alternatively, broccoli florets and stems (peeled and sliced)
1 onion, diced
1 clove of garlic, minced
Zest of one lemon
Juice of one lemon
Red pepper flakes
Water as needed
Salt and pepper to taste
Instructions:
Put oil into a heavy deep skillet, or a wok large enough to hold uncooked greens.
Cook onions and garlic together, until onions are translucent. Try not to burn the garlic.
Add greens and asparagus (or broccoli) and stir for a minute or so. Add lemon juice, and a few tablespoons of water to help the vegetables steam a bit. Add lemon zest, pepper flakes, and salt and pepper. Stir frequently, and test greens and vegetables for doneness. I prefer to turn the stove off when the vegetables are a little under cooked, and let them sit, while I finish the rest of dinner. I turn the burner back on to heat them up just before serving.
Serving suggestions:
This is a great side dish for any chicken, fish, or meat that you are serving, and also is a wonderful complement to legume dishes served with rice. I frequently use my leftover greens in soups. You can use any combination of greens and vegetables, however, I find that collards are better braised since they can be tough and bitter if not cooked for a long time.
Remember those weird food-color infused spiced apples that women in the 60’s made with red hots? These are not those! There is really nothing easier than making spiced apples. Truth be told, you don’t actually need a specific recipe to make them, like so many of the things that I most enjoy making. So take the following as guidelines, rather than as some sort of immutable truth. If you don’t like one of the ingredients that I like, leave it out, by all means, and add other things that you think will enhance it for you!
Servings: 4
Time: 25 minutes, 10 active
Must-have Ingredients:
4 tart apples, peeled and cut into chunks
1/2 c sugar (I like brown)
1 t cinnamon
Dash of salt
1/4 c liquid (water, apple juice, lemon juice, etc.)
Optional ideas:
Nutmeg
Chinese five spice
Nuts
Dried fruits (raisins, cherries, etc.)
Lemon zest
Calvados
Instructions:
Peel, core, and cut apples into chunks. Sometimes I just cut them into wedges. Depends on my mood. Put these in a medium-sized heavy sauce pan.
Add the rest of the ingredients. Bring to a boil and stir, turn down to a simmer. Check apples every now and again to see if they are a consistency that you like. If you over cook it, nothing is lost; it just turns into apple sauce, which is also delicious!
Menu ideas:
Serve this as a side dish with almost any pork dish. It also makes a great dessert when served with vanilla ice cream, especially if you made it with calvados. Leftovers are great for breakfast in your oatmeal, or eaten with yogurt and granola.
Over the years, I have become a big fan of pork tenderloin, and in the fall and winter it is a staple at our house. I like the fact that it has very little fat, and that it is versatile. You can prepare it quickly in a many different ways. One of our favorite ways to prepare it is roasted at a high temperature, a method that we learned from Barbara Kafka’s cookbook, Roasting: A Simple Art. There are so many fabulous rubs and sauces that you can make with your roasted pork tenderloin, but we like this classic for an any-night easy meal.
Serve on a platter sprinkled with fresh rosemary and a balsamic glaze reduction.
Servings: 3 to 6
Time: 30 minutes, 10 active
Ingredients:
1 or 2 1lb pork tenderloins (about 2 inches thick)
Olive oil
4 cloves of garlic, cut into small pieces
Several sprigs of fresh rosemary
Salt and pepper
Balsamic reduction
Instructions:
Preheat oven to 500 degrees F.
Rinse and pat dry your pork tenderloins.
Rub with olive oil, and place on a heavy cooking sheet or cast iron griddle or skillet
Using a small sharp knife, make 1/2- to 3/4-inch deep pockets all over the tenderloins, and tuck pieces of garlic into them.
Sprinkle some salt and pepper over the tenderloins, and rub on destemmed rosemary leaves.
Place in preheated oven, and check after 15 minutes. Using a meat thermometer check thickest part of tenderloin. If it has reached an internal temperature of 140 degrees, take it out, and let it rest for five minutes before slicing into medallions. The pork may still be slightly pink, which is good! It won’t be dried out. If that makes you nervous, you can leave it in a little longer, but beware.
Arrange on a platter, and drizzle balsamic vinegar reduction (or prepared reduction like Trader Joe’s Balsamic Glaze). Sprinkle fresh rosemary over medallions, and optionally, red pepper flakes, if you like a little spice!
I love to cook my apples in a cast iron skillet. I like how evenly they cook, and I like the way it looks! Here I have baked two different types of apples.
My grandmother was not a warm and fuzzy grandmother like some. I barely knew her, and one of the only recollections I have of her, is from a time when she babysat for me one afternoon when I was about 7. She made me a baked apple, which I had never had before. Perhaps that is why I am so fond of them; thinking of them just makes me feel cozy and loved. The bonus to making baked apples is that they are brain-dead easy to make, and they make a great side for pork dishes, a lovely light dessert after a heavy meal, or a wonderful cold snack the next day.
Prep time: 30-40 minutes, 15 active
Ingredients:
4 tart apples (medium to large)
4 pats of unsalted butter
4 T brown sugar
1 t cinnamon
Optional: nuts, raisins, other dried fruit
Instructions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Butter skillet.
Scoop out the cores of the apples, forming a well in the apple, being careful not to cut all the way through. I like to grease the outside of my apples with butter before sticking a piece of butter in each apple well. Greasing the outside of the apple makes the skin more tender to eat.
In a small dish, mix sugar and cinnamon and whatever else you want in your apples. Stuff the wells with the mixture. Place in skillet, and place skillet on the middle rack of your hot oven. Set the timer for 15 minutes. Check apples by poking with a fork. They should be soft but not completely falling apart. They usually get cracked skin when they are done.
You can serve them plain, with heavy cream, or with ice cream. Some people like them with sour cream. Enjoy!
Many years ago, my dear friend, Char, taught me how to make tortilla soup in the style that she had learned in her previous life in Mexico. When she taught me, I had never had a tortilla soup, and one could not find one in the US in a restaurant. Over the years, as Mexican food has become more mainstream, I have seen a variety of tortilla soups on menus, but have never had one as beautiful or as simple and pure as the one that Char taught me to make. Thank you, Char, for introducing me to “real” tortilla soup. It is a favorite for my whole family.
Unlike many restaurant versions of this soup, Char’s is a broth-based soup. The broth, and soup are quite simple; it is the canvas against which one splashes colors of paint, and fresh flavors. Because the diners assemble their own soups, to their own tastes, every person has a soup of their own creation with the exact degree of spiciness they desire.
As with most of my recipes, there are easier and harder ways to make this. I make a quick version during the week using canned broth and tomatoes, and a more involved version on the weekends. Either way, it is always delicious.
Broth ingredients:
6 chicken legs
2 carrots, chunked
1 onion, quartered
2 cloves of smashed garlic
2 stalks of celery w/ greens
Fresh and/or dried herbs (parsley, cilantro, oregano, thyme are good)
Salt
Pepper corns
Soup ingredients:
1 c. small pasta (shells, alphabet, stars, orzo, etc.), toasted
1/2 a medium onion diced
1/2 tsp roasted ground cumin
3T fresh Mexican oregano, (or a tsp of dried).
2 pan-roasted, peeled and pureed tomatoes (or substitute a 1 lb. can of fire roasted tomatoes that have been pureed.
2 to 3 cups of chicken (use leg meat if you made broth, or throw in leftover chicken meat)
Make the broth: Of course, home made broth is the best, but if you don’t have time to make a simple chicken broth, use a high quality prepared broth! We like to make our broth as follows:
Put six chicken legs in a deep pot. Add a couple of whole carrots, an onion, some garlic, a bunch of fresh or dried herbs, and any other veggies you have in your fridge that need to be used up. Cover with water (6-8 cups of water). Add about a teaspoon of salt, and some whole peppercorns. Boil and simmer for 30 minutes, until the chicken meat is pulling away from the bones. Remove the legs and set aside to cool. Strain the broth and reserve. Note: you should have 6 to 8 cups of broth an the end. If you don’t have enough broth, supplement with prepared broth, or simply add water and seasoning as needed!
Make fried corn tortilla strips: Heat about an inch of vegetable oil in a heavy skillet. While it is getting hot, cut a stack of tortillas into thin strips. You can play with the thickness, depending on what you find you like. When the oil is hot, place a handful of strips into the oil, and fry until crisp. Drain on paper towels.
Drain the fried corn tortilla strips on paper towel.
Make the soup: Toast pasta in a skillet. I know it sounds a little weird, but this is important; toasting the pasta gives the final product a toasty flavor–go figure! Just throw pasta into a dry skillet over medium heat. Stir continuously until the pasta begins to turn pink. At this stage, immediately dump pasta into a bowl, and set aside. If you leave it in the pan it might burn. I know, because I have done this more than one time!
If you are roasting your tomatoes, put them in your heavy skillet and turn and burn the skin. You can also do this under the broiler. The main thing is you want them to get all black and burned on the outside, but not too cooked. Afterward, you peel them and puree them.
In a soup pot, sauté the diced onions in a bit of oil, add the herbs. Add toasted pasta, pureed tomatoes, chicken, and add broth. Let simmer for about ten minutes or until the pasta is cooked. Adjust seasoning.
Let the broth cook until the pasta is done.
Accoutrements:
Must have items:
Fried corn tortilla strips
Quartered limes
Cilantro
Roasted and peeled peppers (green, jalapeños, serrano, fresno, or other spicy pepper), diced or cut into thin strips.
Optional add-ins:
Avocado
Radishes
Shredded cabbage
Sour cream or yogurt
Cheese
Salsa
Whatever else you think would be good
Peppers, lime, and cilantro are the most important add-ins for the table, but the sky is the limit.
I make my Jambalaya partly on the stove, then finish it in the oven, although it takes a bit longer to cook, I find the even heat yields a better result. This recipe calls for tasso, which can be hard to come by, but bacon makes a suitable substitute. If you have time, you can make your own stock with chicken bones and shrimp shells. I don’t always do this though, since I usually make Jambalaya when I want to have a one pot meal in a hurry.
1/2 cup diced fresh tomatoes (you can also used canned instead)
1/2 cup tomato sauce
3/4 cup long grain rice
1 3/4 cup chicken stock (optionally homemade with a shrimp shell infusion)
1 Tbsp Worcestershire sauce
2 Tbsp minced fresh garlic
1/2 cup diced chicken (great way to use leftover chicken)
1 1/2 cup raw medium shrimp, peeled, tail on.
1 Tbsp finely chopped Italian parsley
3 Tbsp finely sliced green onions
Instructions:
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
Onion, celery, and bell pepper are called the Holy Trinity in Cajun and Creole cooking. Mix these ingredients together.
In a cast iron dutch oven, melt the butter over medium heat, add the andouille and tasso, and cook until it just starts to brown. Add half of the Holy Trinity, cook until the vegetables are tender. Add the diced tomatoes and tomato sauce, and cook for a minute or two until bubbling. Add the rice and cook for a couple of minutes, stirring constantly. Add the stock, the remaining Holy Trinity, seasoning mix, Worcestershire, and garlic. Adjust seasoning to your liking. Add the chicken, stir well and pop the pot into preheated oven. Bake uncovered for 25 minutes. Stir in the raw shrimp, parsley, green onions. Cook until shrimp are done–about 10 minutes. Serve with a crunchy loaf of French bread. Garnish with green onions and parsley.
I like to have a simple green salad with this, but it is really a one-pot meal.
Serves 2-3
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