Lentil Salad, Southern-Indian style

This incentive for this recipe was to do something with the half package of precooked lentils that we had left over from the pre-Tisha B'Av meal.  The package said they would only last for two days, so we had to act fast.  If you have the ingredients on hand, this is a cinch.  Some of the ingredients are optional, so I also suggest alternatives for a slightly less "authentic" salad, though there is nothing authentic about this in the first place.  In particular, I encourage the substitution of garlic for the hing/asafoetida, which is a sulfurous resin used by Vaishnava Hindus who, for reasons that I have never been able to understand, do not consume onions or garlic.  If you have it on hand and have the taste for it, the hing is great, but otherwise you should be proud to prepare this with garlic.

This recipe is based on poriyals, a group of Southern Indian dishes in which vegetables are stir-fried with mustard seeds and other ingredients. I made this with about 2 cups of leftover cooked lentils, which made a nice-sized side dish for 4 or a vegetarian main dish for 2.  You could easily double the recipe.  If you don't have cooked lentils on hand, boil one cup of dry French green lentils (or smaller black Beluga lentils) in a lot of unsalted water.  It should take about 20-25 minutes, but start tasting them before, since you want them cooked through but firm.  However, the precooked lentils are great and the dish requires no cooking except for the spices at the end. 

Lentil Salad, Southern-Indian style

Ingredients

• 2 cups cooked French lentils (see above)
• juice of 1 lime
• salt
• 1/4 cup grated coconut (ideally fresh or defrosted frozen, otherwise dry, reconstituted briefly in hot water or in the microwave)
• 1/2 cup chopped fresh coriander
• 1-2 tablespoons oil (ideally light sesame oil, otherwise vegetable oil -- see below)
• 1 tablespoon brown mustard seeds
• 1 teaspoon urad dal (hulled, split white dal, optional but highly desirable)
• 15-25 fresh curry leaves (optional but highly desirable)
• 1 thin hot green chili, sliced (leave the seeds in for heat)
• 1/8 teaspoon hing or 1 clove garlic, peeled and chopped
• 1 tablespoon sesame seeds (ideally raw, but roasted is ok, optional)

Method

1. Put the lentils in a serving bowl, mix in the lime juice (use a bit more if you want) and season with salt.  Taste, because precooked lentils are already salted.
2. Top with the coriander, and then the coconut.
3. Have all of your other ingredients ready, since it will go very fast.
4. Heat the oil in a small skillet on high heat. (I actually use a jezve, a Turkish coffee pot.) Add the mustard seeds, and when they pop, add the dal and cook until they just begin to color lightly, about 30 seconds to a minute. Don't let them brown since they will cook further.
5.  If using, add the hing and let sizzle a few seconds and then add the curry leaves, chili and garlic (if using), stirring after each addition.   Turn the heat down until the garlic looses its raw aroma, less than one minute.  Stir in the sesame seeds and cook briefly until they being to color, also less than a minute.
6. Pour the oil and spices over the coriander and coconut, and serve.  It can wait up to an hour without going in the refrigerator.  When serving, toss the salad together at the table to mix in the spiced oil.
7. For a slightly less attractive, but tastier dish, add the spiced oil to the lentils and mix well before topping with the coriander and coconut. 
8. Serves 2 as a main or 4 as a side or appetizer.

The oil:  The classic Southern Indian cooking oil is sesame oil.  Unlike East Asian oils, it is not roasted.  It is a yellow color with a nutty aroma and it can withstand a bit more heat,.  The best choice is a sesame oil from an Indian grocery, otherwise an unroasted sesame oil which should be available in the health food store or in the health food section of a supermarket.  An interesting choice would be coconut oil which is very typical of the cooking of Kerala, but since it congeals at room temperature, you would have to serve it on warm, freshly cooked lentils and serve it at once rather than letting it sit.  You can also use a regular vegetable oil other than olive oil.

The food that made the revolution-- Koshary

This past week we witnessed one of the great triumphs of the human freedom and the human spirit. I write this as a Zionist. What have the Egyptians done but begun to take control of their own destiny, just as Zionism allowed the Jewish people to take control of their's. The January 25 revolution is comparable to the end of apartheid in South Africa, the fall of the Berlin Wall, the civil rights movement and I would argue ( most Egyptians would disagree but I hope that they will be able to change their mind in the coming years) the creation of the state of Israel.  But history is uncertain and tragic. No one knows what is going to come of recent events and all of the great turns in the past have had unforseen consequences for good and ill.  One of my favorite stories is about a conversation between Henry Kissinger and Zhou En-lai in the 1970s.  Kissinger asked Zhou what he thought were the consequences of the French Revolution.  Zhou's reply:  "It's too soon to tell."   But for the moment, and regardless what ultimately happens, we can and should share the joy of the people of Egypt.

There are many questions about the Egyptian revolution.  How will political parties coalesce?  Will the military cede power to civilians?  What role will the Moslem Brotherhood, a complex and divided movement, ultimately play?  Who will emerge as leader?  What will happen elsewhere in the Middle East?

But for me, one question surpasses all others.  What were they eating in Tahrir Square? The answer is actually quite simple:  Koshary.  There are also many photos of koshary vendors hawking their wares in Styrofoam containers in Tahrir. For an on the ground report, see this from the Serious Eats blog.

Koshary is the ultimate Cairo cheap street food. It is a layered concoction of pasta, lentils (often mixed with rice), spicy tomato sauce, and browned onions.  I have heard two derivations of the name:  either it is related to kitcheree, and Indian rice and dal porridge or pilaf,  or it denotes that the dish is kosher, in that it is vegetarian and could be eaten by relatively observant Jews.  It is not peasant food, but quintessentially urban.  It is also not really home cooking, but rather the type of thing you pick up at the corner, like pizza in New York. My daughter came back from a visit to Cairo raving about it and asked me to make it for her.  Though generally not made it home, is not at all difficult, and many of the parts can be made in advance so I hope Maya will now make it for herself. 

I have adapted my version from the recipe in Clifford Wright's monumental cookbook, A Meditteranean Feast:  The Story of the Birth of the Celebrated Cuisines of the Mediterranean from the Merchants of Venice to the Barbary Corsairs , which does for the cooking of the region what Braudel did for its history.  His recipe is also available on his website .  I have altered it somewhat by increasing the proportion of lentils and changing the spicing to make it more interesting, but still consistent with Cairene flavors.  So, if you want to share the sustenance of the people of Cairo, as well as their joy, try this recipe for:


Koshary
   Since this is a mixture, I am presenting each constituent separately.  The final proportions are approximate, and can be altered to suit your taste or how much of each you have on hand.  This will serve about 6 for dinner with a salad. You can easily double the recipe.

For the onions:

This takes the longest so you will need to start it first.   Cut a very large Spanish onion in half, and then into thin rings.  Heat 3-4 tablespoons of oil in a large skillet, add the onions and saute on medium heat, stirring occasionally, until the onions are golden and then  start to brown.  Turn up heat to high and cook, stirring for another 3 to 10 minutes, and take out when some but not all of the onions turn dark brown but not black.  Remove with a slotted spatula or spoon and drain on paper towels.  They should crisp as they cool.  It is difficult to give exact times because there are so many variables. 


For the pasta:

Boil about 1/2 pound of pasta in  well salted water until more tender than you usually would. When done, drain well, add a bit of butter, and set aside in the serving dish. Traditionally, the pasta is a mixture of elbows or ditalini and broken up spaghetti.   Use a mixture of what you have around, and long as there is come combination of tubular and long pasta.  I used penne, linguine, and farfalle.  Use only macaroni pasta, not egg pasta.

For the lentils and rice:

Rinse and then soak 1 cup French green lentils in water for about 4 hours. (This softens then so that they cook in about the same time as the rice.  If you use regular brown lentils, then you don't need to soak.  Rinse 1 cup of rice (I used jasmine) soak in water 1/2 hour and drain well. Heat 1 tablespoon of ghee or olive oil in a 3 quart pot.  Add 1/2 tablespoon of whole cumin seed and  saute a until it begins to darken.  Add 1 onion, finely diced, sprinkle lightly with salt and saute on medium-high until it softens and begins to brown.  Add 2-4 cloves sliced garlic and saute another minute.  Add the rice, saute a minute, and add the drained lentils, and mix well with the rice.  Season with a few grindings of black pepper.  Add 2 cups of boiling water (you may need a bit more depending on the shape of your pot to cover the rice and lentils). Cover tightly, and cook for 20 minutes.  (I generally don't salt this much until it is done, because salt can inhibit the softening of the lentils.) Set aside to rest for at least 10 minutes. This makes a fine dish by its own, especially topped with the onions, and is called mujedderah.

For the tomato sauce:

Heat a little olive oil in a 2-3 quart pot.  Add one small onion, finely diced.  When it is soft and golden but not browned, add about 6-10 cloves of garlic, crushed with some salt in a mortar and pestle and mixed with 2 teaspoons ground coriander and 1 teaspoon Aleppo pepper. (You can also smash the garlic on a cutting board with the flat of a cleaver or large knife and work it into a puree, and then work in the spices. If you don't have Aleppo pepper, add 1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon of cayenne at the end with the vinegar.) Cook the garlic spices and onions on low until the garlic looses its raw aroma, about 2 minutes.  Add one 6-ounce can of tomato paste and stir to saute a few minutes.  Add 2 -3 cups boiling water (or cold water and bring to the boil) mixing it in slowly to dissolve the paste into a sauce.  Add about 20 grinds of black pepper.  Cook 20 minutes and add 2 teaspoons rice or white wine vinegar.  Taste for spciness, salt and sourness.  In addition to using it on koshary, this sauce is great on broiled fish or plain steamed or sauteed vegetables, especially green beans.


Putting it all together

Traditionally, a shop would have all the components warm and just assemble it in a serving bowl or to-go container when ordered.  You can do something similar and keep them separate and warm on hot plates or over boiling water and let people assemble it themselves, but I think it is a whole lot easier if you put it together before serving.  Put the buttered warm pasta in a serving dish, top with the rice and lentils, salting to taste as you put them on.  Pour about one quarter of the tomato sauce on top.  If necessary, you can reheat it all now in a microwave or oven.  Just before serving, top with the fried onions and pass the sauce separately. 

Red stuff?

This week's Torah reading, Parshat Toledot, leaves open many questions.  Which brother is really meant to serve which (the text is oracular and ambiguous)? Why is there room for only one blessing in the house of Isaac?  Does Jacob really fool Isaac with his cheesy disguise?  But in my mind, one question surmounts all the others.  How did lentil stew become the red stuff that Esau demanded in exchange for his birthright, without red pepper or tomato, which are new world ingredients and not available at all in the Middle East until the sixteenth century?

I have been worrying about this for over 30 years, and I am no closer to a solution.  Red, or actually salmon colored skinned lentils turn yellow with cooking.  Well-browned onions are, well, brown.  I can't imagine beets doing anything for this dish.  Part of the answer may lie in the semantic range of the word adom, which may only approximate that of the color red.  My college Latin teacher wrote her master's thesis on color terms across a number of languages, particularly the Romance languages, English,  Japanese and classical Latin and Greek, and used to talk all the time about how variable color terms are across cultures. I remember teaching English to Cambodian refugees in the Bronx in the early 1980s, and how they gave me a hard time when I said that an apple was red, and I am talking about a Red Delicious or Macintosh, not a Granny Smith.  The redness of the apple seemed axiomatic to me, but they would not be convinced, and saw more green, yellow or even brown.

So who knows what made the red stuff red, and if it was even what we would call red.  But, if you want to make the recipe for yourself, here is a recipe for lentil stew:


Lentil Stew (not really red)

Ingredients

• 2 tablespoons or more of olive oil
• 1 teaspoon whole cumin seeds
• 1 large onion, diced
  1 cup lentils, preferably French green lentils or whole masoor dal, washed well
• Salt and pepper, butter and lemon to taste

For serving

• Browned onions (optional but very desirable -- you will be tempted to sell your birthright too if you smell these cooking):  Saute 1  large onion, sliced in thin  half moons and lightly salted, in plenty of olive oil in a non stick skillet until well browned.  It takes time, so be patient, and be careful so they crisp without burning.  Start on high heat and turn it down as they  color and shrivel.

• Chopped vegetable salad:  cukes, tomatoes, radishes, scallions, green peppers diced fine and either mixed together or kept separately.

•  Plain boiled brown or white rice and/or pita bread.

• Cubed feta cheese

• Tahini sauce:  smash a clove of garlic with a little salt and mash to a puree.Mix in 1/4 cup of tahini.  Mix in 1 tablespoon of lemon juice.  It will get tough.  Add water very slowly, until it gets tougher and then thins out to the texture of thick cream.  It will take most likely  between 1/2 and 3/4 cup of water.

Method

1. Heat olive oil on medium.  Add cumin seed and saute until they turn a few shades darker.  Be careful not to brown.
2. Add onions and salt lightly, and saute until light brown.
3. Add lentils, saute with onions for a minute, and add 3 cups of water.
4. Simmer until tender, about 1/2 hour.  Boil off extra water or add more if necessary.
5. Add salt and pepper to taste and stir in a little butter and lemon.
6. Serves about 4 with the garnishes.

Shabbat shalom!

My last meal before Tisha B'Av

It seems fitting that my first food post is about a meal before a fast. Fasting requires a lot of cooking and feasting. Ramadan seems to alternate between somber food and drinkless days and evening eating orgies. The two full day fasts in Judaism, Yom Kippur and Tisha B'Av, last about 25 hours, beginning before sundown and ending after sunset, and neither eating nor drinking is allowed. The Yom Kippur fast requires a sumptious but hurried feast beforehand (to earn merit from the fast, you are required to feast beforehand -- we usually have a Turkish chicken stew called Armico), and then another more leisurely feast afterwards, ideally accompanied by smoked fish, scotch, and psychic and spiritual release.
Tisha B'Av is another matter. This year, it began Wednesday evening July 29 and ended after sundown on Thursday the 30th. For those of you who are not familiar with it, if Yom Kippur, the "white fast" is a joyous holiday of cleansing and renewal, Tisha B'Av , the ninth day of the Hebrew month of Av, is the "black fast" a truly somber day of mourning. It commemorates the destruction of the two temples and the city Jerusalem in 586 B.C.E.and 70 C.E. The month of Av is associated with a number of calamities which befell the Jewish people. It was in Av that the spies sent out by Moses are said to have returned with dire reports of the impossibility of conquering the land of Canaan. Bar Kochba's rebellion against the Roman's was crushed, brutally, in the month of Av in 135 C.E. The Jews were expelled from Spain in Av in 1492. Oddly, the ultra orthodox German Jews (strictly observant, but of the sort who maintain that Shakespeare was more beautiful in the German translation) also point to another calamity that struck the Jewish people in the month of Av: England attacked the German Empire in 1914!
So, this is not a fast for a feast. Much of the holiday is spent sitting on the floor chanting dirges for the destruction of Jerusalem and the other calamities which have befallen the Jewish people. (A WASP friend of mine once asked, "Don't you guys think it is enough already?" Maybe he has a point.) In the days before Tisha B'Av, one is supposed to refrain from eating meat. The traditional pre-fast meal is a hard boiled egg (associated with meals during mourning), which is dipped in ashes. Since you can't make it through the 25 hours on that, you actually have a real meal beforehand, but nothing festive or elaborate. What did I eat?I made myself a lentil stew, which seemed appropriate -- vegetarian and sustaining, and lentils are also associated with mourning (not sure why). Here is how to make it:

1. Boil water -- this is the first thing you should always do, whether you think you will need it or not. Heat a little olive oil in a pot, and add about a teaspoon of cumin seed. Let them sizzle until they darken. Add a bay leaf.
2. Add chopped onion (about 1/2 cup -- I used a combo of scallion whites and shallots because I had some around) and a clove or two of chopped garlic. Cook until they soften but don't brown.
3. Add 1 cup washed lentils -- I like the French green lentils. Saute a few minutes and add 3 or 4 cups of boiling water, and return to the simmer.
4. Cook about a half hour stirring occasionally and begin adding root vegetables, cut into smallish chunks. This depends on what you have on hand, but I used little new potatoes with the skin on, quartered, and 2 carrots. Cook about fifteen minutes and add more tender vegetables (greens, squash, greenbeans, etc.) I used shredded tuscan kale and yellow summer squash, also cut into chunks.
5. Cook until vegetables are tender and stew is thick, adding more boiling water if it looks like it is sticking. Salt more lightly than you otherwise would, since you don't want to be too thirsty while you are fasting.
6. Turn off the heat, and stir in about 1 tablespoon of butter (either room temperature or cut into small pieces) and the juice of 1/2 lemon.
7. Serve with brown rice. You could also use pita or other bread.

I had this with some nice fresh sweet corn on the cob (fresh from our CSA), and followed it with watermelon. The last thing I ate was a hard boiled egg (also from our CSA) dipped in "ashes" that I made from burnt toast. Perhaps not somber, but it got me through the fast nicely. It was so good, that I had the same thing when I broke the fast a little before 9 on Thursday evening.
This is good enough to eat when you are not fasting, and you could add more salt, serve it with feta cheese, or spice things up a bit with more cumin and some chili.