Habibi Abroad

Passport & Plate - Mjadara

Lebanon | Thursday, January 23, 2014 | 2 photos

Ingredients
2 cups of brown lentils
1 cup of rice
2 brown onion
Olive Oil
Salt and Pepper

 

How to prepare this recipe
1. Line the base of a large pot with 1/2 cup olive oil.
2. Finely dice 2 large brown onions.
3. Place the onions in the oil and let them caramelise for a few minutes.
4. Place the lid on the pot as the onions start browning to sweat them out and release the flavour.
5. Wash 2 cups of lentils then put in pot with enough water for them to cook. Bring to the boil and keep adding water so it doesn't dry out.
6. Just before lentils are completely cooked, add 1 cup of rice in the pot with enough water to cook it all together.
7. Add about 1 teaspoon of salt to the pot and stir it all together and add more salt to taste if needed.
8. Once the water evaporates place the lid on the pot and let it sit for a few minutes.

Time to eat!

 

The story behind this recipe
In 2009 I moved to Singapore for a year. It got to the point where I was tiring of the Asian style cuisine and missed my mum's homestyle Lebanese cooking. So I emailed her and asked for the recipe of my favourite dish - Mjadara. The thing about my mum, grandmothers and aunties is that they don't follow recipes. They don't write things down. They don't even really measure ingredients. They're instinctive cooks. They measure with a little bit of this and a little bit of that. They can dip a teaspoon into a pot and know exactly what's missing. Needless to say, mum struggled putting the recipe together because for the first time in 30 or so years, she had to actually take note.

I think it's worth noting what type of dish mjadara is, and why it means something to me. Both sets of my grandparents came from a village in the North of Lebanon called Barhalyoun. They grew up in hard times and harsh climate conditions. They were, however, incredibly resourceful and being short of money or needing to cook with what was in season didn't deter them from putting on a feast. The Lebanese pride themselves in always having an open kitchen and home for guests to pop in and eat. So Mjadara was a cheap, peasant style dish that frequented the village homes back then. Lentils and rice were diet staples. They could be stored for months a time, and most importantly they were cheap and nutritious. When meat was scarce, your protein could be sourced from this vitamin rich dish. And so when my grandparents moved to Australia, this recipe travelled with them to outback Taree and Redfern. Both my grandmothers make the dish slightly differently, and although I may be biased, I believe mum's is the best version. I am now living in London and whenever I am broke before next pay day, or missing home and my beautiful family....putting on a pot of mjadara makes everything right again. As the Lebanese say 'Sut'tain'...eat with blessings.