Monday, July 9, 2007

Eggs+mujadrah+queso fresco=International delight!

I'm never exactly sure how to transliterate Arabic words, but mujadrah looks about right, and that's the most common spelling on google. So it has to be right, right? Here's a recipe, but Zee swears (and I can attest) that it's easier than that. You cook up some lentils, you cook up some rice (brown or white), you mix it together with a bunch of chopped onions you cooked within an inch of their lives, add in some sumac (not the ubiquitous poison sumac of Kentucky fencerows, although it is red), sage, and salt, and ta-da! You find yourself eating more than your stomach can hold.
Hopefully you put aside some leftovers. You can then toss a half cup or so into a hot skillet with olive oil in the bottom, whip up a couple eggs, pour that over the leftover mujadrah and wait for the eggs to set up (you can stick the skillet in a warm oven of about 325-350 if you're making a bigger batch and the eggs look like they'll take a while to set. (although don't do that if your skillet's handle isn't oven-proof.) Crumble some queso fresco on top. It's a salty Mexican cheese that doesn't melt, but it gets all warm and squidgy and the whole thing is soooo yummy. I can't even think of a good phrase that would encompass the Italian frittata, the Lebanese/Syrian mujadrah, and the Mexican cheese. Feel free to help me out there.
Now go forth and mix your own bunch of leftovers in together and see what happens!

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