Koshary

This is an unbelievably tasty Egyptian dish, and its preparation definitely tested my pot-juggling abilities. I had to make: rice, pasta, lentils, tomato sauce and fried onions (meaning four pots and pans, one washed and reused). Luckily, my husband, who grew up making the stuff, helped me, meaning of course that this post is going to be slightly less entertaining.

Rice, Pasta, and Lentils

1 cup rice
1 cup penne pasta
1 cup brown lentils

Make one cup of rice, pasta, and lentils. I read that I had to boil 5 cups of water to every one cup of lentils, but that seemed to be a dirty rumor. I had to drain at least a cup and a half of water after 45 minutes of cooking, so I don't really know what instruction to give, but ultimately you want to have 1 cup each of pasta, rice and lentils.

Tomato Sauce

1 can tomato sauce
1 teaspoon paprika
1/2 teaspoon coriander

Cook the tomato sauce on the stovetop at medium heat. Add one teaspoon of paprika and 1/2 teaspoon coriander. Mix well.

Fried Onions

one onion
lots of oil
salt

My husband took over after I nearly chopped off my finger while cutting the onions (which need to be finely chopped), so this is what I observed: he didn't measure anything, but to me he put way too much oil in the pan. He cooked them until brown. Then he put them on the plate and added way too much salt. But I guess that's okay, because the onions only decorate the top of koshary.

Presentation

1/4 cup rice goes on the plate first, followed by 1/4 cup lentils and 1/4 cup pasta. Spread sauce over the mix and finally top it with fried onions.

POEM

Forgive me as I only found one unlineated poem by the Egyptian poet Salah Jaheen in English. I am working on some translations.

Corn is not like gold
Corn is like the fallaheen.
Thin stems, their roots feeding from mud.
Like Ismaeen... and Mohamadeen
And Hussein Abou Oweida, who suffered and was beaten
when he requested a handful of corn he had watered with sweat.