Egyptian "Koshari"

Last time I presented an Egyptian dish for breakfast or dinner, and today I'm going to talk about the most famous Egyptian dish for lunch or sometimes dinner, "Koshary" is one of the most lovable dishes that you "must try" when visiting Egypt, because it's delicious, vegetarian "vegan", affordable for all and so healthy at the same time, this dish consists of rice, brown lentils "Ads Be-Gebba", macaroni, crispy fried onion, chickpeas, besides two types of sauces, tomato salsa and "da-ah" which is a garlic light hot sauce and for this one I'm going to add two recipes, one that is being cooked on heat, and another that doesn't need to, and I prefer the last one because it has that taste of raw garlic and that's what I really love about it. "Koshari" is usually hot and cumin is a main spice in its sauces.

Recipe Tips:

1- For crispy delicious onions, it should be thinly chopped, and put it in hot oil in a pot with good amount of vegetable oil, and the onion should be just enough to nearly cover the top of the oil, you can also use flour to coat the onion with and shake off the excess well before placing in the oil, if you there is a thermometer available or you're using an electric deep fry the oil better to be heated to 350F.

2- You should keep an eye on the onion, it takes some time to be cooked but it burns so quickly though, so once it's golden brown becarful and remove it once brown, if it's dark black that means it's burned, in case you use flour you should remove it once golden brown.

3- When heating garlic in the beginning of each "da-ah" and tomato salsa, you should make sure that the garlic is not cooked or turned to golden color, you should make the steps quickly.

4- To peel tomatoes place it in a bowl and add hot boiled water to it for 5 seconds, never more than 7 seconds, it well cause the skin to be removed with the thin layer under it which has the most benefit, so it should be like the photo in the recipe.

5- You can substitute tomatoes with 1/4 cup tomato paste.

Serves: 3 people

Prep. time: 5 minutes

Cooking time: 30 minutes

Ingredients:

1/2 can chickpeas

1 cup brown lentil

1 cup rice

90 gm spaghetti

150 gm small macaroni (al dente)

3 cups water

Tomato Salsa Ingredients:

5 tomatoes 

10 garlic cloves, minced

2 tbsp vinegar

1 cup water

1/4 tsp cumin

1/4 tsp hot red pepper powder

Salt to taste

1 tbsp tomato paste

3 tbsp olive oil

Pinch of sugar to cut the acid

"Da-ah" 1 (cooked garlic) ingredients:

3 garlic cloves

1 tbsp olive oil

1 Hlaf lemon juice

1 tbsp vinegar

1/4 tsp cumin

1/4 tsp hot red pepper powder

1/3 cup water

"Da-ah" 2 (raw garlic) ingredients:

3 garlic cloves

1/2 tbsp vinegar

1/4 tsp cumin

1/4 tsp pepper

pinch hot red pepper powder

1/3 cup water

Directions:

1- Start with rice, break spaghetti in one inch peices and place it in a pan with the washed strained rice and add olive oil and mix on high heat, then add 1 1/2 cup water and salt to taste, stir and cover till boil then change the heat to low, allow cook for about 15 minutes.

2- Wash Letil and strain the place in a pan with 1 1/2 cup water without salt or spice, cover on high heat till boil then allow to cook on low heat for 20 to 30 minutes.

3- Prepare tomatoes, place them in a bowl and add hot boiled water,

remove the thin skin from the tomatoes, should look like this.

4- Juice tomatoes, place the garlic in a pan on high heat with the olive oil and stir to boil 2 seconds then add vinegar stir 5 seconds, and add tomato juice and paste and stir to boil, then cover on medium heat and add the water when needed then allow cook till the oil comes to the top of tomato sauce, start adding salt and spices and boil on low heat for 2 minutes.

5- First "Da-ah", place garlic and olive oil just like the way you did in tomato sauce.

6- Add vinegar, stir quickly then add lemon juice and spices, boil for seconds the remove from heat (won't take more than 90 seconds).

7- Second "Da-ah", stir garlic, vinegar, salt and spices together in small bowl , and ready to serve.

8- After all "Koshari" ingredients are ready cooked, place some rice in the serving palte then lentil then macaroni, sprinkle some onions, add some tomato salsa & your prefered "da-ah", and.. Bon Apetit.