Page 156 - COMING UNSTUCK by Sara tuck

mujadarra The lentils and rice in the

dish can take a lot of flavour
so don’t be shy with the
lentils & rice with fried onions sea salt and pepper at the
end to bring the spices to
life. Perfect with the lamb
shoulder on p129.

Serves 6 Wash the lentils well. Bring a pot of water to the boil, add
lentils, bay leaves and garlic and cook for 15-20 minutes until
1 cup brown lentils just cooked. Drain well, season with sea salt and freshly ground
2 bay leaves pepper and set aside. Heat the ¼ cup olive oil in a large
2 cloves garlic, smashed heavy-based pot over a medium-high heat and fry half the
sea salt & freshly ground pepper onions until golden and a little crispy. Remove fried onions
¼ cup olive oil + 1 tbsp from the pot and season them well with sea salt. Add remaining
4 brown onions, finely sliced onions to the pot with remaining 1 tablespoon oil, cumin
1 tbsp cumin seeds seeds, ground cumin, coriander, cinnamon and allspice and
1 tbsp ground cumin season well with salt and pepper. Cook over a medium-high
1 tsp ground coriander heat, stirring, for 10 minutes then add rice. Cook for 1 minute
½ tsp ground cinnamon then add 2¼ cups water. Bring to a boil then reduce heat to
1 tsp ground allspice a simmer, cover and cook for 10 minutes. Add lentils to the
1 cup basmati rice pot, stir to combine then cook a further 10 minutes – by this
¼ cup toasted, flaked almonds time the rice should be cooked and the lentils warm, with most
¼ cup coriander (cilantro) of the liquid absorbed. Add half the fried onions, half of the
leaves almonds and half of the coriander (cilantro) and stir together.
Garnish with the remainder of the fried onions, almonds and
coriander and serve immediately.

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