Egyptian recipes: Koshary "Egyptian rice, lintel and pasta dish"

If you you have visited Egypt before, you know what koshari is :)

I believe that Egyptian cooks are really genius. They could create a very delicious dish that costs nothing. As I've studied in Egypt history, ancient Egyptians suffered from colonialism for centuries, and that created a layer of poor people. These poor people had to overcome what they had suffered by creating nice taste to delight their life using simple cheap ingredients.
In this hub I'll give you the best recipe ever to cook koshary. It takes time, but it deserves :)
You need to prepare for cooking koshary a day before to get the best taste.

You need

• 2 pounds tomatoes
• 1/2 cup brown lentils
• 2 cups Egyptian short seeded rice
• 1 cup small macaroni
• 1 cup spaghetti macaroni
• 1 large head of garlic
• 1 chili green pepper
• 3 diced onions
• 1/2 cup chickpeas
• cumin and salt
• vegetable oil

Step 1 making tomato sauce

In boiled water put 2 tomatoes for 30 seconds then take them out of water. Peel tomatoes and dice them. Mix tomatoes with 1 tsp of garlic. Put in a bowl and cover it very well and keep in fridge allover night.
Next day cut all the tomatoes and blend in a mixer with garlics, 1 tsp salt and green pepper. Cook tomato on medium heat till its size is reduced to half. Put diced tomato from the day before and stirr for 5 seconds. Now it's ready to be used.

Step 2 Cooking chickpease

Soak chickpease in at least 3 cups of hot water and keep it out of fridge but covered. Next morning, put chickpease in a cooking pan and bring it to boil. Cook on low heat untill it softens. Add 1/2 tsp of salt and 1/4 tsp of cumin. Take it away and add 1 tbsp of lemon juice. and leave aside to cool down.

Step 3 Cooking lentils

In a medium size cooking pan put 2 tbsp vegetable oil. Add 2 tbsp diced onions and fry to golden colour. Put around 2 cups of water then add lentils, a little whole onion and 1/2 tsp of salt. Simmer till it is cooked. Don't let the skin of lentils gets off. Drain lentils but don't throw the left liquid away. In a jar put strain the liquid and add few drops of lemon juice, tbsp vinegar, 1/2 tsp ground red pepper and 1 tsp minced garlic. Cover it and leave it aside. This jar we call it "Da'a" in Egypt. This da'a gives a nice flavour to koshari. If some da'a is left keep it in fridge and you can use it as a sauce.

Step 4 Cooking rice and macaroni

Wash rice then drain it very well. In a cooking pot put 2 tbsp vegetable oil and add rice. Fry rice till it becomes very white. Add 2 cups of water and 1 tsp salt. stir till water disappears. Reduce heat to minimum and simmer to cook for 15-20 minutes.
At the same time bring water in another pot to boil very well. Add some drops of oil and 1 tsp of salt. Put small and spaghetti macaroni after breaking it down to small pieces. When macaroni is cooked, drain it very well.

Frying onions

Rol diced onions in flour and deep fry in vegetable oil to golden colour.

 

Serving koshary

Now it's time for serving koshari in layers.

• layer 1: rice
• layer 2: macaroni
• layer 3 lentils
• layer 4 fried onions
• layer 5 tomato sauce
• layer 6 chickpeas

Da'a can be added as you're eating koshary as much as you want.