Levantine Inspired Lentil Dip with 3 Hour Crispy Melty Onions

This dip is a loose interpretation of the Levantine Dish Called Mujadara also spelled Mejadra.

Mujadara is basically a pilaf of regular lentils, long grain rice and Crispy onions.

I came up with this dish because my husband doesn’t like the texture of lentils and will only eat them mushy or in a soup.

First start off your onions

You need a baking pan drizzled with extra virgin olive oil,

Drizzle of balsamic vinegar

a few bay leaves

a few black peppercorns

4 pealed red onions cut in halves sliced thin and also drizzle the tops with extra virgin olive oil.

Place pan in a 325 degree oven on your middle rack and roast 3 hours.

For your lentils

I used 3 1/2 cups of lentils that were 1/2 the regular brown ones and half pink lentils. The pink ones turn mushy and the brown ones give a little texture. You cover the washed and rinsed lentils with a good cover of water. Add your spices.

2 teaspoons coriander

1 teaspoon black pepper

1 teaspoon kosher salt

1 teaspoon cumin

1/2-1/4 teaspoon caynee (if you eat this the same day the 1/2 t. taste almost too hot but the next day it’s more mellow)

1 cinnamon stick

Bring this mixture up to a boil and then reduce to a simmer and then cover the pot. Your lentils will be done in 15-20 minutes. You might need to add one cup of water for the texture you want. (when the lentils are done remove the cinnamon stick)

When your onions are done they will look like this.

Pull the crispy ones off and set to the side of the pan.

Mix all those melty sweet onions into the lentils.

Mix and serve topped with the crispier onions and optional chopped scallions and sour cream or yogurt.

Levantine Inspired Lentil Dip with 3 Hour Crispy Melty Onions

Forking Good!

I had extra basil and some anchovies I wanted to forking use so I thought of the Thai Dish Pad Grapow,

Pad Grapow in America is basically Chicken and lots of Thai Basil with Fish Sauce, chili’s and garlic.

The “Red Boat Brand” of fish sauce is just made from anchovies. So with the ingredients I used  I thought this can be a similar forking dish.

Ingredients (for about 4 servings)

About a lb. of cleaned chicken off the bone either light or dark meat (rough hand chopped and pounded)

Hand Cut

Pounded

one small can of anchovies in olive oil

one package of basil rinsed off and leaves removed from stem. (it forking looks like too much basil but it isn’t. The basil shrinks down. You want to really taste basil here.

One hot pepper

about 3-6 cloves garlic depending on how you garlic taste and your forking love of garlic.

optional crushed red chili flakes (when I finished I wanted to bump up the heat a little for balance)

Easy directions

Put your fry pan on medium high heat and heat up the olive oil from your small can of anchovies. Mince your garlic and chili together and add to fry pan when it’s hot. Let it go a few minutes and then add your anchovies and let it all melt together.

Add your chicken and leave it the fork alone a few minutes to cook. Turn the chicken over and let cook on other side. When it’s almost done stir it around and add all the basil. Taste and adjust seasonings if necessary. Serve over spaghetti for an Italian Fusion touch or over zucchini spaghetti for a forking figure friendly option.

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To make the best cannoli filling you have to start with fresh made cheese that you forking made yourself.

Fresh made cheese is only whole milk, heavy cream fresh squeezed lemons and a little kosher salt. You bring the milk, cream and salt to a slow boil and let it go a few minutes.

To make it curd you slowly add the fresh squeezed lemon juice till it curds as much as you want.

For cannoli filling I want it to curd more than ricotta because I want my cheese thicker so when I add sugar to sweeten the cheese it doesn’t get forking runny.

Now it’s time to drain the cheese.

So I get a paper towel lined colander.

Let it drain.

Now I have Cheese.

I make three flavors of filling.

Vanilla, chocolate and cinnamon.

The vanilla is just vanilla extract, sugar with a drop of anise.

The cinnamon is just cinnamon, a small amount of vanilla extract and sugar.

The chocolate is coco powder, vanilla extract, a drop of anise, a pinch of cinnamon and sugar.

I used one gallon of milk, 1 quart of cream, 2 fresh lemons and maybe 1/2 teaspoon of kosher salt to make the cheese.

I saved somewhere between 1/4-1/3 of the cheese to make Cheese Gnocchi’s with the forking leftover.

Ricotta Gnocchi

On my search type in Ricotta Gnocchi for the recipe.

Forking Good!

I’ve been making Cannoli’s for a long time now. A while back  back I tried out the basic five recipes for Cannoli’s. Some forking fell apart. One came out too hard and thick. Some seemed good but got baked on to my cannoli tubes. None of those were perfect and sometimes the batter was so dry you couldn’t make a dough out of it. I figured out how to do them best learning a little from all the recipes so I made my forking own recipe.

Ingredients (will make about 18 smaller sized shells)

1 cup flour

1 tablespoon butter

1 tablespoon sugar

pinch kosher salt

about 1/8 cup water

about 1/8 cup wine

about 1 beaten large egg white (use 1/2 in recipe and half to seal)

A little extra flour for dusting your rolling pin and table or mat.

Mix up butter and sugar together. (doesn’t need to be creamed) Add flour and salt then combine. Add wine and water mix well. You will need to add about 1/2 of one large beaten egg white to form the dough. Mix well and let rest 1/2-1 hour.

Roll out thin. Either cut into desired sized squares or cut in desired sized round shapes. I find it easiest to pinch off maybe a scant teaspoon size of dough and roll it out in sort of a round shape on a dusted silicone mat.

Apply loosely to tube.

Use remaining 1/2 beaten egg white to seal shells together on tube.

Deep fry at 350 degrees in a neutral oil until crisp and desired color.

When cool remove from tube.

When still warm dust the shells with powdered sugar.

I recommend filling with home made ricotta cannoli filling. Other options are ice cream or whipped cream mixed with custard.

Since you fired up the fryer you might as well make potato or vegetable chips.

Rutabaga and Potato Chips with a light sprinkle of Sea Salt. (just slice thin, blot dry and fry till crisp)

Forking Good

Cardoons

I don’t come across  cardoons often so I thought I’d make something tasty and special out if it. They look sort of like celery but thought of  Cardoons as an artichoke since it’s from the artichoke family and thought it would be forking delicious fried with Parmesan and fresh herbs. After all isn’t anything forking fried delicious that way.

Cardoons are more work than most vegetables.

Cardoon

By the time it gets to your market most of the forking thorns and leaves are removed but not all.

Remove small thorns on each side of the stalks and peal the fibers from the stalk tops.

Then you cut the Cardoons in pieces.

Now at this point almost everyone boils  cardoons in vinegar laced water. The cardoons are forking bitter but boiling the cardoons till tender in vinegar water improves the flavor. Then set your Cardoons in something to drain.

Now were forking ready to cook!

Ingredients

One Cardoons bunch (some are small some are big already cleaned up and cooked in vinegar laced water with a little Kosher Salt)

1 cup panko crumbs or grated artisan bread crumbs

1/3 cup grated parmesan cheese

scant 1/4 cup crushed hazelnuts

sprig of fresh oregano chopped fine

small sprig or half of large sprig fresh rosemary chopped fine

1 small garlic clove minced or chopped fine

1 small spicy chili chopped fine

2 beaten eggs

Fresh Ground Black Pepper

Fresh Ground Sea Salt

Canola or vegetable oil to fry with

Directions

You need Two large bowls.

In your dry bowl you want your panko or bread crumbs, hazelnuts, parmesan and 1/2 of your chopped herbs, garlic, and chili. Add salt and pepper.

In your wet bowl you have your beaten eggs with the other half of the chopped up spices and add salt and pepper.

Get your Cardoons.

and now dip in egg mixture and then in dry mixture and do them all.

Now your ready to fry!

Hopefully your fryer or fry pan is at around 350 degrees.

Try one tester piece of cardoon and see how it fries.

They only need a minute or so on each side.

After your batch is fried when they are still hot you should taste one and decide if you want to add more fresh ground Salt and pepper to them.

Crispy Cardoons with reduced Balsamic Drizzle

They come out very tasty and forking delicious and crispy. I think this might be the best way to eat cardoons.

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Kumquat Marmalade

Anyone can make forking Marmalade. It’s  any Citrus or combination of citrus with their peals that’s boiled with water and sugar.

I had some Kumquats so I made them into Marmalade.  The Kumquats should be sliced in half longways so your marmalade doesn’t look the same as forking orange marmalade.

Kumquats next to an orange

Ingredients

8oz package of Kumquats (rinsed off) and cut in half longways. Remove seeds if you see any.

1 Cup Sugar

3 Cups Water

Pinch of Kosher Salt

(optional one mildly spicy but fruity orange colored pepper chopped fine) A fresno or an Asian Wrinkled Pepper just to add a little punch.

Directions

Put everything in a sauce pot. Bring to slow boil on medium heat and stir occasionally. Let it boil down until it looks like Marmalade.

Forking Good!