A Crowd-Pleasing Meal Beyond Measure

Jennifer Abadi, 57, a preserver of Sephardic and Judeo-Arabic culinary traditions, is the author of two cookbooks, including A Fistful of Lentils.

My grandmother Fritzie, a painter, sculptor and jewelry maker, cooked like she made art: by feel. When I asked her to teach me the Syrian-Jewish recipes she had learned from her immigrant mother, she wouldn’t use measuring cups or spoons. It was a fistful of this, a handful (kemsheh) of that.

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Penny De Los Santos

I was trying to document her recipes, so I wanted to measure her ingredients. She thought I was nuts. I’d ask for a measuring teaspoon; she’d pull out a regular teaspoon. I’d ask for a tablespoon; she’d pull out a soup spoon. One day, looking for a cup measure for me, she pulled out a green plastic cup that had melted a bit. I later realized it had come from a box of Tide detergent.

I ended up leaving some standard measures in her kitchen, which she teased me about. “You’re like a scientist,” she’d say. “Why are you so obsessed with the amounts?” To keep from upsetting the flow of her cooking, we made an unspoken agreement: My grandmother would plunk the amounts she wanted into measuring cups and spoons while I scribbled notes, and I never challenged the precision of her measurements.

One of the dishes she taught me to make was M’jedrah — rice and lentils. It’s a hearty and comforting meatless meal with an earthy, Middle Eastern flavor. It also happens to be good for you and great to make for a crowd, since its ingredients are inexpensive and it needs to sit for a while before serving. The taste reminds me of big family dinners in my grandmother’s home, with cousins all around.

Fritzie would cook M’jedrah in an old dented pot that she had probably gotten when she married my grandfather. Who knows how many family dinners she cooked in that pot over the years, in her artistic and improvisational way. But she never wanted to replace it with a newer model. As she used to tell me, “It’s never made a bad pot yet.”

M’jedrah (Syrian-Jewish Rice and Lentils)

M'jedrah, or Syrian-Jewish Rice and Lentils, is a healthy, hearty meatless dish that's perfect for big family dinners — and it's economical, too.

Penny De Los Santos

Serves 8

Ingredients

• 2 cups dried brown or green lentils (not red or yellow), rinsed in cold water, then drained
• 2½ teaspoons kosher salt
• 2 cups long-grain white rice, soaked in cold water for 10 minutes, then drained
• 2 tablespoons vegetable, canola, safflower, sunflower or olive oil
• 2 to 3 cups thinly sliced yellow onions (about 3 medium)
• Optional topping: plain yogurt or Syrian Cucumber-Mint Yogurt Dressing (recipe follows)

Directions

In a heavy medium-size saucepan, bring 4 cups of water to a boil over high heat. Add the lentils and cook 10 minutes over medium-low heat, uncovered, until the lentils are halfway cooked and somewhat chewy in texture. Remove from heat.

Drain the lentils over a strainer, reserving the cooking liquid. Combine the reserved liquid with enough water to equal 3½ cups and pour it back into the saucepan. Add the salt and drained rice, and mix. Bring to a boil over high heat, uncovered.

Once the rice is boiling, add the drained lentils, and stir twice gently so as not to mush them. Boil, uncovered, until the liquid appears mostly absorbed and reaches the level of the surface of the rice and lentils, about 5 minutes. Cover tightly; reduce heat to its lowest possible level, and steam until the rice is soft but not mushy, about 15 minutes. Once rice is tender, gently fold the rice from the bottom to the top and away from the edges of the pot so that you create a mound in the middle. Re-cover and cool for 45 minutes to 1 hour for rice to set (as it cools it will become less mushy).

About 45 minutes before serving, heat the oil in a medium skillet over medium-high heat and sauté the onions until translucent, about 10 to 15 minutes. Arrange rice and lentils on a serving platter or in a bowl and sprinkle with the cooked onions over the top. If desired, spoon plain yogurt or Syrian Cucumber-Mint Yogurt Dressing on top of each serving.