Mejadra (rice with lentils and fried onions), p. 120

A friend who has cooked far more from Yotam Ottolenghi's books raved emphatically about this one, so tonight, when I was definitely feeling the winter, I decided to make it.

It's basically a heavily spiced rice/lentil pilaf with frizzed onions on top.

And I kind of screwed it up.

See, I halved the recipe because it looked huge and serves 6 (and "6" according to Jerusalem often feels more like 10; I'd make references to loaves and fishes except that the authors are a Jew and a Muslim).

And then I discovered after I added the rice to the spice mixture that I'd not halved the rice.

Oh, and I swapped the form of three of the spices (ground cumin instead of whole, and cinnamon stick and allspice berries instead of ground).  And I forgot to add flour to the first batch of frizzed onions, meaning they got soggy rather than crunchy.  Oh, and we don't have yogurt, so I cut some sour cream with olive oil and used that instead of yogurt sauce.

And despite all of that, it was still yummy.

I think this would be helped with some parsley or lemon or pomegranate on top of it.  (This feels ridiculous to say because it's one of few in this whole book that doesn't have one of those augmentations.  I still assert that it is true.)  As it stands, yes, it's very comforting, a little one-note, and did less to get me out of my funk than did the baby spinach I wilted and served alongside it.  With, you know, Meyer lemon juice.  And, um, pomegranate.

I think I'm goin' native.