Journey Through The Kitchen: Koshary

Koshary or Moghrabeh is a popular egyptian dish. Koshary is to Egypt, what paani puri is to Bombay. What I mean is that stalls selling Koshary at extremely low prices can be found on roadsides in Egypt. So what excatly is koshary? If you order for a plate of koshary in egypt, you will see the vendor take a plate, put in a handful of rice, handful of vermecilli, handful of lentils and then top it all up with a red coloured sauce.
I tasted this at our neighbour, Jaleelcha's house during a party. You've got to try this, it is simply awesome!!

Ingredients:
1 cup rice
1 cup pasta(preferably elbow)
1 cup lentils
1 cup vermecilli (the thicker variety)
2 tbsp olive oil
1 onion, chopped finely
3 cloves garlic, crushed and finely chopped
1 1/2 cup peeled and chopped tomatoes
1 tsp chilli powder
salt
pepper
oil for deep-frying
1 large onion, thinly sliced

Method:
Boil rice, pasta, vermecilli and lentils till done. Since all 4 have different cooking time, you'll have to cook them individually. Addsalt while cooking rice and pasta. DO NOT add salt to lentils as it will increase the cooking time.
Heat olive oil in a saucepan. Saute onion and garlic till translucent.
Add tomatoes, chilli, salt and pepper. cook till tomatoes are well-mashed and you have a thick sauce ready. Water can be added if sauce gets too thick.

Deep fry onions in oil on high flame till they become brown and crisp.

Divide the rice into four equal portions and the lentils, pasta nad vermecilli into 2 equal portions each.
Layer a portion of rice into a casserole. Sprinkle 1 tbsp of fried onions.
Top with a layer of lentils. Sprinkle 1 tbsp of fried onions.
Then make a layer of pasta followed by the vermecilli and finally wih one more portion of rice. After each layer, sprinkle 1 tbsp of fried onions.
Repaeat the whole process with one more casserole.
So basically you have 2 casseroles, each with a layer of rice, lentils, pasta, vermecilli and one more layer of rice with some fried onions between each layer.