Shorba

I had to make two omelets this morning...for some reason the size that I usually make was bit insufficient (or is it that we're just greedy?).  I think Thursdays and Fridays have become omelet days largely because Wednesday and Thursday night dinners are generally smorgasbords. 

I haven't cooked since Tuesday and that was quite a task.  I was busy all day Saturday and Sunday and was functioning on just a few hours sleep...I knew a crash was coming and it happened on Tuesday.  When my Ethiopian friend called me I was barely coherent.  I mentioned that I had bought the red lentils and she said that they are great for shorba (she also makes a nice soup with oatmeal)...as she was describing the ingredients, searching for English translations I kept thinking about vocabulary similarities between Arabic and Tigrinya...it finally occurred to me that they are both Semitic languages from the Afro-Asiatic family.  Duh. 

After a nap, I went into autopilot, cutting up onions, garlic, peppers (since my last visit to the Low Country, peppers go in everything), and ginger...added tomato paste, then simmered with carrots, potatoes, and the red lentils.  I desperately wanted sambusa on the side but just couldn't muster up the energy.  It was strange because we didn't know what taste to expect but we enjoyed it with fried eggplant on the side.