Palestine

I was super pleased with how this dish for Palestine came out. There were a few different options I had tumbling around in my mind for Palestine, but I stumbled upon a recipe for maqluba in the cookbook Jerusalem by Yottam Ottolenghi and Sami Tamimi. It's one of the national dishes of Palestine, so it was perfect!

Maqluba is basically an upside down "cake" made from rice and veggies. Maqluba literally means "upturned" or "upside down" in Arabic. Above is the picture in Ottolenghi's book.

I started by roasting my cauliflower and my slices of eggplant.

The recipe calls for frying the cauliflower and eggplant, but I wanted to avoid using too much oil so I just drizzled olive oil and baked them until almost cooked through.

To assemble everything, you start by laying down tomato slices in your dish--I used a dutch oven, but any large pot will do. I definitely could have used more tomatoes here but I somehow ended up with only one roma tomato by the time I made this dish so that's what I used.

Then comes the eggplant. You have to kind of stuff some of them down the sides so that they kind of mold into the shape of the pot and come out as one piece instead of flopping all over the place. I think the texture of eggplant works really well to kind of meld everything together here.

Next comes the cauliflower. I was worried about this because I was afraid the florets would definitely fall out when this eventually got turned over--luckily that didn't happen. They are nestled nicely in between the layers of eggplant and rice.

I got together my spice mixture: black pepper, cinnamon, cumin, cardamom, nutmeg, cloves.

Then a layer of white rice. Generally short grain rice is used here--I usually only keep one white rice and one brown rice in my kitchen (although sometimes I have basmati on hand for special recipes). I think this is jasmine rice.

The rice is then covered with water mixed with the spices.

It's covered with a lid wrapped in a kitchen towel (in order to absorb any condensation). And left to simmer until the water is soaked up into the rice. This also cooks the vegetables the rest of the way through.

Once it's done cooking, you get a nicely spiced rice with some surprises underneath.

Then the fun part: turning the whole thing over! I don't really have a plate truly big enough to cover the pot--the one I used is pretty much the exact the same size so I had to be careful I didn't lift it over the edge. The co-author of the cookbook this recipe came from says his family would have everyone put their hand on top of the pot before lifting it up to ensure everything comes out whole. I didn't do that, but I did tap the bottom a little try to make sure nothing stuck.

I'm pretty sure a couple tomato slices didn't come out with it, but those were easy enough to pick off and place on top. The eggplant slices form a neat top later--very similar to a tarte tatin.

I was incredibly happy that the rice stayed mostly together--of course a few grains here an there fell off, but honestly I was expecting about half of it to just get stuck inside the pot so seeing the "walls" holding up was really exciting for me.

I was also sort of worried that the spices used in the water on top of the rice would only serve to season the rice, but you can see in the picture above that they made their way all the way down to the bottom.

You can see here that the cauliflower also got a chance to peek out of the sides a little (while also staying put) showing off that beautiful brown char from roasting.

And yet another problem I thought I would have (wow, I was really pessimistic about this working!) was cutting into it. Well, a sharp knife cut through very easily and I was able to serve it in slices just like a cake or a pie. Sometimes eggplant, especially with the skin attached, can be hard to cut but I think simmering it with the water for cooking the rice made it perfectly soft and easy to cut through. The cauliflower was also nicely cooked--not too soft or too tough.

While this would taste just as good if it were just a scoop of rice and veggies I'm really glad I could serve it as a beautiful little slice of everything. The flavor was also really nice--I love eggplant and cauliflower to begin with, but they're especially good combined with Middle Eastern spices. Maqluba is commonly made with chicken or lamb, as well as other vegetables or potatoes.

Definitely would make again! It's not as hard as it seems; certainly a bit intimidating at first but it comes out beautifully.

Recipes Used: "Jerusalem" by Ottolenghi & Tamimi // Makloubeh (another version on Ottolenghi's website)