All the components are
cooked in a large lidded pot and the pot is inverted and (carefully!) removed
at the end to reveal a large layered rice cake with ingredients including meat,
rice, vegetables and nuts.
Ingredients - serves 5/6
1.5 kilos of meat (I
used a leg of lamb chopped into medium chunks)
3 mugs of rice
1 onions - roughly
chopped
4 aubergines
4 tomatoes
2 Bay leaves
All spice berries ground
- 2 heaped tsp
20 cardamom pods
2 cloves of garlic sliced
1 inch piece of ginger
sliced
1 cinammon stick
3 tbsp of Asfur (or
turmeric if you don't have it)
Pine nuts (a large
handful). As they are expensive, toasted flaked almonds would be a good
alternative.
400 ml of vegetable /
sunflower oil
100 ml Olive oil
500 g of greek yoghurt
Handful of Parsley
roughly chopped
Salt
Pepper
You will need a large
serving platter and a large pot with a tight lid.
Firstly rub the dry
spices on to the lamb (the ground all spice berries, 1 tsp
pepper and the Aspur). Heat 2 tbsp of olive oil in a
large pot and add the sliced garlic. When it starts to colour add the
ginger and the roughly chopped onion and let it sweat for 5
minutes. Then add the pieces of lamb with the spices on it, followed by
the cardomom (give them a quick bash in the pestle and mortar to release
the flavour) the bay leaves and the cinamon stick. Once the lamb has browned
add enough water to cover the meat and bring it to the boil. Add 3 tsp
of salt and turn it down to simmer for 2 hours or until the meat is
tender. Make sure there is enough water in the pot as that will be the stock
for the rice.
Just a point regarding
the meat - leg, shoulder or neck are fine. Try and get meat that is off the
bone though as the bones make maintaining the structural integrity of the
Maqluba more difficult. If you have any bones put them in your lamb pot as the
stock will taste even nicer.
Next put your rice in a
bowl of cold water to soak.
To prepare the
aubergines peel them and then slice them lengthways and not too thin (1cm
thick approximately). Put them in a collander and sprinkle with salt. Leave for
half an hour to let the water out. Lay out some trays or boards with kitchen
towel on them or some kind of paper to soak up the ensuing oil.
Heat 100 ml of vegetable
oil in a large frying pan. once it is hot start to add the slices of aubergine
and fry them all until they are golden brown and lay on kitchen paper (both
above and under) to absorb the grease. I used about 400 ml of oil for this.
They really need to be golden and well cooked all the way through.
When the meat is cooked
carefully strain the stock through a sieve and set aside. Discard the bits from
the stock. Add water to make it up to 500 ml. Also set the meat
aside.
Now to assemble; slice 4
of the tomatoes in to thick slices, season with salt and olive oil and lay at
the bottom of the large pot. Now add the sliced aubergine. I lay them all on one
diagonal and then crossed it on the other. My Dad suggested that you could
actually place the aubergine around the sides of the pot so that it was
'wrapped' around the rice, which would actually look very nice. Next add the
meat and then the rice, which should have been drained and rinsed. Press
it all down to compact it with the back of a wooden spoon. Finally add the
stock. You should be able to see it over the top of the rice (approx 1/2
cm) if not then add water carefully.
Next put the lid on the pot and
wrap the top of the pot in some tea towels. Cook on a low heat for 45
minutes. I checked it half way through and fluffed the rice with a fork
gently. Then put the lid and towels back on and continue to cook. After
the 45 minutes take the lid of and check the rice. There shouldn't be any
excess liquid left and if there is cook it for 5 more minutes and
then check it again.
Whilst you are doing
that put 3 tbsp of olive oil in a pan and fry the pine nuts / almonds.
Now place a large
platter over the pot, face down. You then need to turn the pot with the platter
at the bottom of it and flip it over in preferably one movement (I used a boy
for this my arms are pathetic). Give the bottom of the pot a bang (for
tradition) and let it rest for 5 minutes or so. Then carefully lift of the lid.
Scatter with some
chopped parsley and the pine nuts (sliced almonds toasted would work well
too) and serve with the yogurt in bowls (with a tbsp of olive oil mixed in
to it) on the side. And a salad.
I serve it with an
arabic salad - 4 tomatoes peeled and finely chopped, one onion peeled and
finely chopped, a large handful of finely chopped parsley. Combine them and
then add a dressing of a tsp of salt, the juice of two lemons and 3 tbsp
of olive oil.
