That Translator Can Cook: Maqluba

Meat (chicken or lamb) and fried vegetables (i.e. eggplants, cauliflower, tomatoes) are topped with rice and cooked slowly in a savory broth. The pot is flipped over onto a platter before serving.

Image Source: Hia Magazine

 I tried to keep the meat and rice dishes to a minimum since there are so many across Southwest Asia and North Africa (SWANA), but maqluba is too cool to pass up. I’ve watched my friends make it, even wrote down their recipe, but I’m too afraid to try making it by myself. Either my clutzy self will spill everything everywhere, or I’ll follow in my mother’s footsteps and burn myself trying to flip over the pot.



While the maqluba recipe can be found in a thirteenth-century Baghdad cookbook, it is mainly considered to be a Palestinian specialty. That doesn’t mean the broader region doesn’t eat it as well though. Maqluba means “upside down” and that is because you cook everything in one pot and then you flip it over onto a serving platter. People say that you should eat burgers upside down because the thicker top bun doesn’t get soggy as fast as the bottom bun. Research also indicates that eating food in unconventional ways may help you focus on what you like about it and may help you eat more mindfully, which could potentially prevent you from overeating.

One of my favorite things about maqluba is how tender and moist it turns out because it’s cooked slowly. While some people I volunteered with in Palestine said that they needed laban rayeb (a type of fermented milk) for their maqluba because it was ‘dry’, I’ve never thought that maqluba could be dry. Slow cooking tenderizes meat and softens tough vegetables; it’s easier too, especially with maqluba since it’s a one-pot recipe.

From a culinary perspective, sealing a pot while you cook locks in the flavors and liquids, which are reabsorbed back into the meat and other ingredients. I would ask my friends about what they put in the maqluba, and they would reply that they simply put poultry seasoning or a spice mix (i.e. seven spice blend). I would always reply, “That’s it?!” According to Wild Nutrition, “Cooking over a longer period of time also increased flavour and reduces the need for added seasoning or sauces. Instead the richness comes from spices and herbs that leach their goodness and aroma into the food.”

There is a science as to why meat tastes so delicious when it’s cooked slowly and it has to do with the temperature it’s cooked at and for how long. Meat has collagen, which melts at 160 °F and turns into gelatin, and getting the collagen to melt is the main goal of cooking because the gelatin gives the meat its flavor. “The process of liquifying collagen is considered to be a kinetic process that can happen thanks to both the right temperature and right duration.” When collagen turns into gelatin, it makes the meat more tender; and the longer the meat is cooked, “the more the muscle fibers start breaking apart.”

Nutrients in the food also remain more stable when you cooked it slowly than when you cook food using other methods because of the low temperature. The softness of slowly cooked food is better for people who have a hard time chewing or digesting food. According to Food & Nutrition, Antioxidants may be more absorbable (in your body) when they are heated; so tomatoes may be more beneficial nutrition-wise when they are heated.

Here is how to make this delicious, slow-cooked meal (recipe and pictures belong to May Wahbi)!

Ingredients

4 people

• 1 kg of chicken (or 1 whole chicken)

• 3 cups of basmati rice

• 2 eggplants

• 1 head of cauliflower (300 g)

• 1 carrot

• 1 medium onion

• ½ green bell pepper

Chicken broth spices:

• 1 tsp. of poultry seasoning

• 1 tsp. of seven-spice blend

• ½ cinnamon stick

• A dash of black pepper

• 1 tsp. of bouillon (or 1 cube)

• Cardamom

• Salt to taste

Rice spices:

• 1 tsp. of safflower

• A dash of turmeric

• 1 tsp. of curry powder

• Salt to taste

Steps

1. Place the chicken (without the skin) into a pressure cooker, then pour in the chicken spices. Place the roughly chopped onion on top and pour two tablespoons of olive oil over everything.

2. Pour hot water on the ingredients in the pressure cooker.

3. Chop the carrot as shown in the photo and add it to the boiling cooker. You need to let the pressure cooker boil for 25 minutes.

4. Chop the eggplants and cauliflower into medium pieces and fry them in olive oil.

5. Take the rice and wash it well, then add the rice spices on top.

6. Place slices of green bell pepper and tomatoes in the pot being used for the maqluba, then sprinkle some rice on top of them.

7. After 25 minutes of boiling the chicken, fry it lightly and arrange it in the maqluba pot. Layer the carrots on top of the chicken.

8. Also layer the fried eggplant and cauliflower on top of the chicken.

9. Pour the rice on top of the fried vegetables and pour the chicken broth into the pot. The level of water should be 2 cm above the rice. Place the pot on the stove and let it simmer until the rice is fully cooked (about an hour).

10. After it's done cooking, flip the pot over onto a platter and garnish the maqluba with parsley and toasted almonds. Bon appetit!

Translators’ Discussion

1. I translated the term طنجرة التطبيق (المقلوبة) as the “maqluba pot” because I couldn’t find any reference for طنجرة التطبيق and pressure cooker was described with طنجرة الضغط. Can anyone tell me if طنجرة التطبيق is a specific type of cookware or if it was simply referring to the pot you would use for the maqluba?

2. Just out of curiosity, is flipping the pot a one-person job or does it require multiple people? I’ve always seen people helping the chef flip the pot onto the platter, but I've gotten the impression that flipping the pot over by yourself is a challenge and if you succeed, it’s something to take pride in.