Quite an undertaking for an average weekday dinner. Nevertheless, a woman of purpose and power, she persisted and, after six hours, we had a Jordanian Maqluba on a Tuesday night.
This version is a compilation of different recipes but the main one I pushed from is Maqlubet el Foul el Akdhar from Falastin.
Maqluba means upside down — a dish is assembled and cooked in a large pan and turned upside down onto a platter before serving. This one has four basic components: rice, meat, vegetables, and garnish. Fun to make, delicious to eat, and a pretty striking presentation. No?
Turning it onto a plate went successfully, however keeping Julia Child’s advice in mind I asked everyone to leave the kitchen: “If you’re alone in the kitchen and you drop the lamb, you can always just pick it up. Who’s going to know?”
WHAT WENT IN
FOR RICE
— 1 1/2 cup basmati rice
— Salt
FOR LAMB AND BROTH
— 1/4 cup olive oil
— 4 lamb shanks
— Black pepper
— 1 onion, sliced 1/2” thick, about 1 cup
— 8 garlic cloves, peeled
— 10 cardamom pods, roughly crushed
— 20 black peppercorns, roughly crushed
— 3 bay leaves
— 2 dried Iranian black limes, pierced with a small knife
— 5 plum tomatoes, roughly chopped
— 2 tsp tomato paste
— 2 green chiles, roughly chopped
— 2 1/2 tsp ground allspice
— 2 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
— 3/4 tsp ground turmeric
— 6 cups water
— 2 tsp salt
FOR VEGETABLES
— about 10 oz butternut squash, unpeeled and cut into 1/2” thick half-moons
— 1 x 14 oz can butter beans, drained
— 1 red bell pepper, seeded and cut into 1 1/4” cubes, about 1 cup
— 1 poblano pepper
— 1 large onion, cut into 1/2” thick rings, about 1 1/2 cup
— 3 tbsp unsalted butter, cut into 1/2” dice
— 1 large lemon, cut into 1/16” slices, seeds discarded, about 3/4 cup
— 1 heaping cup green peas, fresh or frozen and defrosted
— 7 oz fava beans podded but still in their shells), fresh or frozen and defrosted
— 1 Tbsp olive oil
TO GARNISH AND SERVE
— 1/4 cup blanched almonds, roasted
— 3 Tbsp pine nuts, roasted
— 1 red chile, finely chopped
— 1/2 cup cilantro, roughly chopped
— 1 1/4 cups Greek yogurt
— pickles
THE PROCESS
1. Rinse the rice under running water until water runs clear. Cover it with water and soak for at least two hours or overnight. The longer you soak it, the colder the water. The less time yo have, the warmer the water should be. If I have just about two hours, I cover the rice with boiling water.
2. In a large Dutch oven, brown lamb on all sides in olive oil.
3. Add garlic and onion to the pot with lamb, let it wilt and brown a bit and add cardamom, peppercorns, bay leaves, and limes. Coat them with onion and juices.
4. Add tomatoes, tomato paste, chilies, and dry spices. Cook them for about 5 minutes until they become fragrant.
5. Add water, salt, ring to a boil. Cover and cook on low for about two hours or until meat is falling off the bone.
6. While the meat is cooking away, consecutively fry lightly salted squash, peppers, and onion until golden brown and set aside on a cooking sheet covered with paper towel or parchment paper.
7. When the lamb is ready, take it out of the stock, pull the meat off the bones into bite size pieces, and set it aside. Discard the bones, gristle, limes and bay leaves.
8. Drain rice, bring not strained broth to a boil, add the rice and cook it for 6 minutes, until al dente.
9. Now strain the broth through a sieve and set it aside leaving par cooked rice with aromatics in a sieve or on a plate
10. To assemble the dish, find a wide tall pan or pot that can fit all the ingredients and a platter that is larger that that pot’s diameter.
11. Cover the bottom and sides go the pan with 1 Tbsp of oil an 1 Tbsp of butter.
12. Spread lemon slices on the bottom of the pan keeping in mind that it will become the top once on the table.
13. Follow lemon with squash, onions rings, meat, butter beans, peppers, peas and fava beans. Press everything in tightly with your hands.
14. Top vegetables with rice and press down more to compress better.
15. With a wooden spoon, poke a few holes all the way down to the bottom and into those holes spoon pour some of the stock. You should be able to fit between 1/2 to a cup of it. Save the rest of the stock for another use.
16. Cover the pan with aluminum foil and cook it over medium high heat for about 7 minutes, reduce the heat and cook for another 40 minutes. Another option is to finish the dish in a 350°F oven for about 40 minutes to an hour.
17. In either case, uncover it, dot it with remaining 2 Tbsp butter, cover again and cook for another 10 minutes.
18. To invert the dish onto a platter, ask everyone to leave the kitchen, cover the pot with the serving platter, have heat proof gloves on, maybe do it over a tray. And flip!
19. Tap on the pan, let it sit upside down for a few minutes while you clean up the spills and take it off.
20. Fix the arrangements on top if anything stuck to the bottom of the pan, garnish, and serve with yogurt on the side.
