You may think that everything I cook comes out nice and tasty the first time I try, but no. Cooking is an eternal trial and error. The recipes I publish in this newsletter, are recipes that I have been preparing for a while or —if they are more recent— that I repeat until I think the result is, not perfect, because usually there is always room for improvement (although it is true that there are recipes that are sublime as they are, and that it is better to follow “to the letter” —which reminds me of Marcella Hazan's pesto in Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking, try it if you haven’t, you will become purists of Genovese pesto) but, good enough to be shared. In that sense, maqlūba —that literally means "flipped"— is like a Tower of Babel, for its perfection is humanly unattainable, yet the result is always welcome and celebrated.
The ritual begins with the selection of ingredients. The maqlūba is a flexible dish in terms of composition; the variations between types of meat, seasonings and vegetables, respond, not only to the diversity of tastes of those who prepare the dish, but also to what is available in each region and in each home. A good maqlūba is equally comforting in times of abundance as in times of scarcity. The unifying element is rice (although, a curious fact is that the latter is not included in the oldest version of maqlūba contained in the medieval cookbook Kitab al-Tabikh) —and the dish itself— for, it is from it, even directly with their hands or a with a piece of bread, that the food will be eaten.
Thus, while rice acts as glue for the rest of the ingredients, the plate in the center does the same for the people, who eagerly wait around it for the pot to be turned over and the construction of the "tower of maqlūba" is revealed. Because maqlūba is not only a flexible, comforting and unifying dish, it also contains a surprise factor that makes it exciting. So, when it comes down to it, who cares if a slice of tomato sticks to the bottom of the pot or a few grains of rice collapse? Even the most experienced cooks aren't immune from this happening to them, because —unlike the mythological tower— maqlūba is a dish that doesn't pretend to be godlike.
I have prepared maqlūba a total of four times to date and, so far, each result has been quite different (like you can tell by the pictures). This, in part, because for each version I have used different ingredients inspired by different recipes, but also, because maqlūba is one of those recipes that keeps changing and evolving along with people who —happily— one day find a middle ground between ingredients and techniques, and a recipe they can call "their own". I have not reached that point yet, but, I have been surely able to take back good general knowledge, that I will try to summarize in this, which does not pretend to be a recipe "to the letter" of maqlūba, but a starting point to perfect your own.
MAQLŪBA
Here are the most common variations for each group of ingredients in a maqlūba —choose the ones you prefer, start by explore within the limits of the options I suggest. Below, I share my notes and comments on the 4 times I’ve prepared this dish —two with chicken, one with beef and one vegetarian— plus a video with the complete preparation.
Keep reading with a 7-day free trial
Subscribe to Atole Newsletter to keep reading this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives.