Saturday, June 16, 2007

Another one of Anne's makloobas


If I am not mistaken ma'aluba or maqluba is Arabic for upside down. The idea is to cook the rice, the spices and the vegetables with the pieces of meat, poultry or fish on top in one big pot and when it is ready, you serve this on a broad dish. How to pass the stew onto the dish? Well, you put the dish, facing down, on top of the pan and turn the whole thing upside down. Thus the dish will be put on the table with the meat buried under a pile of rice and vegetables.

I don't mess around with this way of serving, but I do like to cook all of these types of ingredients in one pan, for it gives a very tasty stew. I like to vary with all types of ingredients. A large variety of vegetables and spices are at my disposal and I choose regarding the season. In stead of rice, or together with rice one can add lentils or other legumes, one can take couscous, qinoa and so on. Mostly I cook with chicken, but all sorts of meat, poultry and fish are fit for the stew. Here is how I made my maklooba today:

5 drum sticks with the skin removed
1 table spoon of olive oil
3 tea spoons turmeric
1 tea spoon ground cumin
1 tea spoon ground coriander
half a tea spoon cinnamon
8 stems of blanched celery
half a teaspoon squeezed ginger
5 cloves of garlic
two hands of fresh parsley
1 cup of rice
1 table spoon qinoa
half a cup of red lentils
2 courgettes
salt

Put in the oil, the cumin and one teaspoon of turmeric on low heat. Stir fry until the oil gets the color of the spices and then add the celery. Stir. Add Chicken with 1 tea spoon turmeric and ginger. Stir. Add rice and garlic and salt. Stir. Add, courgette, qinoa and lentils. Stir. Add three cups of hot water, turmeric, coriander and cinnamon and parsley. Cook until the rice is ready. Add a bit of hot water if the stew turns too dry and begins to stick to the bottom of the pan.

Itamar ate the stew in a pita.

5 comments:

Monique Chelius said...

Ziet er wederom zeer smakelijk uit. En wat een leuke (!) foto's van jullie zoontjes!
Helaas nog steeds geen van je recepten uitgeprobeerd. Ik had al zo lang Belgische garnalenkroketjes op m'n lijst van tryouts staan. Die heb ik gisteren gemaakt. Niet slecht, maar nog niet smeuig genoeg. Volgende keer beter. Tips zijn welkom, in geval je die mocht hebben!

Anne the Man said...

Oh wee. Met garnalenkroketjes heb ik geen ervaring, helaas.

Bedankt voor de complimenten aan Jonathan en Itamar. Ze zijn zo lief als ze eruit zien.

Anne

Anonymous said...

I have no idea what you lot just said :P but this sounds a lot like paella (at least in the preparation), the spanish dish from Valencia. Ever tried it?

Anne the Man said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Anne the Man said...

Ate it, but never made it.

I love Paella, I guess you are right and making it will be much like making a makloobah.