Palestinian table

Preparation steps

• McLubeh - Overturned Rice Cake: As its name suggests, this inverted rice dish is a traditional Palestinian dish, and versions of it can be found in neighboring countries under similar names. It has been prepared here with lamb since the 13th century. Although the original version of makloubeh was prepared with cauliflower and lamb, today there are more frequent versions with eggplant and other vegetables, depending on the season. After processing the meat and vegetables separately, this fine rice dish is put together and actually slowly cooked in regional spices until the stock evaporates, and then rolled out on a plate and served as a cake. Cut the meat into smaller cubes, cut the onion as well, and boil them in 2 liters of water together with the cardamom and cinnamon stick. After boiling, reduce the heat to medium and continue to cook for 40-45 minutes, occasionally removing with a spoon the dirt and foam. Remove the cinnamon stick and cardamom, squeeze the onion and meat and set aside, save the stock for the rice. While the meat is cooking, prepare the eggplant and cauliflower. Eggplant cut into thick slices, cauliflower into florets, and coat them with the first two tablespoons of olive oil. Bake on a thin baking sheet in a preheated oven at 190 C, about ten minutes. Set them aside. Cut the tomato into slices and set it aside. Soak the rice in lukewarm water for half an hour, and drain. Stacking and cooking makloubeh: Round smaller sickle with a thicker bottom, dimensions: 19 cm X 7 cm (height). Pour the remaining 2 tablespoons of olive oil on the bottom of the sieve. Arrange slices of eggplant and tomatoes alternately along the edge. Place half of the cooked meat with the onion in the middle, and sprinkle with one half of the rice. Now place the roasted cauliflower on the shirt and place the remaining meat with the onion on it. Place the other half of the rice on the meat. As we arrange, we salt each layer a little separately. Finally, press the cake a little with the palm of your hand from above, add half a teaspoon of the remaining spices: sumac, ground cardamom and cinnamon, add a little more salt and pour over the preserved lamb stock - let it cover the rice for 2-3 fingers. Cook covered over low heat, reduce the temperature to completely low and cook covered for 30 minutes. Remove the lid and try on the shirt. It would be almost cooked, and the stock should have evaporated by this time. Add a little more stock and cook covered for the next 10 minutes until the juices evaporate. Now remove from the heat, and leave the rice in a covered skillet for at least 45 minutes to cool slightly and tighten, to make it easier to hand it out. After that, loosen it a little at the ends with a knife, place a tray on top of the serpent, turn the serpent over, break it a little along the bottom, and hand the rice on the tray. If it happens that the rice is a little spoiled, or if the vegetables are a little stuck to the bottom - nothing terrible. The shirt is sticky, easily plastered and slightly patched with wet palms and put in order. Decorate the finished makloubeh on top with toasted pine nuts and parsley. When prepared as a standalone dish, makloubeh is usually served with thick yogurt, or a mixed salad.
• Albadhinjan - Stuffed eggplants: This vegetarian dish is prepared by Aunt Basma with small eggplants, known to her as Persian, to me as Indian or baby eggplants. After washing, dry them a little with a towel, cut them over half from the top towards the stalk, but not completely, let them remain still joined at the bottom. Salt them well in a colander and let them stand for about half an hour. During this time, prepare the stuffing: onion, garlic and tomato cut into small pieces, add chopped almonds, zaatar, salt and pepper, and mix everything well. Eggplants after they have been left to fry in a pan for 5 minutes in a little vegetable oil. Turn them over and fry for an additional 5 minutes. After they have cooled, take out a little meat with a spoon, and mix it into the rest of the stuffing. Open each eggplant and fill with a tablespoon or two of this stuffing. Prepare a small ceramic or refractory dish and place the excess stuffing on the bottom, if there is any left over from the filling. Now lay out the eggplants and pour the chicken stock over them. Bake in a preheated oven at 190 C, 35-40 minutes, depending on the size of the baby eggplant. Before serving, pour a crumb of olive oil over the dish, sprinkle with chopped tomatoes and fresh parsley.
• Kubbeh - Bulgur meatballs: Very tasty meatballs, they are a distant relative of falafel, and are gladly prepared in many ways in Palestine and throughout the Middle East. With Lebanese neighbors known as kibbeh, with Syrians as kubbe. Aunt Basma prepares them in three different ways, fried, stacked like a pie with a meat filling in the middle, and baked like in this recipe. Bulgur wrap: wash the bulgur and soak it in water for about an hour. Squeeze it well in a strainer and mash it with your hands to get more excess water out. Add salt and spices, and mix by hand. Finally, mix in the packaged beef and once again mix well by hand as if you were kneading dough. Set aside while the filling is being prepared. Stuffing: put chopped onion and beef in a pan with a little olive oil. Stew them until the meat changes color. Finally, add salt, a pinch of the above spices, stir everything together and remove from the heat to cool slightly. Shaping: from the bulgur mixture, tear off a ball the size of an egg. Dig the middle of it with your thumb, at the same time parting the ends with your index finger, turning it in the palm of your hand. Fill them with a spoon or two of stuffing, there will be about 12. Bulgur is pulled over the stuffing, and the heel is first shaped into a ball between the palms, and then into the oval ends, slightly elongated like a lemon. Preheat the oven to 180 C, line a shallow baking tray with baking paper, and coat it with a little olive oil. Lay the kubbeh on it, and coat them on top with a crumb of olive oil. Bake for about 35-40 minutes. Kubbeh were served with me today with hindbeh, stewed butter from the recipe below. They are usually served with labneh, olives, pickles or some other sour mezu.
• Hindbeh - Stewed dandelion leaves with caramelized onions: It is best to store it in the spring, when it gives birth to young dandelion, then its leaves will not be bitter yet. It is everywhere in Palestine at that time; it also grows in stone crevices on the sidewalks, and next to houses, it finds a home everywhere. Cut the onion in half, cut the halves into slices, crescents, scatter them, and toss in a pan on olive oil. I used the oil left over from sautéing the onions in the musakhan recipe below. Simmer it over medium heat until caramelized, stirring occasionally, it will burn easily. It will take about 20 minutes for this. Set aside a little onion on a paper towel to decorate the hindbeh at the end. While the onion is processing, boil the butter for the dandelion, about 3 liters. Wash the dandelions well and cut off their stems. Cut the leaves into slightly larger strips, put them in boiling water and add salt. Cook for 5 minutes, take them out of the water, and lower the strainer into another bowl into which we have poured cold water and ice. So blanch them for a few minutes. Squeeze well in a strainer, and then with a bag, add them to the onion in the pan, add salt and pepper as needed, and simmer for just a few minutes, stirring. Squeeze a little of the oil, transfer to a tray, sprinkle with preserved onions, fresh lemon juice, and pomegranate seeds. Serve with kubbeh as in the picture.
• Tabun - Palestinian bread baked on stones: The recipe for bread can be found here:
• Musakhan - Chicken with sumac, onion and tabun bread: This juicy dish is a traditional Palestinian dish, the most Palestinian of all Palestinian dishes. For those who are willing to try Palestinian cuisine and have time to prepare just one dish, my choice would always be musakhan. Although this dish has been prepared in all seasons in recent decades, Aunt Basma still prepares it mostly during the olive pressing season, a job that is still done near her house with the help of spherical stones, as it was a few thousand years ago. The chicken pieces used in this recipe today were winged drumsticks for me, a total of 10 pieces. In musakhan, all pieces of chicken are used, but always with the bones in them. Put the chicken in a pot with water, add about 10 cardamom seeds and salt. Adjust the amount of water to the amount of meat. Cook for about 20-30 minutes, depending on the pieces of meat used. We need to save the foundation for later. Take out the cooked pieces of meat, sprinkle with 1 tablespoon of sumac, salt and pepper them, and massage well. Put them in a slightly deeper pan with a couple of tablespoons of olive oil. Bake in a preheated oven for about 30 minutes at 220 C. Extend the baking time when working with larger pieces of meat. Remove the meat after it has been finely browned on all sides and given a nice yellow color, and set it aside. Now scrape the bottom of the protvoon a little to release the caramelized pieces of meat left on it, and add about 250 ml of the preserved chicken stock to the protvon. Return to the oven for 10-15 minutes at 180 C. This will be the toast for the tabun bread before serving the musakhan. While the chicken is roasting, prepare the onions. Cut it, but not into too small pieces, put it in a pan and add at least 200 ml of oil. It is important that the amount of oil here is not reduced, I have already reduced it from the original aunt Basma's recipe. Simmer over low heat, stirring occasionally until the onion darkens, this will take about half an hour. Strain the onion in a strainer, save the oil, the same can be used for hindbeh from the above recipe. Add pepper, salt and about 2 tablespoons of sumac to the strained onion, and mix everything well together. Remove the saucepan from the oven, tear the loaf of bread (s) into larger pieces or cut it with a knife, and dip each piece well on both sides in the saucepan. Place the soaked pieces of herd on a serving tray, and sprinkle sumac on them, stewed onions on the sumac. Arrange the roasted pieces of chicken on the onion, sprinkle them with a little sumac. Now sprinkle the whole dish with toasted almonds and pine nuts. Musakhan is eaten with his hands, he does not admit bestek and insults himself with his jaws and knives. If he didn’t leak on his chin and elbows, the musakhan failed, something stunk, or was saved on the bow.
• Hummus: In Palestinian homes, hummus differs from that in restaurants because it is mostly still made in large attics by pounding it with a pestle, so that its texture is not completely smooth, but will always be a crumb of chickpeas left untreated. These rules are also followed in Aunt Basma's kitchen. Wash the chickpeas and soak them overnight. In the morning, rinse it and put it in a pot with about 3 liters of water, and bring it to a boil over high heat, occasionally removing dirt from the top. Reduce heat and cook on low for the next 2 hours until softened, not allowing it to completely disintegrate though. While the chickpeas are cooking, bake the garlic in the oven: put the peeled garlic cloves in a little aluminum foil, sprinkle them with a crumb of olive oil, salt and pepper; close the foil over the slices, and bake for about 45 minutes at 190 C, until completely softened. When cooled, mash it with a pestle in a large mortar. From the cooked chickpeas, preserve a little of the liquid in which it was cooked. When cooled, put it in the same oven in which the garlic is mashed, add the other ingredients, and start with the ham. Maybe start by squeezing one lemon, and add another to taste. In the absence of an avan, a larger old bowl can also be used. Beat first with a pestle, then beat with a wire whisk until the desired texture is obtained. This won’t take long because we cooked the chickpeas for a full two hours. Let the hummus not be completely smooth in texture, and let a few grains of chickpeas still be felt under the tongue. If the hummus becomes too thick, add a little water in which the chickpeas were cooked, if necessary. Try it, and add salt to taste. Garnish with olive oil, za'atar, sumac, and parsley.
• This for that: Za'atar: This fragrant Middle Eastern spice has been popular all over the ball for the last couple of decades. At my local markets in Toronto, they save a little on sumac, and it is often sold completely green, so it is best to do it at home. Palestinian za'atar consists of only 4 ingredients. Aunt Basma advises that it is better to store it a little, not to stand for too long, and that no matter in what quantities it is worked, that sumac and sesame always go for twice the dose of thyme. Fry the sesame seeds in a dry pan just enough to change the color a bit, not allowing them to darken. Mix them with dried thyme, sumac and salt, and enjoy its aroma and taste. Sumac: It is impossible to imagine Palestinian cuisine without sumac. This divine spice is obtained from the berries of the rhus bush plant. It is from the Anacardiaceae family, and there are about forty species. In my opinion, it is the tastiest and most fragrant spice that nature has given us. It has a sour lemon flavor, a beautiful burgundy red color, and minced is used in a fair number of Palestinian dishes, from grilled meats and marinades, to salads. Sumac is one, and there is no suitable replacement for it, but it is no longer difficult to find it in larger supermarkets.
• Palestinian table: