The King of Pilavs: Makluba Pilav

Regular readers may have noticed that over the summer I didn’t post quite as much as usual. I must confess there was a rather embarrassing reason for that. Rushing for a ferry one day, I did something all Turks warn me not to do. I grabbed a doner sandwich from a grungy street stall. In summer. Bad idea.

The food poisoning was so severe, my stomach lining was badly damaged. It turns out stomach lining takes months and months to heal back. In the meantime, all I was allowed to eat was rice, boiled potato, toast, and soup. No raw or spiced food, and tragically no tea or coffee.

I’m still more or less on that diet, which has kind of curbed grand experimentation in the kitchen. But if nothing else, the experience has given me a renewed appreciation for the pilav. Rice holds a special place in the Turkish diet, and there are myriad varieties of pilav to be found in every region of the country. Makluba Pilav would have to be the most spectacular of them all.

Makluba pilav pops up in various forms all over the Middle East and parts of Central Asia where there are significant Arab populations. Turkey too has its own unique version hailing from the border region with Syria. It absolutely never fails to impress. It may seem like a lot of work, but remember this: It’s an entire dinner party on a plate. You need only to add a bowl of bread on the side for your guests to mop up the lovely juices. So put that way, it’s really not so bad after all.

Makluba Pilav

Maklube Pilavı

for the chicken:

a splash of olive oil

8 cloves of garlic, sliced

10 chicken thighs, chopped into 1 ½ - 2cm cubes

2 bay leaves

¼ teaspoon black pepper

1 teaspoon allspice

¼- ½ teaspoon chilli flakes, to taste

1 litre water

for the pilav:

400g potatoes, peeled and cut into 1cm dice

2 thin eggplants, cut into 1 ½ cm dice

2 cups rice

2 teaspoons salt

extra water

for the salad:

2 large tomatos, diced

4 cucumbers, diced

200g red cabbage, shredded and tossed with lemon juice

3 yellow or red bullhorn chillis or bell peppers, seeded and sliced

Large handful parsley, leaves picked and roughly chopped

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 tablespoon lemon juice or pomegranate molasses

1 kg yogurt, to serve

1. Heat the olive oil in a large saucepan, and add garlic. When the garlic starts to colour slightly, add chicken pieces and stir until sealed. Stir through the bay leaves and spices, then add 1 litre water. Cover and simmer for 1 hour.

2. Meanwhile, heat 2 tablespoons of oil to a second saucepan, and add the diced potato. Stir occasionally over medium heat until golden. Set aside. Add the eggplant, stir until soft, then set aside.

3. When done, drain the chicken mixture reserving the lovely broth, and return the chicken back to the saucepan. Spread the chicken pieces over the bottom if the saucepan so it is evenly distributed, then layer the potato cubes on top. Add a further layer of eggplant, then finally cover with uncooked rice. Measure the reserved chicken broth, and add salt and enough water so that it makes up 3 cups. Add to the saucepan with the chicken and rice. The liquid should just barely cover the top of the rice. If not, add a little more water.

4. Cover the saucepan and gently simmer for 30 minutes with the lid on. Turn off the heat, and allow to stand with the lid on for another 30 minutes. This standing time is important. If you don’t wait it out, the rice tower is more likely to collapse.

5. In the meantime, chop up your salad ingredients and toss well with the lemon juice and olive oil.

6. Remove the lid of the pilav saucepan, and cover with a sheet of cardboard or similar. Invert the saucepan and cardboard, and place on the largest serving tray you can find. Slide the cardboard out, tap the bottom of the saucepan firmly, and carefully ease the saucepan off. You should be left with an impressive tower of chicken and rice. If the tower crumbles slightly, don’t despair. Simply rough up the edges of the rice pile for a more ‘rustic’ presentation – it will still look fantastic.

6. Around the pile of rice and chicken, generously spoon yogurt from the base of the rice tower to the edge of tray at intervals as in the photo. Pile salad in the spaces between the yogurt, then serve immediately to your excited guests. Place in the centre of the table, and allow everyone to help themselves.

SERVES 5-6

BELOW: 'Rustic' Presentation =)