Palestinian

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Maqluba (Upside-Down Rice, Aubergine and Chicken)

The name is Arabic for "upside-down", and the act of turning it over is the dish. The pot is packed in the reverse of the order it is served in, so the chicken that goes in first ends up on top of the dome. The aubergine is fried before it goes anywhere near the rice: once fried it stops absorbing oil and starts giving it back, and that is what flavours the rice from the bottom of the pot upward. Inverting it onto the tray at the end is the one step in the recipe you cannot take back.

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Musakhan (Sumac Chicken on Flatbread)

Palestine's national dish: onions cooked down in olive oil and loaded with sumac, spread over flatbread, topped with roast chicken and pine nuts. Sumac is a main ingredient here, not a garnish — it goes in by the cupful — and the bread soaking up the juices is the whole point.