Palestinian

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Sumaghiyya (Sumac-Soured Chard and Beef, Served Cold)

A holiday dish from Gaza. Ground sumac is steeped in water and strained, tahini and flour are whisked into the sour liquid, and it is poured over fried chard, boiled chopped beef and chickpeas and cooked until thick. Garlic, chilli and dill seed fried in olive oil go in at the end, and it is served cold with pita. The sumac here is not a finishing sprinkle but the body of the sauce, so the method is about thickening a sour liquid and about seasoning a dish that will be eaten cold.

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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 heaped tablespoon — and the bread soaking up the juices is the whole point.