Smoked Clay Pot Meat Maqluba

Ingredients

• 500 g meat, with or without bone
• 2 cups Egyptian rice, soaked half an hour
• 1 medium eggplant, sliced and fried
• 2 tomatoes, sliced into rounds
• 2 potatoes, sliced and fried
• Salt and black pepper to taste
• Maqluba spices: 1 tbsp cinnamon, 1 tbsp turmeric, 1/2 tsp cloves, 1/2 tsp nutmeg, 1 tsp black pepper, 1 tsp cardamom
• Whole spices for the stock: 2 bay leaves, 2 cinnamon sticks, cloves, cardamom, nutmeg, 1 onion, 2 garlic cloves
• 1 chicken stock cube
• 1/4 cup vegetable oil
• 1 piece of charcoal and foil
• Fried almonds and pine nuts (optional)

Method

1. Brown the meat with the whole spices, add salt and water and cook until fully tender. Strain the stock.
2. In the clay pot, add a little oil, then the meat, tomatoes, eggplant, potatoes and rice. Pour in the stock to 1 cm above the rice after seasoning it and adding the ground spices and stock cube. Seal with foil and bake in a preheated oven for 1 to 1 1/2 hours.
3. Light the charcoal, set it in foil on top of the rice in the pot and cover to smoke. Serve with fried almonds and pine nuts.