For today's "Is My Blog Burning?" event, I decided to draw on some family history. My mother's family is from Baghdad; they are among the hundreds of thousands of expatriate Iraqi Jews who fled their home of two thousand years in the wake of rising Arab-Jewish hostility. Today the Iraqi Jewish community -- which once numbered over 100,000 strong in its native land -- is scattered across the globe: in England, Australia, India, Canada, and the United States. Traditions that held sway since the time of the Hebrew prophets are slowly fading into oblivion. So the IMBB? "rice" theme has offered me an opportunity to keep one of those traditions alive: the Sabbath meal.

This is T'beet, the traditional Sabbath lunch of Iraqi Jews. Jews are forbidden by religious law from kindling or extinguishing a flame on Saturday, the Jewish day of rest. Accordingly, any meal to be eaten hot on the Sabbath must be set on a fire before sundown the night before. The Jews of Europe have accomodated this imperative with cholent: a slow-cooked stew of meat, beans, and vegetables, which I find utterly revolting. My ancestors relied instead on the middle-eastern staple of rice in composing their Sabbath lunch: a stuffed chicken stewed in tomato sauce and spices and baked into a cake of aromatic basmati rice. After twelve or more hours of cooking, the rice forms a hard, delicious crust on the outside, while the rice surrounding the chicken becomes irresistably tender and absorbs all the flavors in the pot. A rice stuffing within the chicken is the most intense of all: it is heavily spiced and absorbs all the juices of the chicken as it cooks.

As you can see in the above image of T'beet deconstructed, you can have your rice three ways. The rice to the left of the chicken has hardened into a crunchy, nutty shell. At top right, you can see the pillowy rice that surrounds the chicken. At bottom right is the intensely flavored rice from the stuffing. Incidentally, a chicken cooked in this manner emerges from the oven tender enough to cut with a spoon.

The key to this dish is the Iraqi Jewish version of five-spice powder: an aromatic compound of cardamom, allspice, cloves, cinnamon, and turmeric mixed in equal portions (with maybe a little extra cardamom for good measure). It will fill your kitchen with the most fragrant aromas all night and into the day. Just be sure to use a non-stick, oven safe pot: you have to be able to get the burnt rice crust out eventually (it's the best part). Teflon is fine, but for a more traditional preparation I use enamel-coated cast-iron.

Recipe: T'beet

Ingredients

• 1 whole chicken
  
• 5 tbsp olive oil
  
• 1/3 cup diced onion
  
• 1/3 cup diced tomato
  
• 3 29-oz. cans simple tomato sauce (I use Hunt's)
  
• 3 tbsp Iraqi Jewish five-spice powder (see above)
  
• 3 tsp. salt
  
• 8 3/4 cups basmati rice, rinsed
  

Mix the diced onion, diced tomato, 3/4 cups of the rice, 1 tbsp of the spice mixture, and 1/2 tsp of the salt in a bowl. Add 2 tablespoons of the tomato sauce and, if available, the diced giblets of the chicken (heart and gizzard only; not the liver). Keep refrigerated.

Rinse the chicken thoroughly inside and out and pat dry with a paper towel. Stuff the body and neck of the chicken loosely with the stuffing (the rice will need room to expand as it cooks), and either sew the openings shut or skewer them closed.

In a 10-qt., non-stick, oven safe pot or dutch oven, heat the olive oil over medium-high heat. When the oil is hot, add the chicken breast-side up. Brown until quite dark, 5-6 minutes. Turn and brown the breast side, another 5-6 minutes.

When the chicken is thoroughly browned on both sides, pour the remaining tomato sauce over it (the chicken should be breast-side down at this point). Fill the pot with water to cover the chicken, making sure there is still room between the water level and the top of the pot. Add the remaining five-spice mixture and salt, and stir to combine. Cook uncovered until the boil is reached.

Once the liquid begins to boil, bring the heat down to a simmer. Cook, partially covered, for about 30 minutes. Then add the remaining rice to the pot, pouring it around the sides so it does not pile on top of the chicken. Cover the pot and put it in the oven. Allow to cook overnight.

At lunchtime on Saturday, remove the pot from the oven and uncover it. Let it stand for about 10 minutes, then invert it onto a serving platter. Scrape any remaining crust off the inside of the pot with a wooden spoon (or other utensil safe for non-stick surfaces) and layer it over the T'beet. Serve to a large, hungry family, making sure everybody gets a little of the chicken and a little of each of the three types of rice. Be careful to remove the skewers or twine you used to seal the chicken as you carve it up. A large serving spoon is the only serving utensil you will need.