In my Iraqi Kitchen: Recipes, History and Culture, by Nawal Nasrallah (2024)

Stuffed Potato Dough

Kubbat Puteta Chap

بتيتة جاب

It isthe best guise that potatoes can ever take. The stuffed fried discs are a delight to look at and to eat.

Themeaning of chap in this otherwisevery Iraqi modern dish eludes me. In allprobability, it is a corruption of some sort of an English orIndian wordwhichmight have filtered into thedialect during the time of the British colonization.

However, the art of making kubba, of stuffing food with food, is certainly not new to the Iraqi cooks. Indeed, it can be traced all the way back the ancient times, as manifested in the Babylonians' bird pies, prepared by enclosing birds cooked in white sauce between two layers of seasoned dough. Detailed recipes for making such an ancient stuffed food are found in a Babylonian culinary tablet written in Akkadian cuneiform in 1700 BC:

Babylonian culinary tablet 8958, Yale Babylonian Collection

Even the termkubba itself, used to designate this kind of stuffed food, might well have originally derived from the Akkadian ‘kubbusu,’ which designates a cake (think a meat patty or a fish cake). See also my previous post on Kubbat Halab.

Using the New World potatoes for making kubba is a relatively new development in the art of making kubba, which is more traditionally made with bulgur and rice.

Forthe shell:
2pounds potatoes (all-purpose will do), boiled whole and unpeeled
½cup cornstarch (use a bit less with starchy potatoes)
1teaspoon salt
½teaspoon black pepper
For the filling, see my previous post on kubbat Halab
About1 cup breadcrumbs for coating
Oilfor frying

1.Peel the boiled potatoes when cool enough to handle. Cut them into smallerpieces. Put them in a big bowl, and add cornstarch, salt, and pepper. Then mashthem with a potato masher, or run them through a potato ricer. A blender or afood processor is not recommended because it will cause the potatoes to developa gummy texture. With a moistened hand, knead mixture the way you knead pastrydough until well blended, about 5 minutes. If the mixture is too dry to forminto dough (sometimes this happens when potatoes are too starchy), sprinkle it with a smallamount of water.

2.Divide dough into 18 to 20 pieces, size of a small lemon, each. With moistenedhands, flatten a piece into a thin wok-like disk. Put about 2 tablespoons ofthe filling in the middle, gather edges, and close the piece into a ball.Flatten it into a disc by putting it between the palms of the hands and gentlypressing the edges so that it is full in the middle and thinner around theedges. Always remember to handle dough with slightly moistened hands. Putfinished discs in one layer on a tray or a flat dish.

Baked Puteta Chap

(Makes 18 to 20 squares)

Mostof the Iraqi traditional dishes are fried, because up until the late 1950s, ovenswere not available in every kitchen as they are today. Nowadays there is noreason why some of the fried dishes should not be baked. The following is a lighterversion of the traditional puteta chap.

1.Use the same ingredients givenabove. Make dough as directed in the first step, and prepare fillingas directed above.

2.Preheat oven to 380°F. Grease a 12x7x2-inch baking pan (or approximate size).Coat its bottom and sides generously with breadcrumbs. Shake off excess crumbs

3.Divide dough into 2 parts. Cover the bottom of the prepared pan with one part,and spread the filling all over it. Next, cover this filling with the otherhalf of the dough by taking small portions, and flattening and putting them onthe filling until the entire surface is covered. With wet fingers, lightlypress the top layer closing any gaps on the surface. Brush with a beaten eggand sprinkle lightly with breadcrumbs. Decorate surface with a fork, if you like, and drizzle it with a little oil.