Kibbeh

Name: Kibbeh
Cook time: 145 min
Total time: 145 min
Yield: 6
Cuisine: Lebanese
Ingredients: 400 g Yoghurt; 2 tablespoons Olive oil; 2 u Tomato; 2 u Onion; 1 clove Garlic; 1 u Lemon; Salt; 1 teaspoon Black pepper; 800 g Lamb Mince; 1 l Sunflower Oil; 1 teaspoon Ground Cumin; 1 teaspoon Cinnamon; 1 pinch Nutmeg; 1 u Lettuce; 2 teaspoons Allspice; 1 teaspoon Dried Mint; 60 g Pine Nuts; 250 g Bulgur Wheat; 100 ml Water

Hard

Contains allergens

LecheCereales con gluten

Author: Equipo Cocinoa
Preparation time: 2 hr
Servings: 6

Summary

Torpedo-shaped Lebanese croquettes: a thin shell of bulgur and spiced lean meat, stuffed with minced meat, onion and pine nuts and fried until crisp. Served with yoghurt sauce, lettuce and lemon.

Ingredients

6 servings

Add to Bring!

400 g Yoghurt (plain, for the sauce)
2 tablespoons Olive oil (for the filling)
2 u Tomato (in wedges)
2 u Onion (one for the shell and one for the filling)
1 clove Garlic
1 u Lemon (in wedges)
Salt (to taste)
1 teaspoon Black pepper (ground)
800 g Lamb Mince (or beef: 500 g very lean for the shell and 300 g for the filling)
1 l Sunflower Oil (for deep-frying)
1 teaspoon Ground Cumin
1 teaspoon Cinnamon (ground)
1 pinch Nutmeg
1 u Lettuce (separated into leaves, to serve)
2 teaspoons Allspice (ground)
1 teaspoon Dried Mint
60 g Pine Nuts
250 g Bulgur Wheat (fine (no. 1))
100 ml Water (iced, for the shell)

Instructions

Put the bulgur in a fine sieve and rinse it under the cold tap. Tip it into a bowl, just cover with cold water and leave it to soak for 15 minutes. Then drain it, squeezing it by the handful to press out as much water as you can.
15 min
Make the filling: finely chop one of the onions and soften it in a frying pan with the olive oil over medium heat. Add the 300 g of meat for the filling and cook it, breaking it up with the spoon, until the liquid has gone and it browns. Season with half the allspice, half the cinnamon, half the black pepper and some salt. Toast the pine nuts separately in a dry pan until golden, stir them into the meat and let the filling cool completely.
20 min
For the shell, blitz the other onion to a purée in a food processor. Add the 500 g of lean meat, the drained bulgur, the cumin, the nutmeg, the rest of the spices and 1 teaspoon of salt, and pulse, in batches if your processor is small, adding spoonfuls of iced water until you have a smooth, sticky, even paste with no visible grains. Without a processor, knead it by hand with wet hands for about 10 minutes.
10 min
Cover the mixture and chill it for half an hour: it is much easier to shape when cold.
30 min
Shape the kibbeh with hands dipped in iced water. Take a piece the size of a small egg (about 50 g), roll it into a ball and push your index finger into the centre; keep turning it against the palm of your other hand to hollow it out into an elongated shell with thin, even walls about 5 mm thick. Spoon in a teaspoon of filling, pinch the opening closed and shape it into a torpedo with pointed ends. If it cracks, smooth the crack with a wet finger. Set the kibbeh on a tray as you go.
40 min
Make the sauce by mixing the yoghurt with the crushed garlic, dried mint and a pinch of salt. Keep it in the fridge until serving.
5 min
Heat the sunflower oil in a deep pan to 175 °C. Fry the kibbeh in batches of five or six, turning them, until deep brown and crisp, about 5 minutes per batch; the raw meat in the shell must be cooked right through. Drain on kitchen paper.
25 min
Serve hot on lettuce leaves, with tomato wedges, lemon wedges and the yoghurt sauce on the side.

Notes

Kibbeh is a family of dishes found across the Levant (Lebanon, Syria, Palestine) as well as Iraq and Turkey, always built on bulgur and meat; in Lebanon it is close to a national dish and is eaten raw (nayyeh), baked or fried, like this one (kibbeh maqliyeh). The spice mix is a nod to the Lebanese seven-spice blend (sabaa baharat): if you have it ready-made, use about 3 teaspoons instead of the allspice, cinnamon, cumin and nutmeg. The meat for the shell must be very lean (leg of lamb or beef topside, minced twice): fat makes the shell crack and soak up oil. The usual mistakes are walls that are too thick, which stay raw inside, and oil that is not hot enough, which makes them split. Baked version (kibbeh bil sanieh): spread half the shell mixture in an oiled tray, cover with the filling and then with the rest of the mixture, smoothed with wet hands; cut into diamonds, drizzle with 6 tablespoons of olive oil and bake at 200 °C for about 35 minutes. For a dairy-free sauce, mix 4 tablespoons of tahini with the juice of a lemon, a crushed garlic clove and enough water to make it creamy. Shaped raw kibbeh freeze very well for up to 3 months: freeze them spaced out on a tray and fry from frozen, with the oil slightly cooler and a couple of minutes longer. Once fried they keep for 3 days in the fridge and reheat well in the oven.