by Anissa Helou
1 pound (450 g) onions, finely chopped
7 ounces (200 g) lean ground lamb
2 teaspoons ground allspice
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
½ teaspoon finely ground black pepper
Sea salt
1 teaspoon pomegranate molasses
FOR THE KIBBEH
1 small onion (3½ ounces/100 g), grated on the fine side of a grater
1 pound 2 ounces (500 g) boneless lamb leg, trimmed of fat and passed twice through the fine disk of a meat grinder
2 teaspoons ground allspice
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
½ teaspoon Lebanese 7-Spice Mixture
½ teaspoon finely ground black pepper
Sea salt
1 cup (200 g) fine bulgur
6 to 8 teaspoons (30 g to 70 g) unsalted butter
1. Preheat the oven to 450°F (230°C).
2. To make the stuffing: Spread the pine nuts on a baking sheet and toast in the hot oven for 5 to 7 minutes, or until golden brown. Reduce the oven to 400°F (200°C).
3. Melt the butter in a deep skillet over medium heat. Add the onions and sauté until very soft and slightly caramelized, about 15 minutes. Stir in the lamb and cook, mashing and stirring with a wooden spoon or fork so that it separates well and does not form lumps, until it loses all traces of pink, 5 to 7 minutes. Take off the heat and season with the allspice, cinnamon, pepper, salt to taste, and pomegranate molasses. Stir in the toasted pine nuts. Taste and adjust the seasoning if necessary.
4. To prepare the kibbeh: Put the grated onion in a bowl. Add the ground lamb, spices, and salt to taste. Prepare a bowl of lightly salted water and have it at hand to use when you start mixing the meat with the bulgur.
5. Rinse the bulgur in two or three changes of cold water. Drain and add to the meat. Mix together with your hand, dipping your hand every now and then in the salted water to moisten both your hand and the kibbeh. Knead the mixture for 2 to 3 minutes, or until the mixture is fairly smooth. Taste and adjust the seasoning if necessary.
6. Grease a 2-inch (5 cm) deep baking dish about 12 x 9 inches (30 x 22.5 cm) with a knob of butter (or use a nonstick baking dish). Divide the kibbeh in half. Moisten your hands in the salted water and pinch off a handful of kibbeh from one piece. Flatten it between your palms, to a thickness of about ½ inch (1 cm), and place it on the bottom of the baking dish starting from one corner. Smooth it down evenly with your fingers, pinch off another handful from the same half, flatten and lay next to the first piece, slightly overlapping it. Dip your fingers in water and smooth the pieces together until the seam disappears—make sure you connect the kibbeh pieces well so they do not come apart during cooking. Continue until you have covered the bottom of the pan with the first half of kibbeh. Go over the whole layer with moistened fingers to even it out.
7. Spread the stuffing evenly over the bottom layer of kibbeh. With the other half of kibbeh, make a top layer over the stuffing in the same way as you made the bottom layer. Spreading the top layer over the stuffing will prove slightly more difficult as you will be laying the kibbeh over the loose stuffing instead of the smooth surface of the baking dish, but you will soon get the hang of it.
8. With a sharp knife, cut through the kibbeh pie to divide it into 6 squares, then with the same knife, wiped clean, make shallow incisions to draw a geometric pattern across the top of each section, wiping the knife clean every now and then to make a neat pattern. The decoration work is time-consuming and can be either omitted altogether or simplified into larger diamond patterns, but the presentation will not be as impressive. After you finish decorating the kibbeh, make a hole in the center of the kibbeh with your finger, and put a teaspoon of butter over the hole and one over each quarter. Insert a round-ended knife between the edge of the pie and the side of the pan and slide it all along the pie to detach the meat from the sides—you won’t need to do this if you use a nonstick pan.
9. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes, or until the kibbeh has shrunk slightly and the meat is just done. Let sit for a few minutes before cutting into squares. Transfer carefully to a serving dish. Serve hot or warm.
Kibbeh in Sumac Sauce
KIBBEH SUMMAQIYEH
SYRIA
The first time I had this Syrian kibbeh was many years ago, long before the sad destruction of Aleppo, at the home of Joumana Kayali. In those days, the city was the ultimate destination for anyone visiting Syria, not only because of its historic monuments and medieval souks, the most enchanting of the Middle East, but also for its unrivaled culinary heritage, having earned the title of gastronomic capital of the Middle East from as far back as the eleventh century. The city’s supremely sophisticated cuisine is quite distinct from that of Damascus, the capital, having been influenced by a succession of occupiers as well as refugee communities such as Armenians who fled there from neighboring Turkey at the beginning of the twentieth century. Also, the cooking of Aleppo’s Christian communities is different from that of the city’s Muslim ones. Joumana is Muslim and this kibbeh is one of her specialties. Once I discovered it and fell in love with it, I made a point of trying it in other places, such as one of my favorite restaurants then, Bazar el-Sharq—set in what had been the armory of the Aleppo Governorate in Ottoman times—where Chef Emad had it on the menu. The recipe below is a combination of Joumana’s and Chef Emad’s. It is a time-consuming dish, but well worth trying. It is one of the more intriguing and tastier kibbeh variations.
SERVES 4 TO 6
FOR THE STUFFING
Heaping ¼ cup (30 g) pine nuts
2 tablespoons (30 g) unsalted butter, plus more for greasing
3 medium onions (1 pound/450 g total), finely chopped
3½ ounces (100 g) boneless lamb leg, trimmed of fat and finely ground (see Note)
1 teaspoon ground allspice or Lebanese 7-Spice Mixture
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
¼ teaspoon finely ground black pepper
Sea salt
½ teaspoon pomegranate molasses
1 tablespoon finely chopped walnuts
FOR THE KIBBEH
9 ounces (250 g) boneless lamb leg, trimmed of fat and finely ground (see Note)
1 small onion (3½ ounces/100 g), grated on the fine side of a grater
½ cup (100 g) fine bulgur, rinsed under cold water and drained
1 teaspoon ground allspice or Lebanese 7-Spice Mixture
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
¼ teaspoon finely ground black pepper
Sea salt
FOR THE SAUCE
¼ cup (50 g) dried sumac berries
2¼ pounds (1 kg) lamb from the shanks, cut into medium chunks
3 medium onions (1 pound/450 g total), peeled, 1 kept whole and 2 halved lengthwise and cut into thin wedges
Coarse sea salt
¼ cup (60 ml) extra-virgin olive oil
3 cups (750 ml) tomato puree (passata)
2 tablespoons (30 g) unsalted butter
¾ pound (350 g) Japanese eggplants or 1 large globe eggplant, peeled lengthwise in stripes (if using a big eggplant, quarter it lengthwise, then cut across into medium-thick chunks)
2 teaspoons dried mint
5 cloves garlic, minced to a fine paste
Juice of 1 lemon, or to taste
½ teaspoon finely ground black pepper
Bread, for serving
1. Preheat the oven to 425°F (220°C).
2. To make the stuffing: Spread the pine nuts on a nonstick baking sheet and toast in the oven for 5 to 7 minutes, or until golden brown. Let cool.
3. Meanwhile, melt the butter in a large skillet over medium heat. Add the chopped onions and sauté, stirring regularly, until lightly golden, about 10 minutes. Add the ground lamb and cook, mashing and stirring it with a wooden spoon or fork to break up the lumps, until it loses all traces of pink. Season with the spices and salt to taste. Add the pomegranate molasses and mix well, then stir in the toasted pine nuts and the walnuts. Take off the h
eat and let cool.
4. To make the kibbeh: Prepare a bowl of lightly salted cold water and have it at hand. Put the ground meat in a large bowl. Add the grated onion, bulgur, spices, and salt to taste and mix together with your hand, dipping it every now and then in the salted water to moisten your hand and add a little water to the kibbeh to soften it. Knead for about 3 minutes, or until you have a fairly smooth, malleable mixture. Pinch off a little of the kibbeh and either taste raw to adjust the seasoning if need be, or sear it in a hot pan to taste.
5. Divide the kibbeh into 20 equal portions and roll them into balls, each the size of a large plum. Lightly moisten your hands in the salted water and place a kibbeh ball in the palm of one hand. With the index finger of your other hand burrow a hole into the kibbeh ball while rotating it—this makes the hollowing out easier and more even. You should produce a thin meat shell resembling a topless egg. Be careful not to pierce the bottom or sides of the kibbeh shell.
6. Put 1½ to 2 teaspoons of stuffing inside the kibbeh shell, gently pushing the stuffing in with a finger. Pinch the open edges together and gently mold back into a fully rounded shape—Syrians make their kibbeh balls round rather than oval like the Lebanese, Jordanians or Palestinians. Put the finished kibbeh ball on a nonstick baking sheet. Continue making the kibbeh balls until you have used up both the kibbeh mixture and stuffing. Place in the fridge or freezer to firm them up.
7. To make the sauce: Put the sumac berries in a small saucepan. Add 1½ cups (375 ml) water and bring to a boil. Take off the heat and let infuse while you prepare the rest of the ingredients for the sauce.
8. Put the meat and the whole peeled onion in a large saucepan and add 4 cups (1 liter) water. Bring to a boil over medium heat, skimming any froth that rises to the surface as the water comes to the boil. Add 1 tablespoon coarse sea salt, then reduce the heat, cover, and let bubble gently for 1 hour, or until the meat is very tender. Discard the onion.
9. Heat the olive oil in a wide pot over medium heat. Add the onion wedges and fry until lightly golden. Strain the lamb broth, reserving the meat, and add to the onions, followed by the passata. Strain the sumac liquid and add it to the pot. Bring back to a boil and adding the butter. Reduce the heat to low and let the sauce bubble gently for 15 minutes.
10. Add the eggplants and stewed lamb and cook for 15 more minutes, or until the eggplants are nearly done. Then add the mint, garlic, and lemon juice and drop the kibbeh balls into the sauce. Season with the black pepper and more salt if necessary and simmer for another 5 minutes, or until the meatballs are done. Taste and adjusting the seasoning if needed. Serve very hot in soup bowls with good bread.
NOTE: Either have your butcher finely mince the lamb, or if you have a meat grinder, grind it once through the fine disk.
Grilled Syrian Kibbeh
KIBBEH SAJIYEH
SYRIA
The classic kibbeh sajiyeh is stuffed with seasoned lamb tail fat. The fat melts inside as the kibbeh grills over charcoal and oozes out as soon as you cut into it as it comes off the grill—it needs to be served very hot and eaten before the fat cools. I have had kibbeh sajiyeh stuffed with labneh and herbs in northern Lebanon and I have had it filled with the same stuffing as that of Kibbeh bil-Saniyeh. I like both, but neither is as luxurious as kibbeh suffused with tail fat. Having it straight off my Syrian aunt’s charcoal grill remains one of my favorite childhood food memories, and in the days before the uprising, when I visited Syria, I never failed to order it in whatever restaurant I happened to dine in. For those of you living outside the Middle East, you can replace the lamb tail fat with the fat surrounding lambs’ or calves’ kidneys.
SERVES 4
1 cup (200 g) fine bulgur, rinsed under cold water and drained
1 pound 2 ounces (500 g) boneless lean lamb, very finely minced
1 medium onion (about 5 ounces/150 g), grated on the fine side of a grater
1 teaspoon ground allspice
½ teaspoon finely ground black pepper
Sea salt
5 ounces (150 g) sheep’s tail fat (or fat from around the kidney), finely diced by hand
2 teaspoons ground cumin
2 teaspoons Aleppo pepper
1 teaspoon Lebanese 7-Spice Mixture
Unsalted butter, melted, for shaping and serving
1. Put the bulgur in a bowl. Add the lamb, onion, allspice, black pepper, and salt to taste and mix well. Put some cold water in a small bowl and add a little salt. Wet your hands with the salt water, and add a little of it to the kibbeh and knead until you have a smooth mixture.
2. Put the diced tail fat in another bowl and season with the cumin, Aleppo pepper, and 7-spice mixture. Add salt to taste and mix well.
3. You are now ready to shape the domed kibbeh disks, and you can do this by hand or use shallow bowls to shape it. Divide the kibbeh into 8 equal portions of 4 ounces (125 g) each. Flatten each piece to a round about 4 inches (10 cm) in diameter. Take 4 shallow bowls measuring about 4 inches (10 cm) in diameter and line each with plastic wrap. Lightly grease the wrap with melted butter and lay a round on each bowl and flatten the meat a little more so it very slightly rises above the rim of the bowl. Spoon one-quarter of the seasoned fat into each bowl and cover with the remaining rounds of kibbeh. Seal the edges and brush with melted butter.
4. To grill the kibbeh: Prepare a charcoal fire in an outdoor grill. Invert the bowl molding the kibbeh onto your slightly greased palm, peel the wrap off the kibbeh, and gently slide the kibbeh onto the grill. Grill for 3 to 5 minutes on each side.
5. To bake the kibbeh: Preheat the oven to 450°F (230°C). Invert the kibbeh onto your palm then slide it onto a nonstick baking sheet. Bake for 15 minutes.
6. Serve hot, brushed with more butter.
Kibbeh Balls with Quince in a Fresh Pomegranate Sauce
KIBBEH SFARJALIYEH
SYRIA
Here is a typical autumn kibbeh variation with a very delicate sweet-sour flavor. This kibbeh dish is more like a thick soup than a stew and needs to be served in soup plates. And because quince are still totally seasonal, you cannot prepare this kibbeh unless quince are in season. You can easily freeze pomegranate juice with hardly any loss of flavor, but quince will go too soft if frozen, so plan on making it as soon as the fruit come into season. Again, it is a little time-consuming but worth the effort for its unusual, delicate flavor.
SERVES 4 TO 6
FOR THE SAUCE
Seeds from 2¼ pounds (1 kg) sweet-sour pomegranates
¼ cup (50 g) raw cane sugar
3 pounds 5 ounces (1.5 kg) quince, cored, peeled, and cut into wedges
FOR THE KIBBEH BALLS
1½ sticks plus 2 tablespoons (200 g) very cold unsalted butter, cut into ¾-inch (2 cm) cubes
½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
½ teaspoon ground allspice
Raw kibbeh mixture from Kibbeh in Sumac Sauce
TO FINISH
9 ounces (250 g) lamb meat from the shanks
5 green cardamom pods
1 cinnamon stick
5 black peppercorns
1 medium onion (5 ounces/150 g), peeled and studded with 4 cloves
Sea salt
1. To make the sauce: Put the pomegranate seeds in a food processor and process until the seeds are completely pulverized, then strain the juice pressing on the pulp to extract as much as you can.
2. Put the sugar and ½ cup (125 ml) water in a large pot. Add the quince and place over medium heat. Cover and cook for 15 minutes, shaking the pan every now and then to coat the quince in the syrup. Add the pomegranate juice, reduce the heat to medium-low, and simmer for 1 hour, or until the quince is tender. By then, it should have turned a beautiful pink color.
3. To make the kibbeh balls: Put the butter cubes in a bowl, add the cinnamon and allspice, and gently toss to evenly coat the butter with the spices. Prepare a bowl of lightly salted cold water and have it at hand.
4. Divide the kibbeh into 20 equal portions and roll
each into a ball the size of a walnut. Lightly moisten your hands in the salted water and place one kibbeh ball in the palm of one hand. With the index finger of your other hand burrow a hole into the kibbeh ball while rotating it—this makes the hollowing out easier and more even—taking care not to pierce the bottom or sides of the kibbeh shell.
5. Place a cube of seasoned butter into the kibbeh shell and seal the meat around the butter. Gently roll the kibbeh to create a round ball a little smaller than a Ping-Pong ball. Finish making the kibbeh balls and refrigerate or put in the freezer to firm them up.
6. To finish: Put the lamb in a pot and cover with water. Bring to a boil over medium heat, skimming the froth from the surface as the water is coming to the boil. Add the spices, onion, and salt to taste. Reduce to a simmer, cover the pan, and let bubble for 1 hour, or until the meat is tender. Reserving the broth, drain the meat. Discard the spices and onion.
7. Put the cooked lamb in a clean pot. Add the strained broth and the cooked quince and their juices, and set over medium-low heat. When the broth starts bubbling, gently drop in the kibbeh balls and taste the broth, adding a little more sugar if it is too sour. Adjust the salt, if necessary, and let bubble gently for 5 minutes, or until the kibbeh balls are just done. Serve very hot in soup plates, making sure each diner gets equal amounts of lamb, quince, and kibbeh.
NOTE: Sweet-sour or sour pomegranates, which are known as Abu-Leffan in Arabic, are juiced and their juice is boiled down to make pomegranate syrup (or molasses) or used fresh in cooking as in the recipe above to add an intriguing sweet-savory flavor.
Meatballs in Sour Cherry Sauce
KABAB KARAZ
SYRIA
If there is a dish that symbolizes the cooking of Aleppo, this has to be it. Maria Gaspard Samra, a rare Syrian woman chef who gave cooking classes before the destruction of the city, grinds the cherries before cooking them, while my friends Lena Toutounji (famous for having one of the best tables in Aleppo) and May Mamarbachi (creator of the first boutique hotel in Damascus, Beit Mamlouka) both leave the cherries whole. May very kindly gave me cherries from her frozen stock so I could test the recipe. If you can’t find fresh or frozen sour cherries, use dried.