I realized one day that after making so many national dishes already, I have not made any from the Middle East. Knowing that this was long overdue, I scoured the Wikipedia page that I gather my inspiration from and once I saw Kibbeh, I knew that I wanted to make this. Not wanting to serve my guests just one thing, I also decided to include Tabbouleh, also considered a national dish of Lebanon.
What really intrigued me about the Kibbeh, was that the shell consists of ground meat(I used hamburger), and bulgur wheat. Bulgur wheat was another one of those tough to find items,and it was not cheap either. Speaking of not cheap while we are on the topic, why are Pine nuts so ridiculously expensive? They were absolutely delicious but 1/3 cup was around $7.
Cooking the Tabbouleh was rather straightforward except for one thing. To use the bulgur wheat you had to cook the wheat before you could use it in both recipes, much like cooking oatmeal. Once it was cooked, the rest of this dished involved a lot of chopping vegetables. Just to note If you are you going to make this yourself, I recommend that you allow ample time for the Tabbouleh to chill, as the flavor gets much better with time.
The Kibbeh on the other hand, was very challenging and time consuming to make. First the bulgur wheat had to be prepared for us. While the wheat was in the soaking process I took the time to make the filing. The filing consisted of
- 1/2 pound ground beef
- 3/4 cups finely chopped yellow onions
- 1/3 cup pine nuts, lightly toasted
- 3/4 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon allspice
- 1/2 teaspoon ground pepper
- 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- Chopped parsley, garnish
Once the bulgur and stuffing were made, it was time to make the outer shell. The outer shell was raw beef blended with the bulgur wheat to make a strange kind of meat paste. I used my guest’s blender to blend the mixture. I spent around 20 minutes making the outer shell paste processing it in batches. This was the most annoying part of the process.
Once the paste was prepared, I formed the balls by grabbing some of the paste and then forming it around the stuffing. I guess the traditional way is to go for a torpedo shape which I tried to accomplish. By the end I had too much stuffing and not enough paste so I had to reform a lot of the Kibbeh.
Last thing that needed to be done was to make the Yogurt-garlic dipping sauce, this was as easy as mixing the following ingredients together and whisking.
- 1 cup strained plain yogurt
- 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
- 1 teaspoon minced garlic
- 1 teaspoon minced fresh mint leaves
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
The Kibbeh was dry and dense, like you were eating a Middle Eastern meatloaf. Added with the yogurt-garlic sauce, the combination was flavorful and filling. The addition of mint provided a cooling sensation to the sour cream like sauce.
The Tabbouleh was an unexpected delight. I don’t normally enjoy Cherry Tomatoes as I find them to be a little overwhelming and I get disgusted when they burst in your mouth. The Cherry Tomatoes were very soft and the addition of the other flavors minimized their intensity. This was a very refreshing side dish which helped offset the heaviness of the main dish.
If you have the time to spend making the Kibbeh, I highly recommend this dish. All of my guest enjoyed it tremendously and it was fun to make my first dish from the Middle East.
Recipe for the Kibbeh is available here and the Tabbouleh recipe is available here.