Fried Kibbeh is two parts.
For the kibbeh filling you will need:
Start in a large pan (we used a wok in the video) and heat up the vegetable oil. Once the oil is hot, add the pine nuts and toast until golden and fragrant. Place them on a plate to cool. Return the wok/pan to the stove and start with the diced onion. It looks like a lot of onion! Don't worry they will shrink. Add a sprinkle (1/2 teaspoon) of salt to the onions to help them reduce. Once the onions are translucent, add the meat and break the meat apart. You can use a meat chopper to break the meat apart or a regular wooden spoon and break the larger pieces of meat. You can also add a couple tablespoons of water to help the meat break down. Not too much water! When the meat is halfway cooked, you'll see it release its juice and start to drink it up again, add the allspice, spicy pepper and cardamom. When the meat is cooked, take it off the heat and add the dried mint, salt, pepper, pomegranate molasses, fresh olive oil and the nuts. Mix and taste for salt. It should be so good you could cry! Next we can work on the kibbeh case, or as I call it the kibbeh dough. I start this process and then do the filling and then come back to the dough. You will need:
You will also need a meat grinder machine or meat grinder attachment for your stand mixer. OR you can use a food processor but you will need to work in smaller batches. Wash the bulgur twice in a large bowl by running cold water over it and mixing with your hand. Carefully pour the excess water. Remember to do this twice. There should be a little water left in the damp bulgur. Let it soak. Over the washed bulgur, dice the small onion and cover it with salt and pepper to taste. As that soaks you can attend to the meat. Kibbeh dough uses beef as the meat and it should be special ordered from the butcher by asking him/her to get you the leanest beef they have and running it through the meat grinder twice. This makes for VERY thin meat. Alternatively, you can do what we did in the video. At home, you can process very lean beef at home in a food processor until it's very thin. For this video experiment we used Filet Mignon and it was so good!! You can see the desired texture in the video. When the bulgur is done soaking, around 30 minutes, you will see it drunk all the water. If the bulgur is very dry you can add up to 1 cup of water. Be careful not to add too much! Using your meat grinder/kibbeh machine, run the bulgur through the machine. Please see the video to see how this should look like. The second time you process it, you need to make sure all the onion is mixed in. You can add your spices at this time too (salt, Aleppo pepper and cumin). You can try to add some meat and see how it goes. If you're using a processor use small batches and process this until it looks like the final product in the video. Now, after you process the bulgur, add the meat and knead it like dough until it looks like mine in the video. Separate into 3-4 balls and place in the fridge to rest 4 hours, overnight recommended. If you like you can freeze the dough now. Just make them into a thinner sheet (like you would with pastry dough) and freeze them that way. You can thaw them in the fridge before you want to make kibbeh. ** Resting the dough helps it not break its shape. You can also freeze the filling and thaw before filling. OR you can make the kibbeh shapes and freeze them to fry later from frozen. OR you can fry them completely and then freeze to reheat in the oven later ** For the starch water:
To fry the kibbeh use fresh frying oil (corn oil, vegetable, mazola). You can use a thermometer to 375F or put a piece of bread in the oil and when it's crispy, the oil is ready for kibbeh! See the video to see how dark the kibbeh should get. It should be a dark brown (BUT DON'T BURN THEM). mmmmm crispy ... Enjoy with a hot bowl of lentil soup 🙂 I have a recipe for this here! For the yogurt sauce kibbeh:
In a large pot:
When the sauce boils, add the kibbeh and they will float when ready. You should cook them for an additional 15 minutes after they are boiling in the sauce. Check the video for the GORGEOUS kibbeh labinyeh we made. For the baked kibbeh, place a generous amount of olive oil, or ghee, in the bottom of the pan. Flatten the kibbeh dough so it makes one even layer of dough (1/2 cm to 1 cm thick). Make sure you bring the bottom kibbeh layer up the sides (like a pie) to fully enclose the filling. Then put the filling and cover the top with more dough by flattening pieces of dough and joining them on top of the filling like a puzzle. Use a little starch water to smooth the top of the kibbeh. You should slice it now in a fancy shape (look up baked kibbeh designs) and decorate with nuts if you like. Next, put more olive oil or ghee (or mix both for flavor) on the top of the kibbeh to cover it completely (but just barely, it's not swimming in oil!). Bake at 375F for up to an hour (check it at 45 minutes). Then broil the top. Enjoy! *if you don't have ghee you can use butter* Grilled kibbeh uses the same dough but the filling is different. In Damascus the filling includes onion, lots of walnuts, red pepper paste (or flakes), and lamb fat. In Homs the filling includes leanest meat, onion, lamb tallow, pine nuts, spicy red pepper paste (or flakes), salt and pepper.
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You will need:
Start by creaming the samneh and powdered sugar together. You could use butter but the samneh/ghee will give a more authentic flavor that shouldn't be compromised. When this mixture is pale and creamy, mix in the flour. Start by mixing these together using a spatula or wooden spoon but eventually you will need to mix this by hand by squeezing the mixture until everything is mixed well together and the dough holds together when you squeeze it in your hand. Shape the cookies as you see in the video: either by making rings or small round cookies. Then garnish each cookie with a pistachio. Chill the entire cookie tray for 30 minutes before baking. When ready, bake at 325F for 8-10 minutes. As mentioned in the video, the top should not take any color and the bottom of the cookies should be barely touched by color. Let cool COMPLETELY before enjoying. Saha w hana. Recipe will make approximately 50 small ring cookies (1tsp measuring spoon) or 25 small round cookies (1tbsp measuring spoon). For the custard you will need:
For the caramel you will need:
Preheat your oven to 325F. Start by heating the milk with the cinnamon stick, ground cinnamon, and vanilla. Heat it over medium heat until it starts to steam but do NOT let it boil. Turn it off and let it cool to room temperature. Next whisk the eggs until it has one uniform yellow color (no separated whites or yolks). Add the 2-3 TBSP sugar and salt. Whisk again. Make the caramel and keep the ramekins nearby. Mix the sugar and water by SWIRLING the pan. Do not stir. Let it cook over medium-high heat until desired color. Check out my video to see how the caramel transforms from quick small bubbles to medium bubbles to big bubbles to NO bubbles and a deep caramel color. Once the caramel is ready, evenly distribute it between the 4 ramekins. And swirl the caramel evenly. The milk should be slightly warmer than your finger (called blood temperature). Mix the milk and eggs. If the milk is too hot it will scramble the eggs. Using a tea strainer strain the milk mixture into the ramekins and fill them evenly. Place your ramekins snugly into a baking dish. Heat water in a kettle and pour the hot water in between the ramekins bringing the water up 3/4 of the way. CAREFULLY place your baking dish and custards into the oven for 30-40 minutes. Take them out before they completely cook. You know it's almost ready when you insert a knife into the middle of the custard and very little custard sticks to the knife. Also the middle will be wobbly. Let cool completely at room temperature and then chill for a minimum of 4 hours, preferably overnight. To serve: slice cleanly around the perimeter of the ramekins and flip each one individually on a plate. ENJOY! saha w hana For this guafres de liège (belgian waffle) recipe, you will need:
Mix the flour and salt together first. Then add the yeast and mix. Make a well in the center and mix the milk and water (or egg) and vanilla. Knead for 5 minutes or until elastic. Let rest for 30 minutes. Next, knead the butter into the dough one tablespoon at a time. Mix in the pearl sugar until completely mixed through. Let rest for 1 hour. Heat the waffle maker and separate your dough into 8 equal pieces. If you want to make giant waffles, this recipe makes 4 large ones. Cook the waffles for 3-5 minutes depending on your waffle maker and depending on how golden-toasty you want the waffles to be. I prefer to cook mine until sugar caramelizes well. These should not be pale waffles. This recipe is EASILY doubled or quadrupled. The cooked waffles freeze well for instant waffles at any time. ENJOY! the best knafeh comes from the middle eastern region of the world: Palestine, Syria, Turkey, Lebanon, all of the neighboring countries. It's a sweet dessert with cheese and simple syrup. I don't want to put too much info here. If you like, you can check out the blog post linked below. A great reference for more information on knafe.
This dough will make approximately two 9-inch knafes or one 16-inch knafe. If you want to skip this step you can buy shredded phyllo dough. You can shred this by hand or really finely blended in a food processor. Then mix it with enough melted ghee or butter to coat all of the shredded dough. You will need:
Mix all dry ingredients together. Add butter/ghee and mix until all the flour/semolina is coated with the butter/ghee. Add milk and mix quickly by hand. Do not overwork. Spread into a thin disc around 1/2 cm on a baking sheet. Heat your oven to 300F. Cook the knafe dough until the bottom is slightly golden. Leave to the side to cool completely to dry it out. Once cool, put the dough into a food processor and pulse until you have fine breadcrumbs, no medium or big pieces. Spread a generous amount of butter or ghee on your baking dish or cake pan. Place enough dough crumbs in the bottom of your pan to fill 1 cm. Press your knafe dough into the pan firmly. Leftover dough can be stored in the freezer for later knafe. Prepare the cheese. For a 9-inch cake pan you will need:
Dollop the cheese over the knafe dough and spread gently so as not to disturb the knafe on the bottom. Leave a 1 cm space between the edge of the cheese and the side of the pan. The cheese will spread and we do not want to burn the cheese. Heat your oven to 350F and bake the knafe covered with foil for around 20-25 minutes. Uncover, and bake for 5 more minutes. ***Typically knafe is made over the stove. Place your pan over the stove halfway and wear oven mitts. Over a medium-low heat, cook the knafe over the stove while turning it constantly to cook the knafe. If the cheese releases water, soak up excess cheese-water with a paper towel. It's time to flip!! Whether you baked the knafe or cooked it over the stove, you will need to flip your knafe. Using a serving dish slightly bigger than the pan you cooked it in, flip your knafe. If you baked it and you want a little more color on it, you can broil it for a few minutes but keep an eye on that beautiful knafe! Decorate with crushed pistachio and immediately drizzle cold (or room temp) simple syrup (see below). Enjoy!! Remember knafe is about the method, not the recipe. It's supposed to have a crunch on the outside. It's the ultimate sweet vs salty dessert and I know it won't disappoint you! Arab simple syrup is two parts sugar and one part water. Some people like it thinner, you can do a one:one ratio.
For the inspiration for this Knafe, check out @bateekh.w.jebneh on instagram. For more knafe reading: https://cleobuttera.com/middle-eastern/knafeh-naameh/ |
MEMy name is Bushra and I post my favorite recipes on my youtube channel. All recipes are gathered here on my website as well as helpful links to my videos and fancy ingredients. Thanks for stopping by! Archives
October 2023
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