Lebanese cuisine

Baked kibbeh

Name: Baked kibbeh
Prep time: 45 min
Cook time: 45 min
Total time: 90 min
Yield: 6
Cuisine: Lebanese cuisine
Ingredients: 300 g Fine bulgur; 500 g Lean lamb; 400 g Minced lamb; 1 Onion for the shell; 2 Onion for the filling; 80 g Pine nuts; 2 tsp Seven-spice mix; 1 tsp Cinnamon; 80 g Butter; 60 ml Olive oil; to taste Salt and pepper

كبة بالصينية

Two layers of bulgur and lamb with a filling of mince and pine nuts between them.

Prep: 45 min
Cook: 45 min
Total: 90 min
Difficulty: Medium

Servings

Units

Ingredients

Fine bulgur300 g
Lean lamb — for the shell500 g
Minced lamb — for the filling400 g
Onion for the shell1
Onion for the filling2
Pine nuts80 g
Seven-spice mix2 tsp
Cinnamon1 tsp
Butter80 g
Olive oil60 ml
Salt and pepperto taste

Salt and spices grow more slowly than the rest: doubling a dish does not double the pepper.

Weight converts to ounces and volume to cups. Grams of flour are not turned into cups, because that depends on how tightly it is packed.

Method

1
Soak the bulgur in cold water for twenty minutes, drain and squeeze it dry by hand. Damp bulgur will not let the dough hold together.
25 min
2
Blitz the lean lamb with the onion to a paste, add the bulgur, spices and salt, and work it until pliable. If it crumbles, add a spoon of iced water.
12 min
3
Fry the pine nuts in butter until gold and lift them out. In the same butter cook the onion and mince with the cinnamon, return the nuts and cool completely.
20 min
4
Oil a dish and press half the shell mixture into a centimetre layer, smoothing it with a wet hand. Spread the filling over it.
10 min
5
Cover with the rest of the shell, level it, score diamonds down to the filling and pour olive oil into the cuts.
8 min
6
Bake at 200 °C for forty minutes, to a deep gold. Let it stand ten minutes before cutting.
45 min

About the dish

Kibbeh dough is bulgur and meat, not flour. Fine bulgur is soaked, squeezed dry and worked with the meat into a smooth pliable mass that can be spread like pastry.

The filling is fried separately and cooled. Warm, it soaks the base layer from inside and the whole thing collapses when cut.

Before baking the surface is scored into diamonds and oil poured into each cut. The oil travels inside and keeps the bulgur from drying — without it the top turns to stone.

Worth knowing

— The meat for the shell has to be lean. Fat melts from the warmth of your hands as you work it and the mass stops binding.
— Wet your hands with iced water rather than dusting with flour. Flour makes the layer dry and brittle.
— Serve with yoghurt and salad. Cold kibbeh the next day is eaten as a starter; it only firms up.

Nutrition

Per serving at the base yield, calculated from the ingredients rather than measured in a lab.

Calories: 620 kcal
Protein: 38 g
Fat: 34 g
Carbs: 40 g

Useful for this recipe

Oven Temperature Converter