Syrian cuisine
Kibbeh bil sanieh
كبة بالصينية
Two layers of bulgur and meat with a filling of mince and pine nuts between them, baked in a tray.
- Prep
- 50 min
- Cook
- 45 min
- Total
- 95 min
- Difficulty
- Medium
Ingredients
- Fine bulgur400 g
- Lean beef — for the shell500 g
- Lamb — minced, for the filling500 g
- Onions3
- Pine nuts80 g
- Baharat1 tbsp
- Cinnamon1 tsp
- Olive oil120 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 and squeeze it completely dry.
25 min
- 2
Blitz the lean beef with one onion to a paste and work in the bulgur, salt and half the spices.
15 min
- 3
Knead the mass five minutes, wetting your hands, until it is smooth and tacky.
7 min
- 4
Fry the remaining onion, add the minced lamb, the spices and the pine nuts and cook ten minutes.
14 min
- 5
Press half the mass into an oiled tray in a one-centimetre layer, smoothing it with a wet palm.
8 min
- 6
Spread the filling and cover with the other half of the mass, smoothed the same way.
10 min
- 7
Cut it into diamonds down to the base, pour over the olive oil and bake at 200 °C for forty minutes, to a browned crust.
45 min
About the dish
The outer mass is fine bulgur and lean meat worked together into a paste. Fatty meat will not do: the mass has to be dense and even, like dough.
The filling — mince fried with onion and pine nuts — is deliberately rich and juicy, because everything around it is lean. That contrast is the point.
Before baking, the top is cut into diamonds right down to the base and oil is poured into the cuts. Each piece then lifts out cleanly and the oil soaks the whole depth.
Worth knowing
- — Keep wetting your hands. A dry palm drags the mass with it and no even layer forms.
- — The layers must be the same thickness. A thin top browns before the bottom is hot.
- — It is served warm or at room temperature with yoghurt and salad. Straight from the oven it falls apart as you lift it.
Nutrition
Per serving at the base yield, calculated from the ingredients rather than measured in a lab.
- Calories
- 560 kcal
- Protein
- 34 g
- Fat
- 28 g
- Carbs
- 42 g
More from Syria
- Fattoush — A salad of vegetables and herbs with fried pieces of flatbread and sumac.
- Muhammara — A paste of roasted red pepper, walnuts and pomegranate molasses, from Aleppo.
- Shish barak — Small lamb dumplings baked and then cooked in a garlic and mint yoghurt sauce.