Kibbeh: Arab speciality and nourishing snack
Kibbeh, also known as kibbe, kubbeh or kubbi is an Arab dish made of rice and meat. It’s usually fried or cooked and can be served in many ways which makes it a very popular finger or fast food.
Kibbeh, which can roughly be translated as „balls“, are very easy to make and because the magic lies not only within fresh ingredients but also the way you spice them, they can take all kind of forms and make the Iraqi cuisine more fun.
Ingredients for Kibbeh:
- 800gramm minced meat (lamb or beef)
- 200gramm bulghur or rice (already cooked)
- salt
- pepper
- cumin
- allspice
- 2 onions
- vegetable oil for frying
Preparation:
Usually, you make kibbeh out of rice or bulghur wheat which gets soaked in water for a while and then squeezed out. The rice or bulghur then gets mixed in a blender with 1/3 of the minced meat (usually lamb) together with salt, pepper and a chopped onion until the consistency is smooth like dough.
Now chop one onion very finely, add some nuts and put them in a pan to fry them in a bit of oil. Add the rest of the meat and spices (pepper, cumin, allspice). Fry till the meat is brown.
Then take the dough and form little football-shaped burgers roughly the size of pine cones. Poke a hole into them and add some of the fried meat into it. Then cover the hole with the dough and fry everything for about 10 minutes in hot oil.
You can also deep-fry them in a deep pan that you fill with oil. If you do so, turn the kibbeh around after 4-5 minutes, so they get fried evenly.
You can add herbs and other spices to the dough if you like but taste them before frying. They taste very good with a salad and a light yogurt sauce.