Syrian Finger Food
Ground meat and spices hidden inside fried dough.
By Lindsay Sterling
An Iraqi mother who lives with her husband
and three kids in a Portland recently taught me how to make a Syrian food
called kibbeh. Kibbeh are made of bulgur wheat, onions, spices, and ground beef
or lamb, formed into the shape of lemons and deep-fried. Asraa, my teacher, learned
how to make them from a Syrian friend when she was living in Syria after she
fled Iraq.
First she soaks fine bulgur wheat
in water. Then she sautés ground beef and onions with salt and freshly ground
green cardamom. Other spices that are commonly used are allspice, cinnamon,
cumin and pepper. Once the meat is cooked, she mixes in toasted pine nuts. She then
puts the bulgur through a meat grinder along with chunks of yellow onion and
cubes of beef. Pale pink spaghetti-shaped extrusions push out of the holes of
the grinder. She kneads these into dough.
Then one by one she assembles a
dozen lemon-shaped kibbeh. In one hand she makes a ball of dough about the size
of a small lemon. She presses into it with her pointer finger, creating a long
cavity where her finger was. She spoons ground meat into the cavity, then she
closes the dough around the meat filling and bounces the packet in the palm of
her hand until it becomes the shape of a lemon. When I try to make the kibbeh,
they come out lumpy and asymmetrical. She shows me how to use a couple fingers
dipped in ice water to smooth any lumps out of the sides. Try as I might to
make mine just like hers, my kibbeh are a lot bigger. We hold up our hands against
one another’s to compare the size and laugh. My hands are two inches bigger
than hers. I’m 5’8” tall and she’s probably 4’8”. We make a whole platter of
these lemon shapes, and then deep fry groups of them on medium low heat so that
outside of the kibbeh turns golden brown and crispy.
Kibbeh originated somewhere in the
Levant. From there, the food has spread with emigrants all over the world to
places like Haiti, the Dominican Republic, and Argentina. Serve kibbeh with a sprig
of mint, and fresh salad of cucumber, parley, lettuce tomatoes, lemon juice and
olive oil.
After we cook, we talk about life. I
asked the couple how the Syrian friend who taught the dish is doing in Syria
now. Her husband answers, “She’s okay, but she’s scared. Only four hours of
electricity, no phone, no internet, no good water.” After sharing that Asraa is
one of eleven siblings in Iraq, her husband explains that in Iraq it’s common
to have a lot of kids in a family. “There,” he says, “if you only have six
kids, people say, ‘you tired, old man?’” One of the things he loves about the
U.S is that, “In America, if you have a million dollar or one hundred, same
thing. Nobody big. Nobody low.” All people are created equal.
Making kibbeh myself at home, I use
my KitchenAid mixer and meat grinder attachment. Since most home cooks don’t
have a meat grinder, I ask Fayez how people might make kibbeh, to which he
replied, “Come to my store, I grind it for you.” He grinds meat into kibbeh dough
regularly for customers at Al Sindbad market, 710 Forest Avenue, Portland,
ME 04103, 9am-9pm, (207) 879-4469.
For the recipe or to learn in a live cooking class, click at right.
Copyright Lindsay Sterling 2013
