Syrian Kibbeh

I just love this Syrian finger food called kibbeh. It's spiced ground meat hidden inside deep fried dough. See below for the story, recipe, and how-to photos.

The Story

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

See How To Do It

Syrian Kibbeh

The amounts shown hear are greater than what appear in the recipe because I scaled the recipe down to make 12-16. Also, you will see her use a meat grinder here. This is best, but what if you don't have a meat grinder? The recipe gives instructions for how to do it in a food processor.

Video on how to assemble to come

photos by Lindsay Sterling, use by permission only.

The Recipe

Syrian Kibbeh

As Asraa Ghazal, from Alkut, Iraq, learned from a Syrian friend in Damascus, Syria, and taught to Lindsay Sterling in Portland, Maine.

Makes: 16

Cooking Time: 1 1/2 hours

2 cups fine bulgur wheat

1/2 cup semolina flour

1 tsp + two dashes salt

about 1 1/2 cups hot water

1 1/4 yellow onions (1 cut into wedges + 1/4 minced)

1 1/4 lb. lean beef or lamb, ground (or in chunks if you have a meat grinder)*

dash ground allspice (optional)

dash ground cinnamon (optional)

dash ground cumin (optional)

dash ground cardamom (optional)

2 Tbsp pine nuts

about 4 cups oil for frying 

lemon slices (optional)

fresh mint (optional)

Equipment:

food processor

large mixing bowl

small bowl

cutting board 

chef knife

small to medium sauce pot

tongs or slotten spoon

2 large platters or sheet pans 

paper towels

1 serving platter

spatula

1. Mix bulgur, semolina, and 1 tsp salt in a large mixing bowl. Add enough hot water so that the water hits the surface of the bulgur but bulgur isn't floating, about 1 1/2 cups. Contents should be wet but none should be floating in water. Seal bowl with plastic wrap and let sit for 30 minutes. 

2. Saute minced onion in 1 Tbsp oil. When onions are soft add 1/4 pound ground beef, two dashes salt, and one dash allspice, cinnamon, cumin, cardamom, and pepper and cook until meat loses all its pink. Saute pine nuts in a separate pan in a little oil until they turn golden. Mix pine nuts and meat mixture together and take off heat. 

3. If you have a food processor, process the onion wedges until as fine as possible. Then add meat and bulgur and process until you have a uniformly colored, light pink dough. 

4. Assemble kibbeh. Gather 1 large platter, a bowl of ice water, the kibbeh dough, and the meat filling. Form a lemon-sized chunk of dough into a ball and press your pointer finger into it. Rotate the dough around your finger creating an oblong shape with a finger-hole cavity in it. Fill the cavity with about a teaspoon of ground meat mixture. Press the dough closed around the hole. Toss the kibbeh in the palm of your hand over and over. Use the niche in the space between the base of your thumb and your palm to create a nub on one end of shape. Turn the kibbeh around and repeat, creating a nub on the other end. If you have some lumps in the shape, dip two fingers in the ice water and use the water and the pressure of your fingers to smooth any lumps out of the sides of the dough. Place completed kibbeh on a platter.

5. Heat up vegetable oil (deep enough to submerge kibbeh) in a medium sauce pot. Oil should be hot but not smoking. Once hot, keep oil on medium low temp. Try test-frying the first one. If no bubbles appear around the kibbeh, the oil needs to be hotter. Bubbles should boil up up around the kibbeh and it should slowly turn to brown over about ten minutes. If it turns dark brown within minutes, then the inside won't be cooked. Let the oil cool a little bit before trying again. It should take about ten minutes of deep frying at the right temperature for them to turn brown on the outside and be thoroughly cooked on the inside. Deep fry batches of kibbeh with enough room so that they don't touch one another in the pot. Use tongs or a slotted spoon to remove kibbeh, and place them on a towel-lined platter to cool. Transfer to serving platter and garnish with lemon slices and mint.

*She used a meat grinder to make her kibbeh dough. If you happen to have one, in step 3, instead of using the food processor, put the soaked bulgur, onion wedges and 1 pound of meat through the meat grinder. Form soft-ball sized balls out of the spaghetti-like extrusions, and then send those through the meat grinder once more. Then knead the grounded meat-bulgur-onion mixture into dough that is consistently light pink. Continue to step 4. 

Copyright Lindsay Sterling 2013