Kibbeh is without question the Lebanese national dish, having spread throughout the Middle East and North Africa. There are countless recipes ranging from the "raw" type to a kind of fried meatball. Consequently there are also dozens of different recipes for which I am going to explain how it is made in a traditional way in Lebanon and how it is made in a "practical" way.
We start from the basis that kibbeh is a mixed meatball of bulgur and lamb meat. Bulgur is fractionated wheat, somewhat coarser than couscous.
In Lebanon the preparation is really complex. It is based on the use of mortar - a mortar of considerable dimensions - where the meat and bulgur are crushed for about an hour and a half (!!!) until they form a smooth paste. With the addition of spices and other ingredients, the resulting dough can be eaten as is, without cooking, or fried in plenty of oil to form the fritters that you see in the photograph. The use of mortar is very characteristic of this dish and gives personality to Lebanese households with its rattling, in the same way as in Greece the game of tavli (called backgammon in West but with slightly different rules), with the violent throwing of the dice, closes the evenings of many families filling the night of the cities with a very particular sound.
If you travel to Lebanon or any country where Kibbeh is consumed, be careful with the "raw" options. In the first place they are very spicy - some are really spicy - and secondly you must be very sure where you eat them since you may have a serious health problem.
Now we come up with a "practical" recipe for Westerners.
INGREDIENTS :
- 500 grams (18 oz) of lamb meat
- 100 grams (3.5 oz) of bulgur (if you can't find bulgur you can do it with couscous)
- 1 large fresh onion
- Ground black pepper
- Salt
- Extra virgin olive oil
- Lettuce
If you have found bulgur in the first place, you should cover it with cold water for about three hours so that it swells and recovers its original shape (you will see that it is practically a simple puzzle of the wheat grain). Remember that when you go to use it you must squeeze out all the excess water.
Now we are going to grind the meat, free of fat and nerves, with the onion. Next we add the bulgur to the resulting mixture and we grind it all again. In fact we must crush the mixture as many times as necessary so that it is a smooth dough. At the end of the process, with very wet hands, we will add a teaspoon of black pepper, another of salt (to taste), a drizzle of olive oil and optionally also chopped parsley and knead to soften the dough even more. We will make small elongated meatballs (see the photo, that "lemon" shape is the traditional one) and each one will served on lettuce leaves, individually.
If the uncooked option doesn't appeal to you, then you can coat them in crumbs or even better in powdered couscous or bulgur and fry them in plenty of oil until they have a hard crust. In any case, the interior is still a bit raw, I warn you, unless you literally burn the kibbeh on the outside.