Fried Spiced Levantine Meatballs: Kibbeh

There are lots of ways to prepare meat and bulgur wheat and call it kibbeh...it can be raw (obviously requiring very fresh lamb or beef), baked, cooked in broth, or in my assumed favorite rendition, fried.  I've only had it baked and fried, and since fried is usually the utmost way to cook anything, I feel pretty secure that it's the besht.

The croquettes or torpedoes, as they're usually shaped, are comprised of a meat and bulgur mixture encasing a pre-cooked saute of ground meat, onions, spices and pine nuts.  So this is a multi-phase endeavor, but I find it's composed of few enough ingredients and basic enough technique to be done start to finish in an hour.  The medium to deep frying cooks what seem like pretty big masses of meat in only about 10 minutes.

I love how spices like nutmeg, cinnamon and allspice are used in North African, Levantine and Middle Eastern cuisine with savory things in ways that are sort of counter-intuitive to European-American palettes.  The aroma of the spices emanates from these when you bite into them, the dense and salty meat of the outside giving way to the seasoned mixture in the middle with pine nuts and sweet onion.

Presenting kibbeh to people who hither to have not experienced this type of cuisine can be a tough sell at first.  They don't necessarily look that beautiful if you know what I mean, and the idea of the combination of meat and spices associated with dessert or or hot cider seems off.  But usually after just one try, people are quickly converted, their minds opened.

Traditional dipping sauce is one simply made with tahini, but I often make a tzatziki variation, both of which I've included recipes for here.
 

Ingredients For Kibbeh:
2 lbs. plus 1 lb. ground meat (lamb, beef, turkey or chicken, 10%-20% fat)
1 medium onion roughly chopped plus 1 medium onion diced

1/2 teaspoon cumin

1 tablespoon allspice plus 1 teaspoon

1 teaspoon nutmeg

2 cups medium coarse bulgur wheat

32 oz. vegetable oil for frying

2 tablespoons olive oil

1/2 cup pine nuts (optional toasted)

2 teaspoons salt plus 1 teaspoon

1 teaspoon pepper plus 1/2 teaspoon

Soak the bulgur in just enough water to cover for 20 to 30 minutes, then drain well.  In a food processor combine 2 lbs. of the meat, the bulgur and the roughly chopped onion. 

Season with 2 teaspoons salt and 1 teaspoon of pepper.  At this point a purist might say you're done seasoning this portion, but I like to add 1 tablespoon of allspice to carry the flavor throughout.  Your call.  Process the ingredients until smooth and homogeneous.

To make the filling, saute the diced onion in the olive oil until it's softened, then add the lb. of ground meat and cook until it's beginning to brown and is cooked through.  Add the remaining spices, the salt, pepper and the pine nuts and stir to coat the meat in the spices.  Let cool for 10 to 15 minutes.
 

Heat the vegetable oil to a steady 375° F.  To make the kibbeh, take a raquet ball portion of meat and bulgur mixture and form into a ball.  Then make an indentation in the center. 

Take some of the cooked meat mixture and place it in the indentation, sealing the mixture over it, then shape the kibbeh into a miniature football shape and set it aside on a dish.  Repeat this until all the meat and bulgur mixture is used.

Add the kibbeh to the frying pan or fryer in batches to avoid over-crowding, and cook, turning 3 to 4 times, for 10 to 12 minutes until the outside is well browned and they are firm to the touch.  Remove with a slotted spoon and place on a pan lined with absorbent paper.  Hit with some salt immediately.

Serve hot with tahini sauce or yogurt sauce.

Tahini Sauce for Dipping:

1/2 cup tahini paste

2 cloves of garlic, minced

Juice of 1 to 2 lemons, to taste

1 to 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

Salt & pepper to taste

In a food processor combine the ingredients and process until smooth, adding more lemon juice or water to get the desired consistency - smooth and not chunky, but not watery either.

Yogurt Sauce for Dipping:

1 18 oz. container Greek yogurt

1 clove of garlic, minced

Juice of 1 to 2 lemons

A few pinches of dill, dried or fresh

1/2 of an english cucumber, minced

1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil

Salt to taste

Mix all the ingredients together.  For best results make several hours in advance.