Kibbeh
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Kibbeh or kibbe (Arabic كبة ['kibbeh] or ['kubbah]) is a dish of minced meat with bulgur and spices with many variants, both raw and cooked. It is a popular dish in the Levant and Iraq, sometimes considered the national dish of Lebanon, Syria, Palestine, and Iraq. It is also a common food in North Africa, Turkey, Cyprus (koupes or koubes), the Arabian Peninsula, parts of the Caucasus such as Armenia and in Brazil and has become part of the traditional food of the Dominican Republic.
It is best known away from the Middle East as a 7 to 15 cm-long torpedo-shaped bulgur shell stuffed with a filling based on spiced minced lamb and fried till brown. The shape is characteristic; British soldiers in the Middle East during the Second World War used to call these kibbeh "Syrian torpedoes"[1]. The shape, size, spicing, filling, and bulgur shell differ considerably.
In Middle Eastern cooking various quite different dishes with bulgur and minced lamb are called kibbeh. Kubbat Halab is an Iraqi version made with a rice crust, though apparently not originating in the Syrian city of Halab (Aleppo) as its name suggests. Kubbat Mosul is another Iraqi version originally from Mosul where a bulgur crust is used, but the shape is flat and round, like a disc. Kubbat Shorwa is an Iraqi-Assyrian version made as a stew, usually with tomato sauce and spices. Kibbe nayye, the meat and bulgur mix served raw without a crust like steak tartare, is popular in Syria, Lebanon, Israel, Palestine, and Iraq. It and is often accompanied by arak. In Lebanon and Palestine, fresh kibbeh meat is often eaten raw, and the remainder cooked the next day, sometimes without a crust. Kibbeh is traditionally served with a sesame seed tahina dip.
Besides being found in the Middle East and restaurants offering Middle Eastern food, torpedo-shaped kibbehs have become popular in the Dominican Republic [1] and South America after they were introduced by Lebanese and Palestinian immigrants.
As an alternative to the deep fried version, kibbe can also be made into a paste of meat (either lamb or beef), bulgar wheat, onion, mint and spices and pressed into a flat baking pan. Then it is scored with a knife into diamond shapes about one or two inches in length, topped with pine nuts or almond slivers and butter, then baked in the oven until done.
[edit] Names
The Arabic word kubbeh means a ball.[2] Various spellings of the name are used in different countries: in English, kibbe and kibbeh; in Brazil and Colombia, quibe or kibe; elsewhere in Latin America, kibe or quibe.
In Turkey kibeh is called içli köfte; in Armenian, kufteh.
[edit] See also
- Kibbe Nayye
- NPR.com story about Kibbe[2]
