scubadoo97

This past weekend I was rolling grape leaves with my cousins for our Passover Seder and I mentioned the little rolling machine seen on Egullet. We figured between having to find the right sized leaves and setting it up between each roll we would not save to much time. We rolled a several hundred in couple of hours. Busy hands and lots of conversation. Group therapy

Sarah, I'm not sure why parboiled rice was used. I know for some dishes like making parboiled rice is used to keep the grains separate. I'm not a big fan of commercial parboiled rice like Uncle Bens. I'm sure if you made it with your usual herb mixture and used short or long grain rice it will turn out fine. I usually use long grain rice for these dishes. Your rolls look wonderful.

That would be my guess too. The original thermapen is on sale through their "private sale". This link is not accessible via their main web page. They also have a combo thermapen and IR thermometer on temporary reduction. It has an original price of $89 also on sale for $69. Measuring Range: -27°F to 428°F, -33°C to 220°C IR Accuracy: ±2%, or 2°C whichever is greater Thermocouple Accuracy: ±1% or ±1°C, whichever is greater IR Repeatability: 0.1°C at 25°C, 0.5°C at 80°C Resolution: 0.1° from -9.9 to 199.9, 1° beyond Units: Switchable C or F The combo has a slightly lower range of temperatures compared to the original but is switchable from C to F. mmmmm. Which one to get???

The kubba are about an inch, inch and a half long. That is a large serving spoon in the pot. These are the kubba I made a couple of weeks ago and posted photos up thread They took a few hours to make taking into account I had to grind the meat and regrind with the ground rice then grind the meat for the stuffing. The actual assembly took maybe less than an hour to make 50 kubba

With the kids home for spring break I made them kibbeh hamda for Shabbat dinner. The hamud was made with sliced carrots, onions, celery, garlic, canned whole tomatoes, dried mint, a couple of short ribs and finished with lemon juice and salt to taste. This was served over white rice.

Chris, I smoked it on my Masterbuilt Electric smoker for almost 8 hours. I kept smoke going for the first 4-5 hours. Woods used were hickory, apple, oak and sea grape; the sea grape grows in my back yard. You won't get smoke rings when using these well insulated electric smokers on average. They are too efficient in the use of wood. A couple of chunks will smoke for around 2 hours so there is not sufficient nitrogen given off to contribute to the development of a smoke ring. Good thing is the smoke ring does not contribute to taste. Some people will toss a couple of charcoal brickets in a long with the wood chunks to get a smoke ring if it's desired. I used a prepared corned beef brisket flat and made a rub of cracked black pepper, coriander seeds and mustard seeds. During the last couple hours in the smoker I had the meat in a foil pan with a some liquid that consisted of water, Dijon mustard and some left over rub. I took it to an internal of 200*f wrapped it in foil until it cooled some then sliced a few slices to taste it. I ended up cutting it up this morning. Now I just need to run out and get a nice rye bread and will be in pastrami heaven.

Finished pastrami. It was sliced cold so doesn't show as much juice as when heated.

Terrific price at Cabela's I plan on tossing a spice rubbed corned beef brisket on mine for some fresh smoked pastrami Enjoy yours

I've been watching it but there hasn't been a new one in a few weeks. Not sure if she has run through her 6 shows. The camera shots and format are pure FN, the food is a little more mainstream than Daisy Cooks but her personality is pure Daisy.

After a nasty finger cut a couple of years ago I finally decided I had to improve in the claw technique. It has saved me from a few further mishaps and it is becoming more 2nd nature. Most of my cuts are now very small and usually come from coming in contact with the sharp heel of my Japanese blades.

When you cooked your corned beef, did you do it in the oven dry or on the stove/oven in water? I have never made my own corned beef but the prepared ones in the store can be loaded with salt and will need to be soaked in water for a considerable amount of time before I toss them on the smoker after adding pastrami spices. Making your own you could adjust the amount of salt to suit your needs. BTW I think your plan will work well. Let us know how it turned out.

That's how my mother would do it but without the use of a rice cooker. All ingredients go in at once. Rice, water, oil and salt. Rice always come out cooked perfectly with a nice golden brown tahdig.

Lots of oil! I was taught to fry my rice in oil before adding water. I don't use as much oil as my mom or grandmother did but it's hard to get the nice brown crust without it.

tah-dig! That's the best part! It is the crunchy bottom part of the rice. I had a friend who used to complain about the food her Persian mother in law gave her. Out of respect she was given the best part of the rice- the "burnt" part of course and would always tell me "those Persians really don't know how to make rice, they burn it everytime and once more they give this to me!". Back then I didn't know any better myself. ← Sarah, your rice is stunning. I just want to dive in Tah-dig we call ha-ta and it's a favorite for sure

Funny. They do look like them Shaya, I did try a little batch of semolina only but it hard to work with. Obviously you have to get the texture just right. The bulgur didn't make them too heavy. No they are not light like matzah balls but they had a typical kibbeh consistency.

Shaya, your beet soup looked so wonderful that I had to try to do one. I had a lot of vegetables in the fridge, many from our last CSA farm pick up. For the kubba I kinda winged it from reading as many recipes here and from the net. I had made a few test runs of kubba made from semolina and ground rice with and without flour but found them a little too dense. I decided to make the shell using a combination of coarse and fine bulgur wheat, semolina and a little ground rice along with some 99% fat free ground turkey I found at the market and spices. I used this same turkey for the filling which was mixed with diced onions, celery leaves and spices. For the soup I used 2 large beets, 2 large turnips, carrots, onions, celery, garlic, a red potato, sweet potato and the tops from the beets and turnips. Because this had so many vegetables I didn't want to add the kubba directly to the soup for fear of them breaking up so simmered them in chicken broth first which was then added to the soup. I good dose of lemon was added for a sweet and sour taste. Over all I was impressed with the soup and kubbah. Of course I will not be able to make it exactly two times in a row which is par of my cooking.

Inspired by another egullet post in the Middle East board about Kurkish/Iraqi kubbah soup and other kibbeh I made a beet/vegetable soup with kubbah/kibbeh. It was a clean the fridge out/CSA inventory and use up attempt but really came out good. The vegetables included sweet potato, a large red potato, 2 large beets, 2 turnips, carrots, onions, garlic, celery, beet and turnip tops. The kibbeh shells were made from both large and fine bulgur wheat, cream of wheat, cream of rice and ground lean turkey. The filling was made from the ground turkey with finely diced onions and celery leaves. The broths was a base of chicken stock with a fair amount of lemon juice squeezed in to give it a sweet and sour taste.

Our mixed spice has allspice in it. Not typical with the Lebanese I used lean meat because all the recipes call for it. It's a pretty stiff dough and cracks are not easy to mend. Traditionally you dip your finger in a mixture of oil and lemon juice to keep the dough from sticking to your finger and palm when forming the kibbeh. The pointy end is typical for formed kibbeh. Agian my grandparents came from Aleppo Syria and Kilis Turkey which is pretty close to Halab/Aleppo

Thanks for the additional information Sarah. With Syrian Jews from Aleppo you can go all around the world and they pray the same and on Shabbat dinner you can pretty much know what will be on the table.

With all this kubba discussion I had to give it another try. Came home early and went to work on these. I made our traditional kibbeh hamdah using 1.5 lbs of very lean top sirloin and a 1.5 cups of ground rice for the shell. The filling was made from ground chuck, chopped celery leaves and our baharat spice mix. Not able to get them as thin as my Grandmother but would call these a start in the right direction. They are a little frosty since I froze them for future use. Like maybe tonight. I'm interested in making the beet soup kubba Shaya posted. I have a couple of large beets in the fridge. Stay tuned

Interesting that Rebecca has had them. I wasn't sure if it was a regional thing because my Grandmother had a large mulberry tree outside of her kitchen in Tampa or is it more a cultural thing with Syrian Jews. Not sure if they had mulberry trees in Syria Mulberry leaves are actually easier to roll than grape leaves since they have a more spade shaped leaf. We don't roll these stem to tip like grape leaves but sideways, folding in the tip as you roll and leaving the stem side open. They make beautiful rolls. We find they taste better than grape but that most certainly has to do with the fact the grape leaves we get have been brined from the jar and the mulberry leaves were fresh, blanched and frozen before use. We call them cigars. Maybe a Tampa Ybor City reference but the ones in bottom right of the picture above really look like a well rolled cigar.

That's what we call them. Grape leaves, mulberry or cabbage leaves. Rebecca yeah I think we could have some relatives in common. Kibbeh neyeh is good for a crowd. Since my kids and wife don't enjoy it I only make one batch which keeps me very happy.

Shaya ;your food looks amazing. Love the color of the beet soup. I have read about beet kubba and yours looks wonderful. We use celery leaves in our soup kibbeh as well. One of the common soups with kibbeh is hamud. A very lemony soup with of celery, carrots, onions, mint and lots of garlic. Rebecca glad to see you posting and have an appetite.

Sarah it looks wonderful. I've made this a few times and it's great together.

Here's their menu for anyone wanting to visit http://www.heartattackgrill.com/index.html