scubadoo97

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

My heart sank for Carla the moment Casey took the lead and Carla said okay. I knew it was a big mistake and she was out of the running. I was rooting for Carla near the end. She was someone I had very little confidence in at the beginning but she did show good classical technique and produced some solid winners. Like the tortoise she came from behind and was passing the competition. Life lesson for sure. Last season had some real talent. This season was very ho-hum. Hope for better in the future.

wow, I am very impressed, those kibbeh look professional. I find that fried kibbeh are more difficult to make than the stewed ones, its a matter of taste. Do you use ground lamb or beef in the shell? The fried kibbeh is usually attributed to the Syrians or Lebanese but they also have stewed versions as I found out from the book Aromas of Aleppo (Poopa dweck) ← Melamed, for the fried kibbeh I use a recipe like the one in Aromas of Aleppo. I am a Syrian Jew as is Poopa Dweck. As far as I can tell from multiple Syrian Jewish cookbooks and my own family's recipes we don't use meat in the shell of the fried kibbeh. The shell is bulgur and flour. As such these will not stand up to liquid The soup kibbeh, i.e. kibbeh hamda are made with very lean meat, ground 3 times and ground rice, I use cream of rice, for the shell. I just haven't had enough experience with the texture of this shell and find that they crack up on me when trying to fill them. I guess I always strive for a very thin shell like my Grandmother made. Same with the fried. The thinner the better. For what ever reason we didn't use lamb for kibbeh, always beef. Maybe a availability issue in the south were I live. The only time we use matza meal in kibbeh is on Passover. Your photos have given me the bug to make some kibbeh/kubba. Yours look awesome.

I make the fried kibbeh from time to time. From my last attempt I am less skilled at soup kibbeh but will keep trying

Thanks for the info. Next time I'm at Cabela's I'll have to check it out in person. Looks like the rig pictured at the bottom of the page should work as a cold smoking setup too, without any worry about too much heat or having to add ice. http://foodartisan.net/making_sausage/cold_smoking.php ← Easier than that is the tin can cold smoke generator. Take a 16 oz can and open the top but leave a hinge. I now drill a hole near the bottom of the can to insert a soldering iron. Heat the can screaming hot to burn off any coatings on the metal. Now you have a cold smoke generator. Fill with chips or pellets and insert the soldering iron. In the Masterbuilt I place a couple of frozen foam packs to help keep the temperature down as low as I can. Here in Florida the ambient temperature can be near 80-90* or more plus the minimal heat from the soldering iron and smoldering chips, added to the well insulated smoker and temps can climb to over 100*. The ice packs really help keep it in check. The set up you listed above will certainly work, the can is just very easy and effective.

I use them is soups or stews. I also toast and blend with other dry chilies to make my own chili powder

The Masterbuilt is pretty effecient with wood. I use chunks that I split down so they fit in the delivery chute better. I can get about 2 hrs of smoke from a few chunks before having to reload. I don't want bellowing smoke anyway. Just thin blue smoke. You will first get a lot of smoke once they chunks start smoking good then it settles down.

Wow, all these great breakfast pictures. Yummm I have been making Nova style "lox" more often over the last few months. Just so dang easy to do. This has been my typical breakfast this week

Boy has Carla grown on me. From early on I had doubts she would make it far but like the tortoise she imitated, LOL that was hilarious, she has pulled away to the front. Go Carla Go. I was sad to see Fabio sent home. He was tremendously entertaining during this entire season. Wish his food was better. He has had some real winners but a lot of duds Was glad to see Hosea out beat Stefan with his gumbo. Disappointed in the constant fixation Hosea has with Stefan. Just concentrate on making yours the best will get you a lot further. Of course there is a lot of editing that plays this pissing contest up. Stefan is IMO one of the most talented but he is cocky and sometimes indifferent. While he's out for a smoke he better watch out for Carla I was glad that Jeff won the chance to continue to compete. I had my doubts that he would stay in the game considering he had to win by a larger margin. All in All an interesting twist on the episode and may the best chef win