Raw Kibbi

[ChefCrash]

My brother's brother in law is visiting from Lebanon. It was communal dinners for a few days.

Dinner at my brother's house:

The main dish. Raw Kibbi made with ground top sirloin, onions, marjoram, salt and cumin and very little cracked wheat.

Served with an assortment of fresh as well as pickled vegetable

On the plate the kibbi is topped with new Lebanese olive oil and enjoyed with Arak for the men and beer for the women.

The next day dinner was at my house.

We served fried trout, Lahem mishwee with tarator fried bread and french fries.

[Pat Churchill]

Pity we can't grab the tongs and pinch the lahem mishwi in the bottom picture while the photographer's occupied. That kibbi looks very finely ground. How was that done?

[Nicolai]

Very nice and very appetising.

I had a Khashbeh Nayeh at Karam which consisted of Kebbe Nayeh and Kebbeh Nayeh Harrah and Habra Nayeh and Keftah Nayeh and Fatayel and Me'elak and finally Ly'eh. Lots of Arak and a cigar or two.

Simply luv it.

[ChefCrash]

Very nice and very appetising.

I had a Khashbeh Nayeh at Karam which consisted of Kebbe Nayeh and Kebbeh Nayeh Harrah and Habra Nayeh and Keftah Nayeh and Fatayel and Me'elak and finally Ly'eh. Lots of Arak and a cigar or two.

Simply luv it.

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I take it that "Khashbeh" means plank or platter? Never heard of the term, but sounds real good. You left out Asbeh Nayeh.

Is Karam a restaurant? Where is it?

[ChefCrash]

Pity we can't grab the tongs and pinch the lahem mishwi in the bottom picture while the photographer's occupied. That kibbi looks very finely ground. How was that done?

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Pat, the meat is ground in a food processor in small batches.

[scubadoo97]

God I love kibbeh neyeh. Growing up we would eat it almost every week. Haven't made it in a long time. With the scare of raw meat these days my wife doesn't want to eat it. I have made kibbeh ades but it's no replacement. I made a little while back with some tenderloin I was trimming. I had to eat it myself. Ah shucks.

[Nicolai]

Very nice and very appetising.

I had a Khashbeh Nayeh at Karam which consisted of Kebbe Nayeh and Kebbeh Nayeh Harrah and Habra Nayeh and Keftah Nayeh and Fatayel and Me'elak and finally Ly'eh. Lots of Arak and a cigar or two.

Simply luv it.

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I take it that "Khashbeh" means plank or platter? Never heard of the term, but sounds real good. You left out Asbeh Nayeh.

Is Karam a restaurant? Where is it?

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Yes you are right on both counts.

- Khashbeh is plank where all the raw meat is served and is now the common term used in restaurants.

- Karam is a famous Lebanese restaurant in Beirut and Dubai.

- Me'elak is Asbeh Nayeh. Should have said the latter one.

[piazzola]

Hey that brings back memories of long ago when the Lebanese neighbours invited me with what I have known as kebeh anyway I found it strange at that time well I was only fourteen hehehe!

[FoodMan]

As always thanks for the pictures and descriptions! I have not had excellent Kibbeh Nayeh since my last trip to my grandmother's house in Lebanon three years ago. I had some at a California wedding a few months ago and it was ok, not great.

It is traditional in my family's household to serve a spiced ground onion mixture with the kibbeh. the spices include allspice, black pepper, rosebuds, margoram, cloves, cumin and probably a few others. The mixture is ground with raw onion and forms a past. This in small quantities is used to spread on pita bread and then topped with the raw kibbeh, olive oil and mint leaves. Absolute perfection. I really need to make some raw kibbeh sometime.

[scubadoo97]

Thanks to ChefCrash's thread and wonder pictures I knew I was long over due for some kibbeh nayeh. I used my grandmother's recipe of lean meat, I used top sirloin, bulgur, can tomatos, olive oil, cumin, salt, crush red pepper and parsley.

[Rebecca263]

Kibbeh nayeh! I like it best with tomato in it.

[ChefCrash]

Thanks to ChefCrash's thread and wonder pictures I knew I was long over due for some kibbeh nayeh.  I used my grandmother's recipe of lean meat, I used top sirloin, bulgur, can tomatos, olive oil, cumin, salt, crush red pepper and parsley. 

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Scubadoo your Kibbeh looks great. Love the peace sign (certainly in keeping with the times).

I've never heard of Kibbeh with tomatoes. I'd love to try it, if you'd give us the recipe. What part of Lebanon is your Grandma from?

Rebecca? Do you have a recipe?

[scubadoo97]

My grandmother was from Aleppo Syria. Rebecca, I'm sure you ate a very similar kibbeh growing up. The recipe is: 1 lb meat, 1 cup bulgur, 1 small onion diced fine, 8oz canned whole tomatoes with juice crushed, 1 tsp salt, 1 1/2 tsp cumin, 1/2 cup olive oil. Crushed red pepper if you like it spicy. I increased the meat to bulgur ratio to 1.25:1 and added the parsley. Add the tomatoes, onions and spices and kneed into the bulgur. Add meat, parsley and olive oil and continue to kneed until it comes together. Enjoy! I'm going to have to try Foodman's onion mixture. I'm not sure where to find rosebuds.

[FoodMan]

scubadoo97- Lovely looking Kibbeh, I am so overdue as well. like Crash, we do not use tomato in ours either. I guess it is more of a Syrian practice. I will make kibbeh and post pictures soon as well.

For dried rosebuds, try either online or at your local middle eastern grocery store, I am sure I've seen them at mine here in houston. Maybe I'll include a picture of my grandmother's spice mix (whole spices) and we can have fun dissecting it and figuring out exactly what's in it.

[kristin_71]

My family comes from Tripoli,Lebanon. I m not familiar with the rosebuds either. We make it with lamb, bulgher wheat, rice and spices, but not cumin. I love it, and haven't had it probably since the summer. Damn, now I have to go to the market and get the meat to make it because I am starting to crave it. May have to fire up the hibatchi for the lahem mishwee

Edited January 5, 2007 by kristin_71 (log)

[melamed]

Very nice and very appetising.

I had a Khashbeh Nayeh at Karam which consisted of Kebbe Nayeh and Kebbeh Nayeh Harrah and Habra Nayeh and Keftah Nayeh and Fatayel and Me'elak and finally Ly'eh. Lots of Arak and a cigar or two.

Simply luv it.

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I am uninitiated with all the wonderful variations of Kibbeh Nayeh and would like to know the differences between the Kibbeh you described above? What is fatayel, Me'elak and Ly'eh? I also love kubbah but know mostly about the Iraqi/Kurdish variations which I posted about (who loves kubba-sorry have not figured out how to link back to that thread)

[Rebecca263]

You know, I lost this thread back then, I'm sorry. I believe that scubadoo97 and I are from very similar background- I wouldn't be surprised at all if we share some family. My kibbeh neyeh is very close to Scubadoo97's, except I never made it in such a small quantity, and we used more onion, a medium one per cup of bulghur, I'd say. One pound of lamb would feed 2 or 3 hungry boys with drinks-and leave none for me!

I make a quickie kibbe neyeh once every few years now for myself- I go a bit heavy on the bulghur then- and I have to chop the meat by hand, so it's still sort of bits. You know what else? I don't care for too strong of an olive oil with this dish. It's just me, though.. my tastes are like me, a bit mejnoun!

I wonder why we put tomato in our kibbeh neyeh and Lebanese don't?

Do we have differences in our yebra, too?

[melamed]

I am reading the Hebrew language book

Arab cuisine in the heart of the Galil by Miriam Hannawi

Her kibbeh Neyeh includes orange peel or mardechosh (sweet marjoram) in the burghul. It contains no tomatoes but is flavored with paprika, cumin, allspice, pinenuts and lots of olive oil. yebra -stuffed grape leaves?

I really don't know why I was afraid to eat kibbeh nayeh before

Edited February 26, 2009 by melamed (log)

[scubadoo97]

yebra -stuffed grape leaves?

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.

[melamed]

yebra -stuffed grape leaves?

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.

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Intriguing, this is the first time I heard of stuffed mulberry leaves (are you referring to the leaves of the mulberry tree that silkworms love so much?). Can you clarify some of the nayeh terminology above (khashbeh, harrah, habra and fatayel, me'elak, ly'eh) Thanks!

[ChefCrash]

Stuffed Mulberry leaves is new to me too.

Can you clarify some of the nayeh terminology above (khashbeh, harrah, habra and fatayel, me'elak, ly'eh) Thanks!

Khashbeh = cutting board or wooden platter. When you order Khashbeh nayeh, you'll be served a variety of raw meats on a wooden platter. Other than Kibbe and Kafta, all meats are served in ~3/4" cubes. Example

Harra = spicy hot

Habra = lean meat

Fatayel (plural for fteele) = Fillet of lamb

Me'elak = heart/lung/liver of lamb or beef

Ly'eh = Lamb fat from the tail.

Automatically served with mazza and Arak

[melamed]

thanks! a whole world of kibbe nayeh I never knew about. I have a gigantic mulberry tree near my house so would love to get my hands on a stuffed mulberry leaf recipe.

[Rebecca263]

You use the same filling for stuffed mulberry leaves as you do for other leaves- you just have to have access to a mulberry tree. At least, as far as I know, there aren't any commercially available mulberry leaves. Then, you have to blanch the leaves before you use them, or I suppose if you were going to preserve the leaves for later use, you could brine them, but I don't know- I've only been lucky enough to have mulberry leaves when I was in Florida- and they were fresh. They were really delicious! I would DEFINITELY plant a mulberry tree if I lived in the South again!

[melamed]

Thanks rebecca, I have such a huge mulberry tree here that it can feed an entire village. I had a mulberry tree growing in our backyard in New York and it was deciduous, with berries the Italians would use to make jams and pies. Is it the same mulberry I am talking about? sorry if I am going off topic...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mulberry

[scubadoo97]

Stuffed Mulberry leaves is new to me too.

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.

Edited February 28, 2009 by scubadoo97 (log)