Kibbeh Nayyeh

Pounded with ice rather than water and never allowed out of the cold, because it is eaten raw.

Lamb. Not vegetarian — contains lamb.

Ingredients

• 500 g very lean lamb leg, trimmed of all fat and sinew
• 200 g fine bulgur
• 1 onion, grated and squeezed bone dry
• 1 teaspoon ground allspice
• ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
• ¼ teaspoon ground white pepper
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 150 g crushed ice, roughly

to serve

• 6 tablespoons olive oil
• mint leaves
• spring onions
• flatbread

Method

1. IT IS EATEN RAW, SO THE MEAT IS BOUGHT AND USED ON THE SAME DAY. This is not a flavour note. Buy lamb leg from a butcher you know, tell them it is to be eaten raw, have it trimmed and minced in front of you or mince it yourself, and make and eat the dish within a few hours. Nothing in the method kills anything: there is no heat, no acid and no cure. Pre-minced supermarket lamb has unknown age and a vast surface area, and is not suitable. If any of that cannot be arranged, make the cooked version on its own page instead -- it is the same paste.
2. IT IS POUNDED WITH ICE RATHER THAN WATER AND NEVER ALLOWED OUT OF THE COLD. A hundred and fifty grams of crushed ice, worked in a handful at a time as the paste is pounded. The ice does two things: it provides the water the bulgur needs while keeping the meat below the temperature at which it would start to turn, and the shearing of ice crystals through the mixture is what makes the texture silky rather than merely minced. The bowl sits in a larger bowl of ice throughout, and the dish goes from the fridge to the table.
3. THE LAMB IS TRIMMED OF EVERY SCRAP OF FAT AND SINEW. Raw fat is unpleasantly waxy on the tongue and sinew is simply chewy -- neither is softened by anything here. Five hundred grams of leg will lose a fair amount to the bin and should.
4. THE BULGUR GOES IN DRY AND HYDRATES ON THE ICE ALONE. Not pre-soaked. Fine bulgur takes up the meltwater as the paste is worked, over fifteen or twenty minutes, which is what binds the whole thing. Pre-soaked bulgur makes the paste wet and slack and it will not hold the spoon-mark it is served with.
5. IT IS SPREAD FLAT AND SCORED, WITH A WELL OF OIL. Smoothed onto a cold plate to about a centimetre and a half, the back of a wet spoon dragged across it in ridges, and olive oil poured generously into the hollows. The oil is not a garnish: it is most of the richness in a dish with no fat in it.
6. IT IS SEASONED HARDER THAN SEEMS RIGHT. Two teaspoons of salt and a full teaspoon of allspice. Cold raw meat mutes seasoning badly, and an under-seasoned one tastes of very little.
7. The lamb trimmed of ALL fat and sinew and minced twice, or chopped very fine, SAME DAY.
8. A bowl set inside a larger bowl of ICE.
9. The lamb, DRY fine bulgur, bone-dry grated onion, allspice, cinnamon, white pepper and salt put in the cold bowl.
10. POUNDED and worked 15 to 20 MINUTES, the crushed ice added A HANDFUL AT A TIME, until it is a smooth silky paste.
11. Kept in the fridge until the moment of serving.
12. Spread on a COLD plate to about 1.5 cm, the back of a wet spoon dragged across in RIDGES.
13. The olive oil poured generously into the hollows.
14. TESTED: it should hold the spoon ridges and taste assertively spiced. Slack means the bulgur was pre-soaked.
15. Scooped with flatbread, with mint and spring onions. Eaten within the hour; leftovers are COOKED, never kept raw.

Our own recipe. This one was written for this site rather than taken from anywhere, so there is no source to point you at. The quantities and the order of the steps are choices, not the only way to do it.

Filed under Lebanon · All recipes