27. DOUBLE FEATURE!

Here's a bonus post cause it's Sunday. And on Sunday, He said, Apply Thine Leb Food to Thine Face. Check out the spread I made the other day:

Baked Kibbe, Hummus, Tabbouleh, pita (ok, I bought this)

You all know how to make hummus so I'll not go into detail. I will say that if you can't find good pita bread, this recipe that Geoff sent me makes the meal infinitely better.

I used a lemon and a lime in the tabbouleh and it was delicious! We both had seconds. Mami tip: no fresh mint? Open a mint teabag and keep it with the bulghur wheat on the bottom of the bowl while you chop and add everything else.

I feel pretty comfortable making hummus and tabbouleh, but kibbeh isn't something I've had a lot of experience with (in fact, this is only the second time I've made it myself). The first time I followed a recipe (that I can no longer locate) and it was perfect! This time I winged it and added a couple of unusual ingredients to the filling. I thought larger chunks of onion might add tasty hits of sweetness, which it did, but it came out almost too ugly to justify. Here's how I made a little dish of it (the same 2-quart baking dish that I used for the strawberry-rhubarb crisp). I'm thinking of trying it again, substituting ground turkey for the beef.

For filling:
1/2 cup pine nuts
1 tbsp olive oil
1/2 lb ground beef
1 small onion, finely chopped
1/2 tsp each salt, pepper, cinnamon, cumin
1 tsp pomegranate molasses

For bulghur part:
1 lb ground beef
1 small onion, chopped to preferred consistency
fine bulghur wheat (same grind as tabbouleh)
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp each pepper and dried mint

1 1/2 tsp butter


1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees and grease baking dish.
2. Brown pine nuts in a dry or olive oil-ed pan and remove. Heat olive oil and add onion and beef. Fry until brown. Add seasonings and taste to see if anything is needed.
3. Mix all other ingredients into a bowl until smooth, then add the wheat until it looks right. I don't remember how much I added -- maybe 3/4 cup?
4. Divide mixture in two, pressing one half smoothly into the greased baking dish, covering with the filling and then covering that with a thin layer of the rest of the bulghur mixture. Score the top in some kina triangley pattern, then dot with butter.
5. Bake for 25-30 minutes.