Kibbeh bil Sanieh

Ingredients

• 300g fine bulgur (No. 1 grade)
• 700g very lean minced lamb or beef, twice ground
• 1 large onion for the shell
• 1 tsp dried mint
• 0.5 tsp dried basil
• 1.5 tsp seven spice (baharat)
• 0.5 tsp ground cinnamon
• 2 tsp fine salt
• 0.5 tsp black pepper
• 400g coarsely minced lamb for the filling
• 2 medium onions for the filling
• 80g pine nuts
• 1 tsp seven spice for the filling
• 1 tsp fine salt for the filling
• 60ml olive oil
• 60g unsalted butter or ghee, melted
• Ice water for shaping
• Plain yoghurt or cucumber and mint salad, to serve

Before you cook

• Rinse the fine bulgur in a sieve, then soak it in cold water for twenty minutes and squeeze it dry in your hands.
• Quarter the onion for the shell and chop the filling onions finely.
• Take the lean meat out of the fridge fifteen minutes before you start, but keep it cool.
• Set a bowl of ice water beside your work surface for wetting your hands.
• Heat the oven to 200C and oil a thirty centimetre round tin or a large roasting tray.

Steps

1. Heat the olive oil in a frying pan over medium heat and fry the pine nuts for two minutes until golden, then lift them out with a slotted spoon.
2. Add the chopped filling onions to the same pan and cook them for eight minutes until soft.
3. Add the coarse minced lamb and break it up with a wooden spoon.
4. Cook the meat for ten minutes until browned and any liquid has evaporated.
5. Stir in the seven spice, salt and the fried pine nuts, then set the filling aside to cool.
6. Blitz the quartered onion in a food processor with the mint, basil, seven spice, cinnamon, salt and pepper until it is a wet paste.
7. Add the squeezed bulgur and pulse until the mixture is uniform.
8. Add the lean minced meat in three batches, blending after each, until you have a smooth cool paste with no visible strands.
9. Stop blending if the mixture starts to warm up, and chill it for ten minutes before continuing.
10. Wet your hands in the ice water and press half the kibbeh paste into the base of the tin in an even layer about one centimetre thick.
11. Spread the cooled filling over the base, leaving a centimetre clear around the rim.
12. Take walnut-sized pieces of the remaining paste, flatten them between wet palms, and lay them over the filling like tiles.
13. Smooth the top layer with wet hands until the joins disappear completely.
14. Score the surface into diamonds with a wet knife, cutting down through the top layer only.
15. Press a hole through the centre with your thumb so steam can escape.
16. Pour the melted butter evenly over the surface.
17. Bake the kibbeh for forty to forty-five minutes, until the top is deep brown and the edges have pulled away from the tin.
18. Rest the tray for ten minutes before cutting along the scored lines.
19. Serve warm with yoghurt or a cucumber and mint salad.