Destination
Rio de Janeiro
The story
Kibe (kibbeh in the original Arabic) is one of the great Brazilian bar snacks, brought in by the enormous Lebanese and Syrian diaspora who arrived in Brazil starting in the late 1800s. Today São Paulo has the largest Lebanese population outside Lebanon itself, and kibe sits on the menu of every proper boteco alongside pastel and coxinha. A shell of soaked bulgur and ground beef, seasoned with cinnamon and allspice, stuffed with more spiced beef and pine nuts, shaped into a football and deep-fried until deep gold.
Method
Warm the olive oil in a pan over medium heat. Sweat the onion 4 minutes until soft. Add the beef, cinnamon, allspice, salt and pepper. Cook 6 to 8 minutes, breaking up the meat, until deep brown and any liquid has evaporated. Stir in the pine nuts and parsley. Cool completely.
In a large bowl, combine the drained bulgur, ground beef, grated onion, mint, cinnamon, allspice, salt and pepper. Knead with your hands (wet occasionally) for 3 to 4 minutes until the mixture is smooth, sticky and holds together like a firm dough.
Cover and chill both the shell and the filling for at least 20 minutes. Cold mixture is easier to shape.
Wet your hands with cold water. Take a golf-ball-sized piece of shell mixture. Roll into a ball, then hollow it out with your thumb, working the walls thin and even. Fill with a teaspoon of the beef filling. Pinch the top closed, then taper both ends into a small football shape about 7cm long. Repeat with the rest of the mixture.
Heat the oil in a deep pot to 175°C (350°F). A small piece of the shell dropped in should rise and turn deep gold in 90 seconds.
Fry the kibes in batches of 4 or 5 for 4 to 5 minutes, turning gently, until deep bronze all over. Don't crowd the pot: it drops the temperature and they go greasy.
Lift onto kitchen paper, rest 1 minute, and serve immediately with lemon wedges and yoghurt.
Tips
- Fine bulgur, not coarse. Brazilian and Middle Eastern grocers sell fine bulgur specifically for kibe. Coarse bulgur (for tabbouleh) is too grainy for the shell and won't hold together.
- Squeeze the bulgur dry. After soaking, wring it out in a clean tea towel or your hands until no water drips. Wet bulgur gives you a soggy shell that falls apart in the oil.
- Grate or process the onion. A finely grated onion (or one blitzed to a paste) melts into the shell mixture and gives it moisture without leaving crunchy pieces of raw onion.
- Wet hands are essential. The mixture is sticky by design. Keep a small bowl of cold water on the bench and rewet your palms every couple of kibes.
- Serve with yoghurt. A small dish of thick plain yoghurt with a pinch of mint and a splash of olive oil is the traditional Lebanese-Brazilian dip. Lemon wedges too.
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