Let's Get It Started - Kibbeh

Over the course of the past few days I have been working on information compilation for my 101 Recipe Challenge (see original post). I am determining the quantities of non-perishable items that I might be able to purchase in bulk and figuring out recipes that may use the same ingredients so I might be able to make them at the same time, or within a short time frame.  As well, I have been trying to find a feasible deadline is for this endeavor.

I've decided that the deadline is August 3, 2013, 308 days from today and my 11 year wedding anniversary.  The plan is to make the items that are my wife's favorite from the entirety of the challenge, then make Baked Alaska for dessert.  It seems like a romantic end to the challenge - and a fitting thanks to my wife for tasting 101 wonderful (but possibly horrible...depending on how they turn out) dishes.

As I wrote the family shopping list for the week last night, I decided that I needed to get this challenge started.  As you may remember, I let my wife have the honor of picking the first item to be prepared.  She flipped through the magazine (Saveur, October 2012) looking at pictures and said, "That looks good".  Pointing to Kibbeh, Beef and Bulgur stuffed meatballs from the Middle East.  An interesting choice, seeing that it had no less than 3 ingredients that I have never used before (bulgur, lamb and sumac) and some spices that I didn't even know how to locate (sumac).

Kibbeh consists of an outer shell (fine bulgur, lamb, allspice, cinnamon, salt, pepper, onion) stuffed with a cooked meat mixture (onion, sumac, ground sirloin, allspice, cinnamon, sumac and pine nuts).  As a family, we primarily shop at Aldi and I knew that they would more than likely not have many of the items in the recipe in their inventory.  I did however have more success at the grocery in my neighborhood where I found ground sirloin patties on sale, lamb steaks and the allspice.  After finding those items, the hunt began for sumac.  The berry of a shrub found primarily in the Middle East, sumac creates a sour, yet fruity taste in dishes.  The majority of my morning was spent in my local Tops, Tops International and Wegmans hunting for this lovely ruby powder.  After hunting through aisles of spices, powders, international foods and asking at least 10 employees most of whom had no idea what I was talking about, I walked into Spice Bazaar on the corner of Sheridan and Bailey,  stepped up to the counter and asked.  Without looking up from the text he was composing, the shopkeeper said, "sure", took two steps to his right and grabbed it off the shelf (and a deal for only $2.99...now to find more recipes with sumac).

Spice Bazaar is now my first phone call when I try the other Asian, Indian or Middle Eastern recipes (tamarind paste anyone?)

I assembled the ingredients in my kitchen, as well as my favorite tools of culinary battle.

I'd like to introduce you to two of my faithful companions that will help see me through this challenge.  The 12" cast iron skillet has been with me for the past seven years and has seen plenty of fun, as has the wooden spoon, which I've had long enough for it to have indents where I hold it as I stir.  I hope to hand them both off to one of my children someday...probably the worst heirloom ever.

The first few steps of the recipe were pretty standard - saute onions in olive oil, add ground sirloin (I opted for pre-formed patties that I broke apart rather than grinding my own).  After the meat was nice and browned, I added in allspice, cinnamon, salt and pepper.  As the spices warmed up, the kitchen filled with the most incredible scent.  A little like a meaty, savory Christmas...honestly.  I'm not sure if it was the allspice or the cinnamon, but it was fantastic.

Once the ground sirloin was finished, I transferred it to a bowl and added the sumac and pine nuts.  As a kid, I remember playing in bunches of trees in the fields near my house that we called "sumac trees", and once or twice I had taken a taste of the "sumac berries" having been told that American Indians had made tea or eaten them at a time before this area was settled.  I recall a lemony taste, sour with a bit of tartness.  While that sumac (staghorn sumac) is not the same sumac I used in the recipe, it is a near cousin.  I took a bit to taste and it was not exactly the same, but close.  This flavor was much more refined and complex, more tart than sour, with a fruity undertone.  Being a former cook and wannabe chef, I am a big fan of tasting not only the ingredients, but also the portions of the recipethroughout the process of cooking a dish and the stuffing was fantastic.  The onion had softened nicely and imparted a sweet undertone to the meat mix, while the higher end tart/sour flavors of the sumac complimented the sirloin.  There was a nice finish to the bite with the toasted pine nuts as well.

The next step listed was to grind the lamb twice.  I used lamb blade chops rather than a lamb roast or loin, so I deboned the chops, then ran them through the food processor (I don't have a grinder and while it is always fun buying new kitchen equipment, I can't see multiple uses for a grinder and I share Alton Brown's view on single use kitchen equipment).

I then ran the bulgur through the food processor because the recipe called for fine bulgur and in my hunt for ingredients, I was only able to locate "bulgur", which didn't look so fine!  I then added the chopped onion and spices and as per the recipe kneaded the mixture for about five minutes until it became a pliable, somewhat uniform paste.

Kibbeh, meat stuffed meatballs in essence, require a bit of technique to put together.  The recipe made 16 meatballs and it took me at least five to get the hang of the stuffing.  One of the primary elements is a bowl of water that I would periodically dip my hands in to keep the mixture moist.  I took about 1/4 cup of the lamb  mixture and formed a ball, then inserted my index finger into the center and slowly pressed the sides and bottom of the meat ball into a thin walled cup, fixing tears in the walls by wetting my fingers and pressing the sides of the tears together.  Sort of like a funky smelling play doh.  I filled the hollow that I formed in the lamb with the beef mixture, then pressed the sides edges together while pushing down gently on the filling, sealing the edges with a bit of water.  Once I got into a rhythm, the process was kind of calming.  The downside of handling raw spiced meat for that long though was that it took a few hours to get the smell out of my hands and lamb fat seems to be very difficult to wash off.  It would probably make a good waterproofing agent.  I tell you, if my wedding ring fell of once it fell of 10 times.

 As I rolled and stuffed I heated six cups of canola oil in a dutch oven.  I didn't have the opportunity to purchase a fry thermometer, so I defaulted to a comparison that I knew during my days as a prep cook at Bennigan's.  I grabbed a tortilla shell from the fridge, cut it into wedges and put some into the oil when it came close to what I thought would be 375 degrees.  Remembering how the tortilla chips I prepped reacted to the oil, when I got close to the approximate cook time that I used to expect (about a minute) I figured the oil was close enough.  Working in batches I cooked the kibbeh.  I placed 4 of the meatballs into the oil, after two minutes I turned them across the bottom of the oven from left to right, then put 4 additional meatballs in.  I cooked the flipped meat for two more minutes, then removed them with a slotted spoon and placed them on a paper towel lined plate to drain.

 As per the serving instructions, I plated with yogurt drizzled with olive oil and a sprinkle of sumac.  I cut open one of the meatballs to sample and found the first bit fantastic.  The tart and semi-sweet filling was a soft texture, mixed in with the bulgar/lamb shell, which had a firmer, almost crunchy texture which was complimented by the sour tang of the yogurt.  I had to eat two, just to make sure they were "consistent".  From start to end, the entire process took me 2 hours.  Because I was not sure of how long the recipe would take me to prepare, I made it during the day knowing that I would refrigerate them and re-heat them for dinner.

My Kibbeh

Example from Saveur Magazine

My wife is my has undertaken a portion of the challenge with me, having agreed to taste every recipe that I make.  Growing up, her family of seven were purely meat and potatoes family, every night, without much exception or a whole lot of international influence (save the holiday traditions that her grandparents brought from Eastern Europe).  Not that I was an adventurous eater as a kid - the majority of my childhood meals were casseroles that I put into the oven when I got home from school.  Heck, I thought everything was cooked for an hour at 350 degrees for the first ten years of my life.  My wife also has an aversion to condiments with the exception of BBQ sauce, but I'm sure that will come up over the course of the blog.
 
I was hesitant with giving my wife the kibbeh (I tried to get the kids to taste them...didn't get far), but served it with peas and brown rice.  She enjoyed it, especially the different textures that it involved.  She wasn't a huge fan of the yogurt, but on a scale of 1-10, she gave it a 6.5/7.  Not too shabby.

A few things that I would do differently for this recipe:

• Use ingredients as they are listed in the recipe - You can see in the comparison pictures of my kibbeh and the magazine picture, that the bulgur is kind of poking out of mine.  They look like porcupine balls.  If I had used fine bulgur, this may not have happened.
• Don't overcook the meat - I may have overcooked the stuffing.  It was not as juicy as I expected it to be and definitely didn't have the same color as the example, which leads me to...
• Buy a fry thermometer - a cook is only as good as the tools that he uses.  I may have been frying the kibbeh at 450 degrees for all I know.
• Don't expect the recipe to hold up after re-heating.  Don't get me wrong, they are still good (I've been eating them for two days now) and the flavors have only combined more since I made them, but they dry out in the microwave and seem to be missing some sort of sauce.

A few things that I have learned about the process:

• I need to find the ingredients for the more complex recipes over the course of a few weeks, rather than spending five hours hunting around Western New York for one ingredient.  Of course - now that I have the number for Super Bazaar - it will be my first call every time.
• I need to pace recipes out by "difficulty".  I need to complete a recipe every 3 days and I need to make sure I don't get caught with a whole bunch of difficult recipes in at the end, or I won't finish within my given time frame.

 I'm interested in experience that others have had with kibbeh and with cooking international cuisine in your home.  Please use the comments for any tips or tricks!  Any help is always appreciated.

 One down, one hundred to go. 

Next:  Senate Bean Soup

Creating a Plan of Attack - or "How Many Onions Do I Need?"

Over the past five days I've been working on my plan of attack for my self inflicted 101 Recipe Challenge (as inspired by Saveur Magazine's October Issue - see original post here).  Should I just run at it, should I start buying crazy ingredients willy nilly (which is a technical term, or so I'm told) or should I actually do some planning?

My first step was to take a look at the time that it took to cook each recipe and the number of ingredients that each requires in order to start a scratch schedule for cooking these delicacies.  I gave each recipe a base of 20 minutes for prep and non cooking work, then added the actual cook time and in some cases marinading, proofing or soaking time.  When combining these times with the number of ingredients, I think I can determine if the recipe is a "weeknight" recipe (Schnitzel a la Holstein - Recipe #34, 10 ingredients, 30 minutes) or a "weekend project" (Adobo, Philippine Pork Stew - Recipe #68, 9 ingredients, 11 hours) or "Why does this take so dang long?" (Sauerbraten - Recipe #47, 13 ingredients, 5 days and 3 hours).

I'm currently in the middle of my second step, inventory management.  I am cataloging ingredients for each and every recipe with the thought that I might be able to save some time and money if I can purchase ingredients in bulk, or possibly purchase perishable ingredients in a larger quantity, then prepare multiple recipes that use that ingredient within the period of usability.  In the case of the spices, I might be able to purchase the exact quantity needed for all recipes it will be used for, rather than have a pound of Chinese five spice powder sitting in my cupboard for the next 3 years.

Though I'm only about a third of the way through the recipes, I've found some things interesting so far:

• Almost half of the recipes thus far use onions - if the percentage goes through to the end, I'll use over 40 onions during the entire process.  (Think that's bad - using the same logic, I could be using over 30 hard boiled eggs...yuck).
• I don't remember 7th grade Home Ec as well as I thought I did.  I've created a conversion chart cheat sheet on measurements in order to make the tallying of ingredients standardized.  BTW- if you didn't know, there are 16 Tbsp in a cup.
• I know spices better than I thought I did. I've only had to look up a few spices, and there was only one that I have not known anything about.  Actually, I think the actual phrase I used was "What the hell is Asafoetida (it's a dried latex from a root found in Afghanistan and India)?"

I will continue to inventory the ingredients, hoping to pick a deadline for my challenge and start actually cooking next week.  The goal I set in my first post was to begin cooking by September 22.  Why am I waiting so long until I cook?  Two reasons.  First, I feel that if I take the time to plan this well, there is a much better chance that I not only finish, but that I will finish within my stated timeline.  Second, I asked my wife to pick the inaugural recipe for the challenge and while I might have picked a layup recipe (Chocolate Egg Cream  - Recipe  90, 3 ingredients, 5 minutes), she picked Kibbeh (Beef and Bulgar Wheat Meatballs - Recipe 11, 18 ingredients, 60 minutes) and I want to make sure that my first recipe is not a fiery train wreck, or at least if it is a train wreck, that it will be a tasty one.

Go Pack Go!

Eat at Shoe's - The Beginning

Over the past few months my job has taken a toll on me.  Stress, constant work, long days and nights have worn me out - body and soul.  In addition to wearing me out, it has worn out a few friendships, my family life and completely disconnected me from any activity that I have enjoyed as a hobby in the past.

During the past weekend, I took some time and thought about things I enjoy and activities that I might consider stress relief.  I wanted to do something that I enjoy, that I could share with family and friends and that might challenge me and put both my family and I out of our comfort zone and help us explore new things.  As luck, or divine intervention would have it (if you want to be melodramatic), I came across an incredible idea.

On Monday the October issue of Saveur Magazine came in the mail and gave me a great idea.  In celebration of their 150th issue, they have compiled 101 Classic Recipes from the past 149 issues in one fantastic edition.  The recipes span courses (appetizers, soups and stews, main dishes, sides, desserts) and many cultures, but all of the recipes can be considered staple dishes in their respective cuisines.  I thought that it would be fun and relaxing to maybe try a few of the recipes, daydreaming a bit as I looked through the first few pages.  The further I got into the issue though, the more intently I read.  It seemed that at the turn of every page I was thinking, "ooh, I'd like to try that" or "wow, that looks fantastic".  Then the question came to me - what would it take to make all 101 of these recipes?  Of course it could be done, but could I do it?  I have a bit of culinary background (8 years working my way through high school and college in kitchens...OK, Hooters and Bennigans, but still kitchens) and I certainly have a love of food.  This kind of effort might also address some of the other things I am looking for in a "hobby" or off season activity.  I find cooking extremely fulfilling and relaxing and if I'm looking to expand the horizons of my household (wife and 5 year old twins) a big bowl of Saag Paneer or Schnitzel a la Holstein will do that.

My Inspiration - Saveur, October 2012

I've also been thinking about some kind of writing project.  I've always wanted to be a writer (I dream of novels) but have not written anything significant in over 10 years.  I've started and abandoned three blogs in the past three years and, well - you may be reading the beginning of #4.  But it seems to me that this project gives me the opportunity to fulfill me a bit on a few levels.  Writing project, stress reliever, challenge, a way to present new foods and cultures to my family and hell, maybe event give me a reason to invite a few friends over for dinner.

It may be a rough ride, but I'm committed to riding it out.  I originally gave myself the deadline of May 1, 2013 to finish the challenge, but I'm not sure about that now.  I need to objectively look at the recipes, figure out the challenging ones and the easy ones, pace them over the course of the next few months and also pace my budget - there are some freaking expensive ingredients.  Not to mention that some of the items in the recipes are seasonal or hard to come by in Buffalo, NY.  I will develop criteria that I will hold myself to, simple, but strict.  I will write about the process of developing the challenge, the shopping for, cooking of and enjoyment (hopefully) of the dishes and the reaction from those that I cook for.

I realize that this is not a new idea - Julie Powell is probably the most famous example of a cooking challenge blog, working her way through all 524 recipes in Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking (which makes my 101 recipes look bland in comparison), but if I can get through this, make some good food, revitalize my joy of cooking, get my kids and wife to try some new things and maybe entertain a few people with my random thoughts - then I will be very satisfied (and very surprised).

So what's next?  I have to come up with criteria for the challenge, a timeline, a method of deciding what recipes to make and when (odds are, weekdays will be easy recipes or American cuisine and weekends will be the more challenging recipes - Djaj Mqualli anyone?).

My first goal is to have the criteria complete and the challenge begun by Sunday - September 22nd.  Hey now - that's a good idea - ending each post with a goal for the next step in the challenge.  Interesting.

Wish me luck!