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Meat Monday: Kibbeh Bil Sanieh + Nostalgic Food

July 25, 2016 By Lauren

pine nuts

Lately, I’ve been thinking a lot about nostalgic food, what it means when we eat something that’s linked to a cultural experience, a specific place or person.

There’s this study that was conducted more than 10 years ago that I often turn back to. In essence, it tested the nutritive value of nostalgia, of pleasure in food, in eating.

A group of Swedish women and a group of Thai women were given two meals (one, traditionally Swedish, the other traditionally Thai) with the same nutritional content of iron and then tested to see how much iron they’d absorbed from each meal.

This study was conducted when the idea that “a calorie is a calorie” was huge (which I suppose, in some circles, still is), and I imagine that their findings were, at the time, a revelation.  The Swedish women absorbed only half the amount of iron from the Thai meal as the Thai women and vice versa.

But it didn’t end there.  Both meals were placed in a blender and each group was given a blended version of their traditional meal.  Once again, absorption rates were far lower than when they’d eaten the meal as they remembered it and when it was, most likely, beautiful (because can we all just admit that blended is not nearly as beautiful as un-blended [which is why all sorts of berries and bee pollen are added to the tops of smoothie bowls, yeah?]).

This study is still fascinating to me for 2 main reasons.

#1: Nostalgic foods, comfort foods do more than just nourish our weary souls; they increase the absorption of nutrients that nourish us in a very tangible way.

#2.  The lattice-crust, the edible wildflower, heck, even the parsley garnish.  These little touches that make our meal more beautiful also make our meal more nutritious.  Turns out there’s a deeper calling to make our food beautiful than impressing our dinner guests or instagram followers.  (That being said, I know this dish isn’t *technically* the most beautiful [it is essentially a meat-pie, after all], but the pine-nuts and sage-leaves and pretty pattern do help).

bahart meat kebbeoven

Which brings me to kibbeh, specifically kibbeh bil sanieh which is essentially meat and pine nuts in a meat and bulgur shell.  Kibbeh is an incredibly nostalgic food for me.  Growing up with an Iraqi grandmother she always seemed to have a pie plate of it in her fridge, which we often ate cold and with a side of torshi.

I don’t have my grandma’s recipe for kibbeh, sadly, but this version comes pretty close.  For those w/o deeper ties to middle eastern culture, perhaps you’ve tried other kinds of kibbeh — football shaped and fried seems to be the most ubiquitous –braise those in tomato sauce and you’ve got a traditional Iraqi preparation, though one I don’t ever remember my grandma making.

I’ve been wanting to recreate her version of kibbeh for a while now, as for me, it’s a perfect Summer food, when you want to reserve turning on your oven on for fruit pies and the like.  You can make it at the beginning of the week and you can keep it in the fridge and bring it along on picnics for days after (I’d say at least 3), or you can even freeze half of it for those Summer nights when a dinner-game-plan has fallen by the wayside.

kebbeh plate

Kibbeh Bil Sanieh

For the baharat (adapted slightly from Ottolenghi’s Jerusalem):

Ingredients:

  • 1 teaspoon coriander seeds
  • 1 small cinnamon stick, cut into shards
  • 1/2 teaspoon cloves
  • 2 teaspoons cumin seeds
  • 2 teaspoons cardamom puds
  • 1/2 whole nutmeg grated

Directions:

Grind everything together in a mortar and pestle or spice grinder.  Store in sealed glass jar.

For the dough:

Ingredients:

  • 1 and 1/2 cup bulgur wheat, soaked overnight and drained thoroughly the next day
  • 700g ground grass-fed beef
  • 2 large yellow onions, cubed
  • 2 tablespoons baharat
  • 1 teaspoon Celtic sea salt
  • handful of sage leaves

For the filling:

Ingredients:

  • knob ghee
  • 1 large yellow onion, minced superfine
  • 1/2 cup beef bone broth
  • 500g ground grass-fed beef
  • 1 tablespoon baharat
  • sprinkle Celtic sea salt
  • 1/2 cup pine-nuts

Directions:

  1. Make the dough first, as it should chill for at least 2 hours in the fridge.  Add cubed onions to a food processor and process until the onions start releasing their juices.  Add beef, baharat, salt and bulgur to processor and process until everything comes together in a pale-colored, paste-like dough.  Cover and chill in the fridge.
  2. On medium heat, toast the pine nuts until golden brown.
  3. While pine nuts are toasting, heat big skillet on medium-heat and melt ghee.  Add onion and pinch salt and let cook for a few minutes.
  4. Add beef, salt, bone broth and baharat and cook until everything is browned.
  5. Turn off heat and mix in pine-nuts, reserving a few for the topping.
  6. Set aside meat mixture and let cool.
  7. Start the crust:  separate your dough into two even halves.  Use a little bowl of cold water to dip your hands while molding the bottom crust (it will make it easier to shape the crust).
  8. Add filling.
  9. For the top crust: Grab little pieces of dough and mold into a ball.  Press the ball flat between your palms and place it atop the meat filling.  You’ll work like this for the top; almost like patchwork, patching the little flat pieces together until they completely cover the filling.
  10. Score your kibbeh — here is a lovely illustration.
  11. Press your thumb into the center of the pie down to the pan.  Add a little olive oil to a bowl and use a brush to make an oil-wash on the top of your kibbeh.  I made a pattern w/ pine-nuts and sage leaves on mine; get creative, go wild!
  12. Bake in oven at 180C for 30-40 minutes, or until kibbeh is browned and crust is cooked through.
  13. Serve w/ fattoush, torshi and cooked greens.

 

Filed Under: Animal, Beef, Dinner, Meat Monday, Recipes, Seasons, Summer Tagged With: beef, dinner, Iraqi food, lunch, meat monday

A Beef with Beef-Broth + a Recipe

January 18, 2015 By Lauren

barebonesI’ve got a bone to pick with you, bone broth.  With a feature in the NY Times, a top position on many a “What’s Hot” list (yes, those still exist), and the success of a broth-centric shop in the East Village (to-go cups! of broth! for 10 US dollars!), it’s safe to say that you are having a moment.  And while I couldn’t be happier that more & more folks are coming to know your nutrient-rich ways, it’s just that, I feel like, you’ve changed.  The same way kale or Tibetan butter tea have changed (yep, I said it. #nutritionistproblems): not in actual, physical make-up, but in public perception, market opinion.  You’ve gone from most humble foodstuff that just so happens to be nourishing, to Super Food, with a capital S and all the ensuing connotations.

Our vision of health tends to be indistinguishable from our vision of attractiveness, of success.  And so, just as the kale smoothies of 2012 promised to make us healthier (skinnier) and as bulletproof coffee (a translation of butter tea) is currently promising to make us healthier (not only skinnier but smarter, too), bone broth is being marketed as panacea for all that ails, and especially those more prioritized ailments like spotty skin, thinning hair, and love handles.

Bones are being valued now, an undoubtedly positive development considering that they were once categorized as “waste” and disposed of accordingly.  However, this positive development is not without its complications.  Bones are, after all, a Super Food now, and, as with kale, the price of bones seems to rise according to the level of “health-consciousness” of the community.  In Geneva, most bones (even ones from grass-fed, consciously-raised cows) are free.  In Vancouver, a pound of bones (and not necessarily marrow or meaty ones) could cost up to 12 Canadian dollars.  Thus, (in a profoundly ironic turn of events) bone broth becomes a food, not of economy, but of privilege (10 dollar to-go cups!).  This is exclusionary and just not cool.

Now, don’t get me wrong.  I love bone broth.  I more than love it.  I L-U-R-V-E it. (See this love letter detailing why).  Nothing brings me more joy than converting the uninitiated to the way of the bone.  I truly believe it plays an important role in a balanced, nourishing diet, as well as in a more sustainable system of animal husbandry.  Coincidentally, it’s also delicious and the addition of broth to something as simple as a pot of rice is nothing short of miraculous.

I’m just wary of our tendency to position certain foods within a kind-of exalt/abase cycle (See: soy, agave nectar, wheat bran, etc.).  Firstly, because it’s exhausting.  Secondly, because every person’s dietary needs are different according to their lifestyle, their physical, mental and spiritual constitution, and their geographic location.  And thirdly, because I believe that in order to really heal what ails us–yes, even love handles and spotty skin–we need to bring nourishment into our lives from many directions, not just from one to-go cup.

And so I leave you with my recipe for beef-broth.  One based on traditions, on creating something (a food) out of nothing (a formerly inedible substance); liquid sunshine from bare bone.

soakedboneoxtail

This broth won’t make you skinnier, or smarter or “healthier” in our entangled sense of the word.  But it will, if you let it, nourish you.  And, alongside other nourishing practices like, for example, self-love, gratitude, 64oz of water every day, interpretative dance, it can, eventually, contribute toward healing in whatever form that takes for you.

brothy

Beef Bone Broth

Notes:

The steps in making beef broth are quite similar to those in making chicken broth.  If you’re a broth beginner, I’d recommend reading through my post of chicken broth & broth-making essentials here.

As always, the goal here is to get your broth to gel.  Attending to steps #1 & #8 will ensure that all is gel-tastic.

#1.  Use cartilaginous bones.

Collagen, which is found in cartilaginous bones like the joints, neck, head and feet, renders gelatin.  For beef broth, if I can get my paws on one, I use a portion of a calf’s foot.  If not, other cartilaginous bones work (almost) just as well.

#2.  Use bones with some meat on them.

This won’t affect the gelatin content of your broth, but it will increase its flavor immensely.  I usually use a small portion of oxtail, as it can be quite meaty and is less pricey than ribs or the like.

#3.  Use marrow bones.

This also won’t affect the gelatin content of your broth, but it will add many nutritious delights.  Marrow is an excellent source of omega 3 fatty acid, which is essential for brain-health, of the amino acid glycine, which helps make and repair proteins, and is a complete form of vitamin A, which is an important catalyst for many, many biochemical processes and a powerful antioxidant.

#4.  Add vegetable scraps (if you have them) or even whole vegetables.

Bone broth is a great way to make use of kitchen “waste”–onion skins, garlic skins, ends of carrots, potato peelings.  If you’re making broth weekly, you can store these in the fridge.  Otherwise, freeze them for later use.

Whole cloves of garlic, halved onions, halved potatoes all add flavor to your broth.

#5.  Place the bones (except the meaty ones) in a large stockpot.  Fill to the top with cold water and 1/4 cup of apple cider vinegar.  Let sit for an hour.

The vinegar helps to draw out the minerals from the bones.

#6. While the other bones are soaking, brown your meaty oxtail bones in the oven.

This will add complexity to your broth’s flavor.  I usually do this at around 400F for 15 minutes.

#7. Add meaty bones to the pot.  Turn heat on medium-high.  When the liquid starts to roll, turn down heat immediately to low. At this point, there will be a good amount of foam on the surface of your broth.  Skim, skim, skim.

This foam contains surface impurities and will negatively affect the flavor of your broth.

#8.  Simmer, simmer, simmer.

I usually cook my beef broth for 24 hours +.  You can keep it cooking for up to 72 hours, but I find that this can be tricky & my broth usually gels after a good 24.

#9.  Let cool in pot, then strain and pour into sterilized glass jars.

These keep in the fridge for 4-5 days.  A layer of fat will form at the top of your cooled broth.  This helps preserve your broth and can also be used to, say, fry an onion, or cook an egg.

You can freeze your broth for later use.  Frozen broth will last indefinitely, it would seem.  I’ve experimented with freezing in glass jars, but have had inconsistent results–with the glass shattering more often than not.  I now use plastic bags, letting the broth cool completely before transferring it.

#10.  Don’t waste the meat or marrow!

You’ve just slow-cooked oxtail for 24+ hours.  Save this & use it on a sandwich, or in a taco.

Same goes for marrow.  You can spread it on bread, mix it with butter, or top a baked potato with a spoonful of it.

Filed Under: Animal, Beef, Kitchen Essentials, Recipes, Winter Tagged With: beef, bonebroth, nourishing, traditionalfoods, wapf

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