INGREDIENTS

INSTRUCTIONS

This is a yummy recipe that we use instead of meat loaf. The original
I have calls for cubed lamb or beef but I have always used a good
grade of hamburger (very lean) or ground roast. Which will work just
fine. Cover this with a cream sauce or one of the tomato cream sauces
in the spaghetti section.  Grease a shallow 12"X18" baking pan. Put a
layer of basic Kibbeh  (recipe below) smoothly and firmly over the
bottom of the pan to the  depth of 1". Cover this evenly with a layer
of stuffing. Top with a  second layer of Kibbeh slightly thicker than
the first. Score into  Diamond shapes with a sharp knife. Pour 1 cup
melted samneth (butter)  over all. Bake in moderate oven about 20
minutes or until well  browned. Serve hot or cold. Serves 8 persons.
Kibbeh is virtually the national dish of Lebanon and to call it a  meat
loaf does not quite raise it to the heights it deserves. Its
traditional preparation is dramatic. It requires a stone mortar &
heavy pestle (called the jorn & modaqqa). The meat is pounded with
rhythmic motions until it is smooth and pasty. All the neighborhood
knows the sound of kibbeh in the making.  Select the lamb from the loin
of the animal. (Or if you prefer, use  beef with very little fat, or
fat removed). Pound the cubed meat with  a teaspoon of salt in a stone
mortar with a wooden mallet. Remove  meet for mortar when it becomes
pasty. Now pound onion with a  teaspoon of salt and pepper until it is
reduced to a pulp. Combine  meat and onion and pound together until
very smooth. Wash burghul &  meat with the hands. Pound together in
mortar. Add salt to taste. Dip  mallet in icewater occasionally to keep
meat moist & smooth. Properly  prepared kibbeh must be pounded at least
an hour. Then it is ready to  be eaten as is, or cooked in a variety of
ways.  Preparation time may be shortened considerably by grinding meat
several times through fine blade of meat grinder. Grind onion twice.
Grind onions once again with meat. Combine wash burghul with
meat-onion mixture. Knead well, seasoning with salt & pepper. Grind
this mixture three times, adding a teaspoon of icewater to keep it
smooth.  Stuffing: Heat fat. Fry chopped onions in it until soft. Add
meat and  fry until lightly browned. Add pine nuts and continue frying
until  they are slightly browned and meat has lost its pink color
entirely.  Season with salt, pepper & cinnamon. Pour off excess fat.
(From Food from the Arab World Marie Karam Khayat & Margaret Clark
Keatinge, Khayat's, Beirut 1959) Parenthetical adaptations  Posted to
EAT-L Digest  by Louis Stull <lstull@EARTHLINK.NET> on Apr  13, 1998

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Nutrition (calculated from recipe ingredients)
----------------------------------------------
Calories: 755
Calories From Fat: 433
Total Fat: 51.4g
Cholesterol: 119mg
Sodium: 7088.2mg
Potassium: 1024.3mg
Carbohydrates: 25.1g
Fiber: 5.7g
Sugar: 9.2g
Protein: 54.6g