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Middle Eastern kubbe is a holiday favorite

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  • Middle Eastern kubbe is a holiday favorite

    courier-journal.com
    Friday, April 9, 2004

    Middle Eastern kubbe is a holiday favorite

    By SARAH FRITSCHNER
    [email protected]
    The Courier-Journal
    "The epitome of honest country cooking, (kibbeh) satisfies deep down as few
    other foods can. Preparing and eating this perennial favorite is not only a
    hallowed tradition; it is a universal addiction!"

    - Sonia Uvezian

    "Recipes and Remembrances from an Eastern Mediterranean Kitchen."
    (University of Texas, 1999)

    Kubbe's mixture has been called "the masterpiece of the Middle Eastern
    table." The beef is made many different ways.

    Photo by PAM SPAULDING,
    The C-J
    When A.J. Thomas' father moved to Louisville from Lebanon, he brought with
    him a deep marble mortar of sorts, what would be called a jurn in Lebanon.
    It was the traditional tool for pounding lamb or beef into a paste with
    finely grated onion, salt, pepper and cinnamon. The meat was mixed with
    bulgur - cracked wheat that had been cooked and dried - after it was soaked
    in ice water.

    The mixture has been called "the masterpiece of the Middle Eastern table,"
    says Paula Wolfert in her book, "The Cooking of the Eastern Mediterranean"
    (Harper Collins, 1994). It is referred to as kibbeh, kibbee, kubbe, kubba,
    kofte, koupas and keufteh, depending on where you come from - Cyprus to
    Armenia - and how your original language has been Americanized.

    Thomas pronounces it kubbe (kuh-bee) and grew up in Louisville eating it as
    the main course of Sunday dinner.

    For these Sunday meals, the mixture wasn't cooked. In those pre-E. coli
    0157:H7 days, people of Eastern Mediterranean descent ate raw beef and lamb
    regularly.

    Many still do, says Thomas, co-owner of A. Thomas Food Service, who goes to
    great pains to make a kubbe-friendly beef available to those who want to eat
    raw kubbe, French steak tartare, Sicilian insalata di carne cruda or who
    just enjoy a hamburger cooked rare.

    Though Thomas says, "we can't say that it's safe to eat raw," the beef they
    use for kubbe has been ground with special precautions (the federal
    government recommends cooking all ground meat to the well-done stage).

    At Thomas' business, the beef round is trimmed of its surface meat, which is
    discarded, exposing the inner, sterile part of the muscle. This beef is the
    first ground in the morning, on equipment that was cleaned and disinfected
    the night before. All the processing is done in a refrigerated room, and
    completed by the same trained personnel who started the process. Then it is
    vacuum-packed and chilled and sold only to people who have ordered it so
    there are no leftovers.

    Many local Lebanese of his generation rarely serve raw kubbe for Sunday
    dinner these days, according to Thomas, but "a lot of people will buy this
    meat for holidays." He sells a lot during the winter holidays - Thanksgiving
    and Christmas - and today, many people will pick up orders to serve at
    Easter dinner.

    Easter dinner at the Thomases' will be pot luck and involve "probably just
    the family," says Thomas, "40 or 50 people." Kubbe will be a side dish,
    along with traditional Lebanese stuffed squash, lima beans and rice. Then,
    he says, they'll set up grills outside and cook ribs and leg of lamb.

    Kubbe is made hundreds of different ways, and it is often cooked. Wolfert
    has 50 variations in her cookbook (all cooked), and Uvezian includes an
    entire chapter in both her Eastern Mediterranean book and "The Cuisine of
    Armenia" (Harper & Row, 1974).

    Thomas' family makes it one way. To every 1 pound of kubbe meat, which is
    seasoned with finely minced onion, salt, pepper and cinnamon, his mother
    adds 1 cup of bulgur that has been soaked in ice water and squeezed dry.
    Traditionally, the meat would have been pounded in the jurn, but now the
    family uses finely ground beef.

    "It's all a timing thing with kubbe. It's the last thing you mix before you
    eat," says Thomas.

    For more information on specially processed beef, call A. Thomas Food
    Service at 253-2000.

    Is there a food or cooking ingredient you love? Tell us! Write: Sarah
    Fritschner, The Courier-Journal, P.O. Box 740031, Louisville, KY 40201-7431.
    Or e-mail [email protected].

    Online: Ask Sarah a question at courier-journal.com/sarah
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