Kubbeh: Consider Trying to Put the Yolk Inside the White After the Egg is Laid

Ein Kerem

Ein Karem is a former Arab village with cyprus and olive trees filling its stony hillside terraces.  The area is considered to be part of Jerusalem, yet it’s outside of the main part of the city, and is a very special place all its own. The town has strong Christian biblical associations and has several significant churches and an abandoned mosque. Ein Kerem is a tranquil, wooded, valley setting with homes scattered throughout.

This is where Dalia and Ezra live and where I learned to make kubbeh.

I found Dalia through a Web site called "Eat With", where home cooks open their kitchens and dining rooms to guests for a fee.  Most of the offerings have "Eat With" badges that verifies that an "Eat With" employee has verified the food quality  the venue and the chef's interpersonal skills and cleanliness.  Most of the venues are for groups and for eating only. I discussed the possibility of learning to cook Kurdish food with Dahlia and she heartily agreed.  (post script 3/22/2014: I noticed that now Dahlia's page on "Eat With" is now offering workshops in kubbeh making and most of her pictures are mine and are the same ones you see here.)

Dalia and I connected like good friends.  She’s a warm, wonderful woman, exactly my age, who immediately treated me like a member of her family.  And she loves to cook.  Her day job is located 5 minutes from my apartment so she graciously picked me up in the afternoon after work.  Her evening and weekend job is to be sure her husband, her local adult children and the two local grandchildren all eat well.  

Nana

We started our time together drinking “nana tea” made with fresh nana from her garden.  Nana, otherwise known as Moroccan mint, has a light, refreshing taste and is known to help I get throughout the intense heat of the summer.  It's delicious both hot and cold.

Dalia’s parents moved to Jerusalem from Kurdistan in 1920.  They raised their 9 children, 5 boys and 4 girls, in the Old City of Jerusalem.  

Dalia was the youngest daughter. She shared stories with me of growing up and about what Shabbat and holidays were like.  She described the respect shown to both her parents – how when her father came home from synagogue on Friday night the children were all waiting for him at the door.  And during Shabbat dinner how her mother sat like a queen at the table while the girls served the food. Dalia described her mother as an amazing cook, and even with a tiny kitchen her mother produced many wonderful meals for her large family.

Kurdistan, in contemporary times, refers to a region that combines areas of Turkey, Iran, Iraq and Syria.  Although Iraq granted Kurdistan autonomy in 1970, it is not yet considered an independent state.  However, the people of Kurdistan have their own unique culture, language and identity. Being in the hot Middle East, the Kurdish diet consists of a lot of fruits and vegetables.  Lamb and chicken are the primary meats.  

Some traditional dishes often seen in Kurdish homes are listed below. Most of them are also made by cooks of other cultures with minor modifications of their own.

Biryani  a rice based dish that includes rice, many spices and usually chicken

Yabrach – a term used to describe all different types of stuffed vegetables.  I’ve seen that term used in Sephardic communities to describe stuffed grape leaves.

Kuki – meat and/or vegetable pies

Sawarr – a traditional dish of Kurdish farmers made of wheat grain that is boiled, sundried then pounded with a mortar to get rid of the husk.  It is then crushed in a mill, boiled and served

Magluba – a dish of meat, rice and a variety of fried vegetables which is layered then turned up-side-down to fall out and spread over a large platter  (See later post "The Desert People").

Tapsi – a dish with eggplant, zucchini, green peppers and tomatoes cooked in a moderately spicy tomato sauce.

Kubbeh is a dumpling (think matzah balls) usually with a meat filling, but can also be vegetarian. It is generally served in a soup (think matzah balls again) or fried. Kubbeh is a food of many cultures and each culture gives kubbeh and its preparation its own identity.  Kurdish kubbeh soup has a bit of delicious tartness to it from lemon and is red in color from beets.  

I started making the dough while Dalia started the soup.  

Making the soup

Kneading the dough

I mixed semolina, water, a little olive oil and salt with left over challah that had been soaked in water until it was soft. I kneaded it thoroughly until it was fully combined and just the right consistency – not too wet, not too dry.

  

Once the dough was ready we divided it into 4 parts, pulled off pieces from each part a little smaller than golf balls and rolled each piece into ball. Our dough gave us about 40-45 balls.

Rolling each piece into balls

Filling the shell or dough was interesting.  Think about trying to stuff the yolk into a hard-boiled egg after it's cooked. Dalia has been doing this for so many years that she has just the right hand motions to flatten the dough balls, press in the center, add the filling, then easily and quickly wrapping the shell around the filling. 

This is the tricky part - no filling can show

Voila – you’d never know there was anything inside.  Dalia said “Kubbeh is not really that hard to make, and you can do it all in less than an hour”.  I think that’s true – when you’ve been making it your whole life.

We then added the kubbeh to the soup until they were cooked – only about 10-15  minutes.

  

Sitting outside among the beautiful flowers we ate our soup with rice and other side dishes such as eggplant, cauliflower, more beets and tahini – all made from scratch.

I’ve offered a recipe, but just as our grandmothers cooked, there were few actual measurements.  As my grandmother used to say, “just use a shit of this and a shit of that” – she really did. So Dalia and I estimated as I tried to write down a recipe.

Kubbeh Soup

Dough

A good chunk of challah – the size of about 2 fists

1 kg semolina (2.2 pounds)

a generous sprinkling of salt

about 1T olive oil

1 cup water to start

Put everything except the challah in a medium sized bowl.  Soak the challah in water until it is completely saturated and soft.   Squeeze the water out of the challah and add the challah to the rest of the ingredients.  Using your hands combine everything well and knead it until it holds together and feels firm. Add more water or semolina as necessary.  Let it rest for 20-30 minutes.

When the dough is ready knead it a little more and divide into 4 parts. Form each section into an oblong shape and pull off one small piece of dough to make a ball about ¾ the size of a golf ball.  Place each ball on a baking sheet until you’re finished.  Repeat with the remaining sections of dough.

When all the balls are made, take each one, flatten it in the palm of your hand, cup your palm  with the dough, and place a very small amount of the filling in the dough.  Here comes the fun part.  Wrap the dough around the filling completely covering the filling. Shape into balls - round or oblong.

Filling (meat)

1 onion – cut into medium dices (about ½ inch pieces)

2 cloves of garlic coarsely chopped

Generous shakes of salt and pepper

1 pound chopped lamb or beef

Saute the onions and garlic together until soft.  Add the chopped meat and salt/pepper.  Slowly brown the meat and cook until dark and fully cooked through.  Taste and add more salt/pepper as needed. 

Soup

Veggies – dice into large pieces, in various sizes.   Use the following vegetables: onions (1 med), carrots (1 large), celery (1 stalk), tomato (1-2) and beets ( 1 large or 2 medium).  Don’t leave out the beets.

About 1 T cumin (to taste)

Salt/pepper

About 1 tsp sweet paprika (to taste)

4-6 C chicken stock

Juice of 1 large lemon (2T).  Add more to taste

Put all the vegetables in the stock and add the cumin, paprika and lemon juice. Bring the soup to a boil then reduce heat to low.  Simmer the vegetables, uncovered, on until they are soft enough to pierce with a fork, but not mushy , for 20-30 minutes.  Adjust cumin, paprika and lemon juice to taste.

Place all of the balls into the soup and cook uncovered for 10-15 minutes until the dough is cooked through.   You can’t really over cook the kubbeh.  Some people like to add cooked rice to their soup.

Serve and wait for the compliments.