Cardamom and Tea

kubba hamuth

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(Jump to the kubba hamuth recipe.)

I recently had a great conversation with my friend Tony about community-centered cooking. He’s preparing for an exciting upcoming project on Syrian food and community traditions. And we talked about a dolma project I’m working on. The two subjects aren’t entirely unrelated, or as Tony put it:

“If you’re sitting down rolling dolmas with your neighbors and family, you’re bound to connect and share very intimate details, because you have all the time in the world. And that’s so beautiful.”

We covered so much ground, and whenever the topic would shift, Tony would preface it by saying, “So, I don’t know if you want to fall down this rabbit hole, but…”

And here’s the thing about me: I love falling down rabbit holes. I’m currently falling down a dolma rabbit hole right now. But I think the next one I want to fall down is kubba. Because from where I stand, I have a lot to learn.

intro to kubba / kibbeh

I mean, growing up Middle Eastern American, I know a bit about kibbeh/kubba. In case you’re not already familiar, kubba is a meat and grain dumpling. There are a ton of different varieties. Some are named after the towns they’re from, and others after the style in which they’re made. While most are dumplings, some kibbeh are baked in a tray or eaten tartare/sashimi style.

My family is Assyrian from Iraq and Syria, and we have our family specialties. My Syrian family makes kbeibat and kibbeh bil sanieh. And my Iraqi family makes kubba Halab and sometimes also kubba hamuth. But I haven’t experienced all that much outside of these.

what should this recipe be called, anyway?

So when I sat down to do a little research for this blog post, I realized that what I’ve been calling kubba hamuth is actually very different than most recipes out there. Most of them (e.g., Philip Juma’s and MidEast Chef’s) use rice or rice flour instead of wheat or bulgur. The only other recipe I found that uses bulgur is Julian’s from Assyrian Dishes. She also adds greens, in her case swiss chard, which I highly recommend trying. I spoke with Hilda Sterner, whose kubba are made with rice, and she said that she would personally call my stew kubba pirdah, but that she also knows of a version that is made partly with cream of wheat.

Kubba hamuth basically means “sour kubba,” referring to the lemony tomato stew it’s simmered in. So the most crucial thing is that it’s tangy. And while I’m tempted to spend all week obsessively researching it, I’m going to have to wait a while to fall down this particular rabbit hole. I’m looking forward to learning more about the nuances and regional variations of all the different kinds, whether fried, boiled, stewed, or baked in a pan.

But for now, while I’m busy tilting at other windmills, I’ll just leave you guys with my recipe for kubba hamuth (…or something!). This is definitely the kind of recipe that’s fun to cook as a family. So I hope you enjoy it in good company.

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kubba hamuth

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  • Prep Time: 1 hour 15 minutes
  • Total Time: 2 hours
  • Yield: 9 servings (about 55 kubba)

Ingredients

for the kubba shell:

  • 1 cup extra fine bulgur #1 (200 grams)
  • 1 pound lean ground beef (454 grams)
  • 1 teaspoon baharat
  • 1 teaspoon salt

for the kubba filling:

  • 1 pound lean ground beef (454 grams)
  • 1/4 of 1 onion, finely minced (45 grams)
  • 1/2 cup finely minced parsley (30 grams)
  • 1 teaspoon baharat
  • 3/4 teaspoon salt
  • 1 tablespoon softened butter (14 grams)*

for the stew:

  • 3 tablespoons clarified butter or olive oil (43 grams)
  • 3/4 of 1 onion (135 grams)
  • 2 jalapeños, pith removed and minced (50 grams)
  • 1/2 teaspoon baharat
  • Two 14.5-ounce cans diced tomatoes (Two 400-gram cans)
  • 3 1/2 cups stock
  • Salt to taste
  • 4 packed cups torn or coarsely chopped dark leafy greens, like kale or spinach (100 grams)
  • 3 to 4 tablespoons lemon juice (to taste)

Instructions

  1. Make the kubba shell: Soak the bulgur in a few inches of cold water for 15 minutes, then strain it through a fine mesh sieve, wringing it out with the back of a spoon for a few seconds to get rid of excess water.
  2. Combine the strained bulgur, ground beef, baharat, and salt in a food processor, and blend together for 3 minutes, until it forms a dough. The bulgur will still be a bit grainy, but it will break down slightly.
  3. Make the kubba filling: Hand-mix the ground beef, minced onion, parsley, baharat, salt, and butter, just until combined.
  4. Stuff the kubba: Wet your hands as you work to keep things from sticking. Take a level tablespoon of the kubba shell, roll it into a ball, and flatten the ball out in the palm of your hand. Take a shy tablespoon of filling, place it in the center of the flattened shell, and wrap the sides around it until it makes a sphere. Roll the sphere in your hands to smooth it. Repeat, and pace yourself as you work, so you don’t run out of the shell or filling.**
  5. Make the stew: In a stockpot or large dutch oven, place the butter or oil over medium heat for a couple minutes. Once the butter melts, add the onion and cook for about 6 minutes, stirring every minute or two, until they’re a little golden.
  6. Add the jalapeños to the stockpot, and cook for 3 minutes to soften them a little.
  7. Add the baharat, give everything a stir, and then add the diced tomatoes and stock, and season to taste with salt. Bring it to a simmer over high heat, and then add the kubba one by one, slightly flattening each ball into a disc between your palms right before you add them. Allow about 30 seconds for everything to come back up to a simmer, then cover and reduce heat to medium-low.
  8. Cook covered for 10 minutes, then gently stir everything, cover and cook for 10 more minutes.
  9. After 20 minutes total, remove from heat, add the greens,*** give everything a gentle stir, and then add the lemon juice. The greens will take about 2 minutes to cook with the residual heat. Give it a final stir right before serving.

Notes

* You can make the filling with a fattier ground beef, but I developed the recipe this way so that you won’t have to buy 2 different kinds. But if you have 1 pound lean meat and 1 pound higher fat meat, feel free to skip the butter.

** This recipe has the right ratio of filling to shell, but no worries if you have some leftover at the end. Simply make a few small meatballs with the leftover filling (or the leftover shell), and throw them right in with everything else.

*** Letting the greens coast will help it stay green instead of turning gray, but if you’re making this ahead for guests, you might want to add the greens at the last second, because it will continue to cook as it cools down. Everything else can be made ahead of time, reheated later, and the greens added at the last minute. If you’re just making this for yourself and your family, it keeps great as is, and the leftovers will be delicious. Kale in particular isn’t traditional here, but it’s fairly traditional to add some greens or other veggies to the stew, and kale is just what I had handy when recipe developing, so feel free to add your favorite veggie instead.

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preserved lemon poppy seed labneh cheesecake

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Yesterday I turned thirty-one! It doesn’t have quite the same ring to it as “thirty,” but so far, so good. For my birthday, we bought a big print of some figs for our living room wall, which makes me feel like we’re finally settling into our place. Since we moved to Hong Kong a year and a half ago, I’ve just been way too busy to spend any time thinking about decor. So our walls have been absurdly blank forever, and I have this tendency to blame it on minimalism, as if this particular look was an intentional design choice.

I mean, I’m definitely a minimalist, and I like that we’ve taken our time filling our tiny apartment with only a handful of things we absolutely love. But sometimes I use minimalism as an excuse to never make a decision, and never spend time (or money) on making our place feel like home. I’m so glad to have found a little balance. Next up, maybe a fig tree for our little balcony, or an area rug to add a little more warmth to the living room.

So yeah, fig art is definitely a highlight of my birthday week. But also, this cheesecake! I developed this recipe for my family a couple months ago, and it was a hit. It’s the perfect thing for a (shall we say…) more sophisticated birthday. It’s got that classic and familiar lemon poppy flavor, but with a little twist, since the flavor comes from preserved lemons. Lemons become much more fragrant as they ferment, and their harsh citrus notes gradually mellow as their acidity and saltiness intensify. While you usually see preserved lemons in savory recipes, I love using them in sweets, because they taste simultaneously familiar and unexpected. They’re super lemony, but not in the bright and sunny way you assume of a lemony dessert.

Preserved lemons are a little hard to track down in the US, but they’re somewhere out there, and easy enough to make at home. If you preserve your own lemons at home, be careful how much you add to this recipe, because homemade ones tend to be saltier and more flavorful than commercial ones. I had luck finding some good ones at World Market, and I know the Spice House sells them too (if you’re in Chicago, or don’t mind ordering them online). Upscale supermarkets with decent international sections often carry them (like Whole Foods). They’re not always available in Middle Eastern markets, because they’re not a staple in every region’s cuisine—they’re most commonly used in North African cuisines.

To make this recipe, it’s best not to go on a wild goose chase for the ingredients. Let the preserved lemons come to you. You’ll be walking through the supermarket one day, and—bam! You’ll see a big preserved lemon end-cap, and you’ll grab a jar, go home, and make this cheesecake, followed by lots of delicious tajine over the course of the next few weeks. But don’t be like me and the fig print—grab a bottle when you see them, and don’t let the year pass you by without this preserved lemon poppy seed cheesecake in your life.

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preserved lemon poppy seed labneh cheesecake

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  • Prep Time: 20 minutes
  • Total Time: 16 hours

Ingredients

for the graham cracker crust:

  • 12 full graham crackers (180g, 2 cups)
  • 5 tablespoons butter, melted (71 g)
  • 2 tablespoons sugar (30g)
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt (1g)

for the filling:

  • 1 1/2 pounds full-fat labneh (680g)*
  • 2 egg yolks (40g)
  • 3 large eggs (150g)
  • 1 cup sugar (200g)
  • 1/4 cup minced preserved lemon rind (35g)**
  • 2 tablespoons poppy seeds (20g)
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt, or to taste (2.5g)

for the topping:

  • 1/2 pound full-fat labneh (227g)
  • 2 tablespoons sugar (30g)
  • a little extra labneh or Greek yogurt for touch-ups (reserve about 1 tablespoon)
  • more preserved lemon rind and poppy seeds for decoration

Instructions

  1. Make the crust: Preheat the oven to 350° F convection (177° C).
  2. Finely grind the graham crackers in a food processor.
  3. Add the melted butter, sugar, and salt, and process until everything is well-blended.
  4. Lightly coat the sides of an 8 or 9-inch cheesecake round with oil or butter.
  5. Place the crumbly crust in the cheesecake round, and press it down into 1 even layer. Use a glass, measuring cup, or something else that has a flat bottom to press it compactly.
  6. Place the cheesecake round on a rimmed baking sheet and bake for 10 to 12 minutes, until it turns a little golden. Let it cool while you work on the filling.
  7. Make the filling: Lower the oven to 300° F convection.***
  8. Place the labneh in a medium mixing bowl. Add the egg yolks and slowly whisk together to completely incorporate (use a whisk, but do not whip it together—you don’t want to incorporate too much air into the filling).
  9. Add the remaining eggs one egg at a time, mixing everything together completely with each addition.
  10. Add the sugar and stir together until it all dissolves completely. Then stir in the preserved lemon rind and poppy seeds, and season with the salt (unless your lemons are super salty—see the note below).
  11. Pour into the (slightly cooled) crust and bake for about 55 minutes, just until the very center is a little jiggly. Don’t worry if it cracks a bit (it’ll get covered).
  12. Make the topping: Once the cheesecake comes out of the oven, let it sit while you make the topping.
  13. Combine the labneh and sugar, and pour over the top. Carefully smooth it out, put it back in the oven for 10 more minutes. Remove from the oven, run a knife around the sides, and leave it at room temperature for about 2 hours before covering and refrigerating overnight. If you don’t have all night, refrigerate it for at least 3 to 4 hours. Don’t worry if the edges are a little rough—you will fix it later.
  14. Once it’s chilled long enough, you can touch up the edges before removing from the pan.**** Simply add a tiny dab of labneh or Greek yogurt to any rough spots around the edges, and smooth it out a little with the back of a spoon. Wash your hands very well or wear gloves, wet your finger, and smooth out the dabs of labneh. Without running a knife around again, remove from the pan, place on a serving plate, and sprinkle with poppy seeds and sliced preserved lemons (don’t go too crazy with the preserved lemon decorations—they’re extremely flavorful, and you mostly just want them for decoration).

Notes

* I developed this recipe with store-bought labneh, but you can use homemade. Just be sure to strain it long enough (the full 12 hours, or longer) or the cheesecake might not set correctly. If you buy store-bought labneh, make sure it’s really good quality. It needs to be very thick and sour.

** See the notes above the recipe for where to find preserved lemon, and make sure there’s no garlic or savory spices in the brine (a little hot pepper’s just fine though). Commercially processed preserved lemons tend to have much less sodium than home preserved lemons, and brands vary. If you have particularly salty lemons, proceed with caution, and add them to taste instead of just adding the entire 1/4 cup. Don’t add the extra 1/2 teaspoon of salt until you’re sure your lemons aren’t too salty. This amount worked perfectly with the brand I chose, but you should use your judgment.

*** If you don’t have a convection oven, it will just take a little longer to bake all the way through. When I’ve used a conventional oven for this recipe, it’s taken about 15 to 20 minutes longer to bake through.

**** I feel like food stylists usually don’t tell you their secrets to getting a picture-perfect result, so I included my trick to getting clean edges on a cheesecake. Whenever I make cheesecake, the very top edges get all messed up when I run a knife around the sides. I’ve never found a way to avoid this. I think using parchment paper would prevent the problem, but I don’t like the crinkly look that gives the sides. But this is a super easy way to fix the problem, and it works like a charm. You can of course just serve it as is and not worry about it, but if you’re really going for it on Instagram, make sure you reserve an extra tablespoon or so of labneh for touch-ups.

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