Butter Stuffed Grilled Kibbeh with Saffron Rice & Cucumber Radish Salad

I've eaten kibbeh before and I've read quite a bit about raw kibbeh, baked kibbeh and even yogurt poached kibbeh. But this grilled version stuffed with butter that I came across in Aleppo cookbook was completely new to me and I couldn't wait to make it. It's kind of involved (well, anything that requires a food processor seems involved to me), so I made the kibbeh and stuffed them a day ahead of time and just grilled them the day of. Worked like a charm!
The texture of the kibbeh is very unique, both chewy on the outside and tender on the inside (from the butter filling). The spices complement the bulgur wheat and ground meat extremely well. I urge you to give this a try. I can see this served over or with a simple green salad too instead of the traditional rice and shirazi style salad that I chose to serve it with.

The rice is kind of a a riff on Shirin Polo, an Irani bejeweled rice dish with lots of nuts, dried fruits and herbs. This version is pretty simple. You don't have to parboil the rice and then steam it with layers of toppings to form a tahdig (bottom crust that Irani rice is well known for). It's a slightly untraditional technique but the rice truly doesn't suffer from the simpler method of cooking. Sure, there's no tahdig at the end, but the toppings more than make up for it. The paper towel steaming method used here also results in a nice fluffy long grain rice (even if you only have short-grained basmati rice....seriously, what is up with not being able to find organic, Indian-origin really long grained basmati rice? Ugh!)

The salad I served it with is very floral from the orange blossom water. To highlight the flowery nature of the salad even more, I used meyer lemons in the dressing. Meyer lemons have a much brighter and fruitier fragrance & flavor than regular Eureka lemons. The salad complements the kibbeh and the rice well and I really enjoyed sitting down to this meal :)

Recipe adapted from The Aleppo Cookbook, Marlene Matar
Makes 6-8 servings

Kibbeh Ingredients:
8 tbsp buter, cut into 16 pieces
1 tbsp fine dried mint
2 tsp aleppo spice mix (I used this recipe)
1  1/4 cup coarse bulgur wheat (250 gm)
1 yellow onion
1 tbsp aleppo spice mix
2 tsp sea salt
1 lb ground beef (or lamb)

Instructions:
Toss the butter with crushed coarse mint and aleppo spice mix in a bowl and refrigerate while you make the meat paste.
Rinse the bulgur wheat and soak in 2 cups water for 30 minutes. Drain by squeezing well in a strainer. In a food processor, puree the onion with the aleppo spice mix and salt. Add the drained bulgur wheat and process till a paste forms. You might have to do process for a few minutes, stopping in between to tamp things down. Mine never really formed a smooth paste but it seemed pretty cohesive. Add ground beef and process till a very cohesive paste forms. You might need to use a spatula in between to tamp things down again. Take this ground meat-bulgur mix into a bowl and flatten it. Using a sharp knife, cut the into 16ths. Using your hand, take each section at a time and flat it in your palm. Put one piece of butter-herb-spice mix in the middle and enclose the meat paste around it. Set it aside on a plate. Do the same for the remaining 15 sections of meat paste. Preheat a grill for 10 minutes and grill on medium for 10 minutes, turning once in between halfway.

Recipe adapted from Jerusalem, Yotam Ottolenghi & Sami Tamimi
Serves 6-8

Saffron Rice Ingredients:
40 gm butter (about 2 1/2 tbsp)
360 gm basmati rice, washed and drained well (about 1 3/4 cups)
2 1/3 cups boiling water
1 tsp salt
1 tsp saffron
3 tbsp boiling water
1 tbsp sugar
40 gm barberries (about 1/2 cup)
1 bunch dill, coarsely chopped
1/2 bunch tarragon, coarsely chopped
1 bunch chervil, coarsely chopped
60 gm roasted & salted pistachios (about 1/2 cup)

Instructions:
In a medium saucepan on medium heat, melt butter till completely melted. Add drained rice and mix so each grain is coated in butter. Add 2 1/3 cups boiling water and cover with a lid and cook on low heat for 20 minutes. In the meantime, soak saffron in 3 tbsp boiling water till the rice is done. Using some of the warm water in a small bowl, dissolve the sugar and add barberries. Let soak till the rice is done. Once the 20 minutes are up for the rice, remove the lid and pour the saffron water on a quarter of the surface area of the rice (in a corner). Put two layers of paper towels on top of the pan and put the lid back on and let sit for 10-20 minutes. Remove the white unstained portion of the rice into a serving bowl and add all the chopped herbs and most of the pistachios. Drain the barberries well and add those in too. Very carefully toss this white rice. Add the rest of the saffron stained rice and mix it in carefully so the colored rice grains are still distinguishable. Garnish with the reserved pistachios and serve.

Recipe adapted from Persiana, Sabrina Ghayour
Makes 4 servings

Radish Cucumber Salad Ingredients:
1 bunch radishes, thinly sliced (cut in half before slicing, if large)
1 english cucumber, halved and thinly sliced
1/6 of a medium red onion, sliced thinly
4 sprigs mint, leaves coarsely chopped
35 gm pine nuts, toasted (about 1/4 cup)
1 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp lemon juice
1 tsp orange blossom water
salt to taste

Instructions:
Toss together radishes, cucumbers, red onions, mint and pine nuts. Whisk (in a separate bowl) olive oil, lemon juice, orange blossom water and salt till emulsified. Pour the dressing over the salad right before serving.