Kubbee, and Meatpies and Wine....OH MY !!!!!!!

This is my dear friend Natalie, aka "Crazy Lady", not because she is insane but because she would have to be crazy to keep up the pace in her hectic life of family, church, friends, grand kids, church, community, a full time job, church, and Dirt Cheap..........She has been promising "the girls" a Lebanese cooking demo for over a year now.....to teach us to properly prepare kubbee (aka; kibbee, cubbee, heaven in a ball) and meat pies, and the only way to learn is "hands on" because the recipe goes like this......
6# lean, lean, double ground beef that you get fresh, fresh, fresh from the Sunflower by calling D.C. the butcher and saying, "I'd like 6 pounds of Natalie's kubbee meat, please"....
He will know exactly what to do. 5 cups #2 wheat, ice water, onion, salt, pepper, allspice and cinnamon......no measurements or directions to go by, you have to go learn how to do it....and Natalie's the Kubbee Diva of the Universe (only now that Big Nat has moved up to higher ground did Baby Girl get this honor.....)


We finally settled on a night to gather and gather we did.....wine, cocktails and appetizers were first on the list of steps. We can't do anything without eating and drinking !!! We started off with a toast to the evening and our hostess....





Being Episcopal I thought the Trinity was onion, celery and bell pepper but I found out from the Kubbee Diva that the Lebanese Trinity is lean meat, onion and wheat. Add the spice and work the mixture until it is right....you take a bowl of ice and water and dip your hands into the water mixture and work the meat.....over and over until ready to place in pan, layer with filling (more meat, onion and spices cooked till very brown), then more meat on top, score and bake....or make into balls and bake or fry (we baked ours).......

The raw Kubbee must be eaten to adjust the seasoning and that is the best part. You place the raw mixture on a plate, top with the hot filling, add a dribble of extra virgin olive oil and eat with pita bread or flour tortillas......divine......









While waiting for the dishes to bake we proceeded on to make meat pies, rolled out biscuit dough with the cooked filling in the middle, crimp and bake until golden brown and serve with Lebanese cheese (like sour cream, but thicker, get at the Mediterranean grocery store)....



Delicious......by this time we are getting a bit full....... we also had heart of palm salad with red bell pepper and peppercorn ranch dressing my Big Sis brought and Natalie made her traditional salad with garlic, oil and vinegar dressing...both were wonderful................

The evening wrapped up with promises of round two demo to learn how to make Tabbouleh (wheat, mint, & tomato salad) and unleavened bread..........and more Kubbee !!!!!!!!!!

Everyone enjoyed the night immensely and we went home fat and happy !!!




The Lebanese Connection