April 26, 2015 Dinner - Baked Lebanese Kibbe with Tzatziki and Greek Salad

April 26, 2015 Dinner - Baked Lebanese Kibbe with Tzatziki and Greek Salad

When I went to Sprouts this Saturday, I mentioned to the fellow I recognized in the butcher shop that last week they had sold me whole lamb shoulders for $2.29.  I asked him if there were any more of those available. 

He said, “They forced an extra 100 pounds of lamb shoulders on us last week and we dropped the price to push them out.  But I have just ground up the last of them and I can offer you two pounds of ground lamb for $2.29/lb., which is normally $7.99.” 

I said, “Great.” as he handed me two 1 lb. packages of ground lamb. 

I guess I am becoming friends with the butcher, which seems very French to me,   It also reminds me that my mother always got several extra smoked salmon fins that the delicatessen butcher used to keep for her (Smoked salmon came in whole filets in those days).  My mother liked to chew on things  and believed that it made your teeth stronger.  For example, she preferred sirloin to filet mignon because you had to chew it more (I ate a lot of sirloin in my youth).  She would chew on the salmon fins to extract that bit of meat from the tendons for the same reason.  I guess it related to her childhood on the Lower East Side.

The other half of the quixotic equation of how I chose kibbe as the entrée for this meal is that Rosemary made beef kibbe sliders for us a couple of weeks ago with pickled red onions.  Rosemary formed them into small hamburger slider shaped rounds and baked them or sautéed them. 

With my ground lamb in hand, today I decided to try to make kibbe for the first time.

I looked up recipes on the internet and decided on one by David Tanis from the NYT that looked interesting.

Here it is:

 

I called Ricardo and invited him and Cynthia for dinner.  He mentioned that their kitchen was still not completed, so I felt good about the spontaneous invitation.  I mentioned their bringing some form of fruit ice cream.  Cynthia called later and we discussed salad with the kibbe, so when they arrived at 6:00 they were carrying some romaine lettuce, a bottle of Apothic red wine.

I followed the kibbe recipe except I added a diced red bell pepper to the sautéed vegetables to give the dish some color. 

I also made tzatziki with 2 cups of yogurt, a pressed clove of garlic, juice of a lemon, and some chopped dill and fresh mint

At 5:00 we went to the garden and picked a basket full of fresh greens, mostly bibb lettuce, for the salad.

I opened my first bottle of 2013 Benton Lane pinot noir rosé as an appetizer wine for the artichokes.  Then with the entrée course I poured a bottle of the new Pierre Henri Morel 2012 Signargues Côtes du Rhône Villages that I bought for $12.74 at Total Wine.  Everyone liked the slightly sweet and fruity Rosé, but I liked the Morel red better; silky smooth and yet with that Côtes du Rhône complexity.  I guess my palate and pocket book has moved me past my former limit of $10.00 per bottle, or I am still on my exploration of all the new choices opened up by the opening of the Total Wine stores in Albuquerque.  The Uptown Total Wine store's Wine Manager, Josh, told me that Pierre Henri Morel is a superstar in French wine making. That prompted me to buy a $40.00 bottle of his Chateauneuf du Pape, so I guess I will get to decide some day how great his wine making is. In the stratosphere of great Cotes du Rhone, $40.00 is a bargain when Chateau Beaucastel runs $100.00 per bottle.   

I simmered the two large artichokes I bought at Trader Joe’s yesterday for $.99 each, for about an hour in a pot of water until the leaves were soft to the tooth.  We used the artichokes as our appetizer course, which we ate warm with tzatziki.  We dipped the artichoke leaves into tzatziki for a delicious sauce that was not as greasy as a sauce made with mayonnaise.

Then I served the Kibbe (that I had baked for about an hour with the salad dressed with a slightly creamy Greek dressing made with feta cheese crumbles, olive oil, lemon juice, and a touch to white balsamic vinegar, salt and pepper and a tsp. of crushed oregano leaves.  Cynthia liked it.

The baked Kibbe and Tzatziki were a success.  We all loved it, and Suzette thought it was a great dish because it had so much good fiber (the bulgur) baked into it, so to speak.

The baked bibbe

the onion, red pepper, pinion nut and kibbe garnish

I had made fruit salad yesterday, so for dessert I served glasses of port in our new cordial glasses I bought in Santa Fe two weeks ago with bowls of fruit salad and scoops of the Hagen Daz pineapple and coconut ice cream Cynthia and Ricardo brought.

As Suzette said, “A delicious low fat meal.”

Bon Appétit