Kibbeh nayyeh

Ingredients

Quantities for 4 servings.

• 120 g Fine bulgur
• 500 g Freshest lamb, loin or leg, fully trimmed
• 1 piece Onion
• 1 tsp Seven-spice mix
• 1 tsp Dried mint
• 100 ml Iced water
• 60 ml Olive oil, to serve
• to taste Mint and white onion to serve
• to taste Salt and pepper

Method

1. Soak the bulgur in cold water for ten minutes, drain and squeeze it dry. Chill the bowl — everything for nayyeh must stay cold.
2. Trim the lamb of fat and silverskin down to clean muscle and cube it. Blitz with the onion to a smooth paste without letting the bowl warm up.
3. Add the bulgur, spices, mint and salt. Knead, wetting your hands with iced water, until the paste is smooth and glossy.
4. Spread the paste over a cold plate about a centimetre and a half thick, press grooves with the back of a spoon and pour the olive oil over generously.
5. Serve at once, with mint leaves, white onion wedges and flatbread. Nayyeh is not kept: leftovers are fried as patties the same evening.