And Now, Presenting...

...drumroll please...

Marriage of Taste (!!!!!)

(cue band music, drop confetti, applause)

The contributing finalists in this friendly competition will receive a 6 oz. brick of Scharffen Berger Fine Artisan Dark Chocolate (Perfect for Baking) in their choice of 62 or 70% cacao. So Lori J. (Food with Flair...it is, rather!) and Joan M. (Kibbe et al...simultaneously cute and intelligent-sounding!), I'll be in contact with you to find out which % you'd prefer...If you need ideas on what to do with your newly acquired chocolate, check out www.epicurious.com or www.scharffenberger.com. Good stuff over there!



And now, dear readers, I have a confession to make. I feel quite sheepish as I write, and as though a fair-blogging rulebook should be thrown at me. You see, as you may have noticed, there were only two finalists awarded with chocolate, and as you will no doubt recollect, there were five distinct entries in the poll (audience murmurs, putting 2 + 2 together). Here's what happened: the Scientist and I were discussing good blog names one night before the competition began, and we both decided to enter it ourselves, just to see...and the entry which won the popular vote was, er, mine! And I didn't even vote for it! My husband says I'm weird for being upset that my own entry won, and I have to agree, in a weird sort of way. But he's used to it now, I think. Or at least, he's getting used to it. And I love him for it. So since tomorrow is his birthday, I'll whip something chocolaty up for him as his prize. As for me, well, I've got this newly-re-christened blog, I've got the Scientist, and *hopefully* you'll all keep reading, and that's more than enough for me.

Kubba, Unadorned

This is a large recipe which can either serve 12 hungry people or be frozen for later use.

Outer shell
6 cups basmati rice
2 pounds 93% lean ground beef
2 Tbsp. water
2 teaspoons salt, or more to taste
1/8 - 1/4 teaspoon black pepper

Soak rice overnight, then drain. In a food processor, grind rice until it is the consistency of coarse sand. Continue to blend while adding ground beef, 1/2 cup at a time, until it is well mixed and starts to stick together. Add salt and pepper, then adjust to taste.

Divide and shape the shell into into 60 or more balls of equal size.

Filling
1 pound 80% lean ground beef
1 medium onion, finely chopped (volume by cup)
1 teaspoon 7-spice powder*
1/2 -1 teaspoon salt

Assembly
Hollow out the balls of shell, creating pockets for the filling. Tuck a teaspoon of filling into each shell and close smoothly. Drop into boiling sauce of your choice and cook until kubba rise to the top, then at least 5 minutes more. Avoid over-boiling kubba so they don't break apart in the sauce.



Enjoy!

*Purchase in Middle Eastern markets. Can be substituted for a mixture of cumin, allspice and cloves.

Kubba Yachni

In the litany of kubba varieties, this one is our absolute, hands-down favorite. It's also known as kubba hummus, since chick peas are the defining ingredient. The sauce is a rich but light-colored lamb broth with tender, delicious chick peas, seasoned simply with onion, salt, and pepper. Mama showed me how to do this in April of '06 when we visited my in-laws in the Middle East. Since then, I've interviewed her, Aunty Seta and Aunt Suad at length about what goes in and what stays out, then gone out on a limb and experimented on my own. So far, according to the Scientist, this version is closest to the way it's supposed to be. Surprisingly (or not surprisingly, I can never be sure) around here, we prefer traditionalism to fusion. Go figure. Anyhow, let's get cooking!

Kubba Yachni
1 cup dry chick peas
9 cups water
1 lb. lamb shoulder with bone, fat trimmed
1/8 tsp ground black pepper
1 tsp salt or more to taste
1 medium onion, quartered
1 tsp onion powder

12-16 prepared kibbe (recipe here)

Soak the chick peas overnight. Drain, then place in a large stock pot with fresh clear water, lamb and onion. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer for an hour or so.

Add salt and pepper and simmer another 10 minutes. Taste broth and adjust seasonings.

Return to a full boil, drop in the kibbe (about 12 at a time), and cook on high until they rise to the top of the pot, usually about 10-20 minutes, depending on their size. Boil for at least 5 more minutes, until the kibbe are fully cooked.

Accompany with a green salad and raw white onions. Serves 3-4.

Good cooks'll tell ya
Add salt to beans (chick peas and the like) after they're completely cooked. Otherwise, they just won't soften, even after hours of boiling. I think it has something to do with osmosis. Ask a biologist. Hmmm...speaking of biologists, I think I'll call my sister Grover (not her real name)!

P.S. If you prefer a leaner broth, make the sauce the day before and refrigerate it overnight. Before boiling the kubba, skim off the fat and re-trim the lamb.

Contest, continued.

Hi people! Thank you all so much for contributing your funny, interesting, erudite, and just plain clever entries. I had so much fun reading them that I think I will have contests all the time. Some of the entries were so funny I laughed until it was probably medicinal, so thanks. Really! But I found that while I enjoyed reading all your entries, I liked so many of them that I couldn't decide which one to pick. So, um, will you help some more? Just vote for your favorite title at the polling place on the left. Anyone can vote, just do it!

And by the way, if your entry appears in the poll, you will receive a runner-up prize for sure, and maybe the super-cool grand prize!

Daube!

Is that you, Homer?



After tasting my last pot roast, my Main Squeeze said, with a faraway look in his enormous brown eyes, "You know, you could learn daube...the flavor is different, but the consistency is the same." Such an insight couldn't go unheeded, and my in-laws were coming for the holidays, so I had my mission. But first I had to learn how to spell it. This recipe is Iraqi, and as Mama pointed out..."nobody makes this but Iraqis!" but the spelling of the word is French. I investigated to make sure I didn't call a pie a cake, and since a "daube" by definition is a stew made of red meat, I'm pretty sure I got it right. However, unlike this recipe, the French ones added veggies and the like to the pot.

A few tactical notes before beginning: One of my favorite places to get fresh, good quality leg of lamb is at a small local meat market, often located inside Middle Eastern grocery stores. The butcher will reserve a leg of lamb for me if I call ahead, and will trim much of the excess fat (a time consuming process) while I wait. The bummer is that you have to pay for the pre-trimmed weight, so shop around to get a good value. Beef is much more economical, but I'm still searching for a good way to get a lean piece of beef that will hold up to the long cooking time and that includes bone and marrow. Suggestions?

Add salt after the daube has boiled for an hour, which will enable it to tenderize properly. Add the tomato paste when there is about an hour before serving. I think adding the tomato paste towards the end helps keep the tomato flavor intact.

Iraqi Daube

Ingredients
4-5 lbs. leg of lamb with bone, cut by the butcher into 2-pound hunks, or 4-5 lbs. beef pot roast
2 bay leaves
1 tsp whole cloves
1/2 teaspoon whole allspice
2 cinnamon sticks
1/2 tsp cardamon seeds
1/4 tsp whole pepper corns
1 whole head of garlic, peeled
1 4 oz. can tomato paste
salt to taste

Roll call: Lamb, bay leaves, cinnamon sticks, cardamon, black peppercorns, whole allspice, cloves, a head of garlic, salt, and tomato paste (Tomato Paste was absent on picture day)

Wash and trim excess fat and silver membrane from the leg of lamb.

With a long, thin, sharp knife, gouge a deep hole into the meat for each garlic clove you'll later insert. Arrange pieces of lamb in dutch oven. Shown here is a pressure cooker, but we didn't pressurize this recipe. I suspect this would be a great crock pot recipe, and will post and update after trying.

Fill the pot with water to within 1 1/2 inches of the top of the meat. Cover and bring to a boil. Remove pot from heat, discard water, set the lamb aside, and scrub the scum out of the pot. Mama chooses to do this, despite some people's assertions that it weakens the flavor of the lamb. I initially was on the side of NOT throwing out the first boil, but after tasting the final product, decided the flavor was plenty fantastic, and there indeed was less meat scum to deal with.

Meanwhile, peel 9-10 garlic cloves.

After discarding the water, return the meat to the pot and push the garlic down into the knife holes made previously. Widen the holes if necessary.

Put the spices and the rest of the garlic into the pot, cover, boil hard for about 1 hour, then add salt.

Simmer for another hour.

Add tomato paste and simmer 1-2 more hours until you're ready to eat.

Serve hot over basmati rice with salad. Note: when eating Iraqi daube, there's nothing wrong with partaking of the delicate juiciness of marrow and cartilage, that is, if you're lucky enough to get your hands on a piece of the bone!

Serves 6-7.

True confession: when it came time to eat the daube, we dove in like little piggies before taking any photos. So the photo you see at the top is from my second try.

Daube is coming...

...and it's good! If you like pot roast and Middle Eastern flavors, you'll love this daube. Come again in a few days, and in the meantime, if you've any inclination, jump into the contest below. Cheers!

CONTEST: NAME THAT BLOG!

This blog needs a better name than what it currently has, don't you think? To the person who comes up with a name that captures the essence of what's going on around here, in 3 words or less, there's a prize in it for you, and you'll probably like it. It's somewhere between shoelaces and a Ferrari in value. WOO HOO! This is my first contest ever, and it's success is totally dependent upon the good graces of my friends and family, so I'm sublimely confident that the new title will be worlds better than the old one. I've been hatching the idea for this blog for a couple of years, so I'm excited to see where it will go...take me or leave me, I'll be here, doing my thing.

How to enter
Comment on this post. Restrictions: 3 words or less, and family friendly. Simple, huh?

Deadline
This contest will close on Sunday, January 13, 2008, at 6:00 pm eastern time, so think, and imagine, and post your entries here! And thanks in advance!

Check back next week to see if you won (and remember, you've gotta be in it to win it) and I'll get your contact info so I can send you (yes, maybe you!) your very cool prize.