Mesoamerica · Volume 02, Achiote, the Pib and the Lebanese Table
Kibi
Yucatán, Mexico (Lebanese-Yucatecan)
An illustration of the dish, not a photograph of it cooked.
- Time
- Not statedNo source states a time and the atlas has too few comparable dishes to estimate one.
- Reviewed
- Not yet reviewed from inside the tradition
- Cooked
- Not yet cooked and reported
As tradition built it
Kibi
Sold today by street vendors known as kiberos and served in Mérida's Lebanese-descended restaurants.
Ingredients
An outline, not yet a recipe: the tradition's method with its ingredients named but not weighed. Quantities are being added from sources inside the tradition, lead dishes first.
- 1kg, ground bulgur wheat, soaked a minimum of eight hours
- 1kg ground meat (pork, substituted for the traditional lamb in many family recipes)
- habanero and xcatic chile
- 2 bunches mint
- queso de bola
- ½ a cabbage, shredded cabbage salad, to serve
- 3 chiles habanero, to serve
- 6, quartered sour orange, to serve
Method
- Soak the bulgur wheat a minimum of eight hours until it swells.
- Work the swollen bulgur with ground meat, habanero and xcatic chile, mint and queso de bola.
- Shape into small patties and fry.
- Serve with cabbage salad, habanero and sour orange.
What a modern chef changes
Dehydrated bulgur, fresh-ground cheese, chinois-clarified butter
Method
- Dehydrate the soaked bulgur briefly before working it into the dough, for a firmer, more cohesive patty that holds its shape through frying rather than one that can turn pasty in the centre.
- Grind the queso de bola and mint together fresh in the spice grinder just before filling, for a sharper, less flat dairy note in the finished patty.
- Fry in clarified butter passed through a chinois, for a cleaner crust and a higher smoke point than the whole butter or plain oil most home versions use.