Kibi

As tradition built it

Kibi

The wheat soaks at least 8 hours.

Ingredients

The kibis

• 1kg beef, minced
• 1kg ground wheat (bulgur)
• 2 bunches mint
• 1 red onion
• 2 tomatoes
• 2 eggs
• to taste salt and pepper
• 1 litre oil, for frying

The salsa

• 2 red onions
• ½ cabbage
• 3 chiles habaneros, seeded
• 6 sour oranges, juiced
• to taste salt

Method

1. Soak the wheat for at least 8 hours. Drain it in a colander and squeeze out the water. Mix it with the beef.
2. Strip the mint and chop it roughly with the tomatoes and one onion, then blend them. Add no water.
3. Work the blend into the meat and wheat with the eggs, salt and pepper, to an even paste.
4. Shape the kibis by hand, no more than about 4cm across, pointed at each end like an American football.
5. Heat the oil and fry the kibis. The deeper the oil, the more evenly they cook. Drain them.
6. For the salsa, chop the other onions, the cabbage and the habaneros fine, pour over the sour orange juice and season.
7. Serve the kibis with the salsa.

Notes

The recipe is México Desconocido's. Its kibis are beef, and the habanero goes in the cabbage salsa, not the meat. La Jornada Maya describes Yucatecan kibis with habanero, xcatik and queso de bola, and Mérida cooks post pork and queso de bola fillings, but no written recipe for that version was found. Sihuevo.mx's kibis keep the wheat moist, add garlic and serrano, and are shaped as fist sized diamonds.

What a modern chef changes

Dehydrated bulgur, fresh-ground cheese, chinois-clarified butter

Method

1. 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.
2. 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.
3. 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.