Oven baked kibe

This recipe is for my dear friend Stephanie (fellow culinary student), she tasted it at home and wanted the recipe. Score! So here it goes.

Kibe is how we write in Brazil, but kibbeh is the Arabic name. This is a Middle Eastern dish, but very popular in Brazil. The football shaped fried version is found in every cafe in Brazil and to make it you can use the same meat “dough” that I’m giving the recipe here, fill it with cooked ground meat and fry. Serve with fresh squeezed lime juice. Awesome (what doesn’t taste better fried, right?). But the recipe here is the family-style oven baked kibe, also very common, but not in cafes, rather in family homes.

Brazilian cuisine has lots of Middle Eastern influences, as kibe or sfiha. Like Italians, Brazil had a lot of Levant, Arabic, or Lebanese immigrates.

This recipe in actually pretty light, at least my version is, because I used a lot of bulgur wheat which is a whole grain and has high fiber. If you want something more meaty, just omit some of the bulgur, no big deal. Making it with ground lamb would make this dish even better for you, because lamb meat has more omega 3 (good fat) than beef; and not just that, lamb is super tasty too. I didn’t have lamb, and of course I was too lazy to go out shopping, so I used the old-non-creative ground beef.

Tell the kids or hubbie that this is a meatloaf and the dish is sold. Nobody needs to know that has bulgur on it! You will be impressed how tasty this is.

This dish NEEDS fresh squeezed lime before serving. Or lemon, it doesn’t matter, as long as you squeeze it!

Oven baked kibe

Serves six

1 lb ground beef or lamb meat
2 cups hydrated bulgur wheat
1/2 onion
2 gloves of garlic
1/2 tablespoon dry parsley
1/2 tablespoon dry chives
1 tablespoon olive oil
1/2 juice of half lemon
Salt, pepper
Lime to garnish and serve

To hydrate the bulgur you add 1 cup bulgur, 1 cup warm water, 2 oz olive oil, 1 tb lemon juice, and salt together in a bowl, cover with plastic wrap for 10 to 15 minutes. If you still have water after 15 minutes, strain before using and let it cool.
Mix all ingredients together and bake it in a half sheet pan at 350F for 20 to 30 minutes, or until you have some color in the meat (I cheated and used the broiler for 5 minutes before serving).
Bom apetite.

Quinoa patties

This recipe is not Brazilian at all; although I think quinoa is more well known there then it is here in the US, Brazil is not Peru and quinoa is not part of our culture.
I’m posting this recipe because this is my first original recipe. I created it all by myself and I was very pleased with the results, so I decided to share it. I think my classes are working and I understand food and cooking a lot better… It’s fun!

My quinoa patties are called patties and not cakes because I think is a lot more suitable. Since every time I hear the word cake I expect something sweet and baked, these are definitely patties, not cakes!

You can make this dish next Monday and be part of the “meatless Monday” movement. I’m not actually a member of the movement, but I certainly try to be meatless at least two times a week. Don’t get me wrong, I love meat and do not intend to become a vegetarian, but I like good quality meat – meaning, for me, organic and grass feed – and those are really expensive, so I think it is worth to cut down the quantity and prime for the quality. Not mentioning that it is good for our beautiful little planet too!

One fact about quinoa: quinoa is a seed, and not a grain, and quinoa is actually the only non animal food that has the 8 essential amino acids needed to form a complete protein, in other words quinoa is the only food that is not meat that is a complete protein, like meat. Cool right?

The recipe is very simple, but remember that this is not meat, and the patties will not be as firm as meat hamburger, so careful when shaping, sauteing and flipping the patties, deal?

The picture is from my own blend of quinoa: blond, brown and black.

Quinoa Patties
Serves 4

2 cups cooked quinoa
1 carrot
1 celery stick
1/2 onion
1/2 teaspoon of dried basil
1/8 teaspoon cumin
1/8 teaspoon garlic powder
1/2 cup breadcrumbs
2 eggs
salt and pepper to taste
olive oil

To cook the quinoa, just place 1 cup of quinoa in 5 cups of boilling salted water, cover and simmer for about 15 minutes, or until the quinoa is soft. But know that quinoa has a harder shell and the shell will not be as soft as the inside, and it is all good! Stir and chill before mixing the quinoa with the other ingredients.
In a multiprocessor process the peeled carrots, celery and onion with a little bit of olive oil, just to help processing.

In a bowl mix all ingredients together.

In a saute pan, get some olive oil hot while shaping with the palms of your hands the little patties. Saute the patties in the hot olive oil until you have a beautiful crunch golden crust, saute both sides and your done. Bom apetite.

Chicken in broth

This a family style meal. I’m sure it has Italian influences, but it’s very common in Brazil. I usually remember more of my gramma’s food, but this one is so my mom.
I love this dish, the tasty broth, the creamy polenta, the fall off the bone chicken… hum!

I like to eat this dish with creamy polenta but if you can’t find it, use corn meal. Adding cheese to the polenta or corn meal makes them even better…

In Brazil we all use pressure cook, and I used to make this dish in the pressure cooker over there. But here, I don’t know why, they are not very popular. Not mentioning the not so popular price either. So in the pressure cooker or not, this dish is worth the wait. And if you are doing in the pressure cooker, the chicken will be ready in half the time.

For some kick, add chili or red pepper flacks (my favorite) to the broth.

To cook listening to Chico Buarque


Chicken in broth
Serves two


4 Chicken thighs
2 Carrots
1 Onion
2 Garlic gloves
1/2 Cup of white wine
2 Tablespoons of tomato sauce
1/4 Cup of fresh parsley
Chicken broth
Olive oil
Salt and pepper


Preps: Cut the carrot, the onion, garlic, and parsley in big pieces. And set two pan in the range.

Start heating the chicken broth in one pan. In another medium pan heat some olive oil.

Salt and pepper the tights and then sear the chicken in the pan with the oil. Fry both sides until golden color, seat aside.
In the same pan, stir fry the onion until translucent, then add the garlic until you can smell it and then add the carrot and the parsley and fry for a minute.
Place the thighs back in the pan and add the white wine. After the wine evaporates, add the tomato sauce and enough broth to cover the thighs.
Cover and reduce heat and let it simmer for about 50 minutes. Transfer to a serving dish, sprinkle some parsley on top and bom apetite.