I don’t cook a lot of meat in the Bahamas – to get decent quality stuff at a price, it seems that you have to buy those enormous wholesale-size frozen packets that feed a football team, or a tailgate party. It’s not really my cooking style to have forty steaks to get through and not really smart to have so much in the freezer when we have frequent power blackouts and no generator. So I’m pretty restricted to what looks ok in the supermarket and that tends to be limited to the minced sirloin. Believe it or not though, even we get tired of meatballs and meatloaf from time to time, so I’m really pleased to have found this recipe, from Yotam Ottolenghi which makes a really welcome addition to the repertoire.
Ottolenghi says the idea is to have the flavours of kibbeh, that staple of Lebanese mezze, in an open cake. Instead of lamb mince and pine nuts being rolled in the bulgar wheat and then deep fried and served with a tahini sauce, here it’s layered like a cheesecake. The wheat makes a starchy bottom layer, then comes the meaty/nutty filling and finally the creamy tahini top layer. I adapted the recipe by omitting the garlic, chilli and coriander, using beef rather than lamb and by making the tahini topping a bit more substantial, more like the sour cream topping of a cheesecake. I used something that’s sold as labneh here, a really thick, yoghurty spread. Greek yoghurt, creme fraiche or sour cream would be good substitutes.
It was really successful served just warm with a tomato salad, and held its shape even better after a night in the fridge when served at room temperature.
Lebanese beef cake with pine nuts and tahini
Makes one 8 inch pie, enough for 4 as a main course. Adapted from Yotam Ottolenghi.
- 400g minced beef
- small bunch parsley, chopped
- 60g pine nuts
- 1 large red onion
- 125g bulghar wheat
- 2 tbsps self-raising flour
- 1/2 tsp each ground coriander, cinnamon and allspice
- 50g tahini
- 3 tbsps labneh yoghurt spread (or see above)
- Juice of half a lime or lemon
- A fat pinch of sumac
Preheat the oven to 180 Celcius. in a mixing bowl put the bulghar wheat and 200ml hot water and leave to stand for about half an hour while preparing the other ingredients. (If it absorbs the water very quickly, add some more, you can always sieve off the excess at the end).
In a large frying pan, sauté the chopped onion in a couple of tablespoons olive oil until soft. Remove to a large mixing bowl. Now fry the beef mince in batches until well browned. Put each batch with the onion when ready. Put aside a little chopped parsley and some pinenuts to sprinkle over the topping at the end of cooking. Then add the coriander, cinnamon, allspice, chopped parsley and pine nuts to the bowl too, with a pinch of salt and pepper.
Prepare a 20cm springform cake tin by lightly oiling it and lining the base with parchment.
When the oven is at temperature and the bulghar wheat is softened, prepare the pie: in a sieve squeeze out the excess water from the wheat. Put it back into the mixing bowl and add the flour, a small glub of oil and a fat pinch of salt and bring it together so it starts to be clumpy. Press it evenly into the bottom of the cake tin to form a firm layer. Then layer on the beef mixture.
Bake for 20 minutes until nicely browned on top. Meanwhile make the tahini topping, by mixing the tahini, lime juice, labneh spread and about 70ml water to make a thick but pourable consistency. After the 20 mins initial cooking, bring out the pie and spread the topping over, sprinkle on pine nuts and parsley (if you remember, I didn’t). Return to the oven for 10 mins until the topping is just set.
Cool on a wire rack, removing to a plate when tepid. Sprinkle with sumac and serve in slices with a fresh-tasting salad.
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