Kubbah Bamiah

Today, even in Israel, life is about running. Running to work. Running home. Running to social engagements. Running to drop the kids and seconds later it seems to pick them up. Growing up it wasn't like that. We sat as a family in our apartment in Haifa and ate our meals slowly, casually.

I remember my Aunt Sabiha's apartment, just down the hill from our apartment on Derech Hayam. It was just a few steps from there to a large playground which stood facing the railroad tracks and the crashing surf of the Mediterranean. In its day, the metal monkey bars and jungle gym glistened bright red. We would play there for hours with kids we didn't know, laughing easily. Our only care was going ever faster on the carousel or higher on the swings. Parents watched, smoked, and shared stories of children, politics, and war. Time it seemed moved slowly in those days allowing us all to relish the benefit of the sun's rays and God's blessings. Israel was brand new. It had survived so much, and we were all figuring out how to be part of this new thing, while still being part of our old world families, cliques, and traditions. 

When I was in my 20's, I traveled to Israel with the expressed intent of collecting family recipes. They had sustained me during a ten-year absence and I understood, as an adult, that memories were fleeting things. Memories, like flowers, only flourish if they are nurtured, cultivated, and fed. Without cooking these dishes, not only would they be lost to me, but more importantly, they would be lost to my children.
I spent the first 10 days of my two week trip being rebuffed. Boys don't cook. Period. But this one did, I insisted. What's wrong? Your wife can't cook for you? She cooks very well - her dishes. It went on like this until finally I said, "This is my food. I can't be a Horesh without them." And so, the kitchen door was opened.

Dodda (Aunt) Carmela taught me to make kubbah. She was an aunt by marriage and so, I think, my Aba's sisters discounted her kubbah. After all, how could an in-law ever hope to compete with the memory of the kubbah handed down from my grandmother Imi Safta Gorgia? I've learned since that every woman had her little trick, her little secret for the perfect kubbah shell, and Carmela's was fairly straight forward with no bells and whistles. Regardless, they are tasty and a wonderful starting point for experimentation.

Kubbah Bamia 

This is among the most famous of the Iraqi kubbah stews. The unique taste of okra, the tanginess of lemon and the sweetness of tomato are absorbed into the shells of the kubbah and produce warm rich flavor. 

This dish, like almost all Iraqi stews, is to be eaten over hkaka (white rice).

Kubbah (about 40)

DOUGH:

• 2 cups dry cream of wheat or cream of farina 1 tsp salt
• 1 cup water
• optional: replace 1/2 cup of semolina with 1/2 cup rice flour. Add 1/4 cup of finely ground lean beef of chicken breast to the farina.

FILLING (HASHWA):

• 1 lbs. ground beef, extra lean
• 2 large onions
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1/2 teaspoon salt 
• 1⁄2 teaspoon pepper
• 1⁄3 tsp cayenne
• 2 heaping tablespoons cilantro or flat leaf parsley, finely chopped
  

Directions for Kubbah

1. Put cream of wheat and salt in a bowl. Add water and immediately mix and kneed into a dough. If adding meat, kneed it at this point. 
2. Set aside and let stand while you prepare the filling.
3. Put meat in a bowl. 
4. Mince the onions or use a food processor to chop onions finely, being careful not to create a pulp. Squeeze the excess liquid out of the onions
5. Add onions to the meat along with the oil, salt, pepper, cayenne, and parsley. Kneed together well until everything is evenly distributed.
6. Fill a small bowl with cold water to wet your hands while working with the dough. Tear even pieces from the dough and roll each into a ball, approximately one inch in diameter (slightly smaller than a walnut). 
7. Take one dough ball and place it in the wet palm of your hand. With your free-had thumb flatten the ball, working from the center toward the outside until you have a flat disk. The disk should be quite thin but not so thin that it begins to break.
8. Take about 1 teaspoon of filling, roll it into a ball and place it in the middle of the disk.
9. Fold the dough up and around the meat, press it closed, and roll gently to form an even layer around the meat. 
10. Lay the kubba on a tray lined with plastic wrap or wax paper. Repeat until all the dough or all the hashwa finished. If you run out of dough first, form meatballs with the remainder of the hashwa and cook them with your soup.
11.  Place tray in a freezer. When kubba is completely frozen, remove them from the tray and store in freezer in an airtight bag or container.

flatten the dough into a thin disk

pull up the sides and close the form

place the meat in the middle

Soup (Maraq)

• 1 lbs. of fresh okra, washed very well
• 1 medium sized onion, finely chopped
• 3 cloves of garlic, finely diced
• 3 very ripe and soft plumb tomatoes (or 4 if small), peeled and cut into small chunks (as an alternative can use 1⁄2 lbs. canned tomatoes) 
• 3 tablespoons olive oil 
• 1 teaspoons salt 
• 1⁄2 teaspoons pepper 
• 1⁄4 - 1⁄2 tsp cayenne
• 1 heaping teaspoon tomato paste
• Juice from 1⁄2 - 1 lemon
• 20 kubba

Directions

1. Wash the okra and  trim both ends. Place in a colander to let extra water drain.
2. Put oil, onions, garlic, pepper, and cayenne into a large pot and sauté on medium flame until the onions are soft and golden.
3. Add tomato chunks (if using canned tomato, drain the tomatoes and reserve the juice), raise flame to medium and sauté until the tomatoes are soft. 
4. Dissolve tomato paste in 2 cups of water (including the liquid from canned tomatoes, if using canned tomatoes) and add to pot. Then add the okra.
5. Cover the pot and bring to a boil. As soon as pot boils, add 1 cup of water, lemon juice, and salt. Cover pot and bring to a boil. 
6. As soon as pot boils, add the kubba to the pot, one at a time, submerging each below the surface of the liquid, as deep into the pot as possible 
7. Return to a boil then lower the flame to low. Gently agitate kubba with a spoon to make sure they do not stick to each other. Cover and let cook for about 10 minutes until the okra is soft but not mushy. 
8. Taste the soup and if itnot tangy enough, add lemon; if too sour, add some more salt.
9. You can serve immediately, but the soup and kubbah taste even better if made a day or so in advance. To reheat, place on low heat and bring to a gentle simmer, being careful not to overheat or boil the stock, as the kubbah will break down and the stock will thicken too much.