Guest Post: JUMA Kubba Mosul

Eid Mubarak everyone! May Allah shower His blessings on us and accept our departed as martyrs.
I have the great pleasure of introducing the writer behind MCW's first guest post, the amazing Iraqi food enthusiast Philip from London.
Philip is the founder of JUMA (www.jumakitchen.com), showcasing Iraqi and other Middle Eastern food. He has been hosting pop ups cooking authentic Iraqi food and aspires to one day opening his own restaurant. This short video (http://vimeo.com/92792000) shows Philip in action, in addition to which he has hosted a number of evenings at restaurants, where he's taken over the kitchen for a night and introduced people to Iraqi dishes like Dolma, Kubba Haleb, Kibbeh Hamuth amongst others.
My sincere thanks to Philip for taking time off from his incredibly busy schedule and offering to do this delicious and extra-special Kubba Mosul (كبة موصل) guest post. We wish you speedy success and hope to see JUMA Kitchen in London, New York, Doha, Dubai, Tokyo, and eventually even in Baghdad some day!
Please take a moment to follow Philip on twitter @Juma_Kitchen and ‘like’ his Facebook page www.facebook.com/jumakitchen so you can follow his journey of putting Iraqi cuisine on the map!

JUMA Kubba Mosul

Ingredients:

For the outta layer:
- 500g lean beef mince
- 4 cups extra fine bulgar (Cerish)
- 2 cups normal bulgar
- salt

For the inside:
- 600 – 800g lamb mince (with fat)
- 2 medium onions
- JUMA spice blend (black pepper, all spice, cinnamon, cardomen, cloves, rose petal, & nutmeg)
- Pine nuts
- Salt

Utensils/Equipment:
- Rolling pin
- Large sandwich bags (Cut on one side) or greaseproof paper


Method:

1. Mix together the fine bulgar and the cerish with your hands, using a some water to assist with the binding process.

2. Pass through a siv – removing any excess liquid.

3. Take the beef mince and add to the bulgar mix.

4. Season generously with salt.

5. Mix briefly with your hands, and then add to the blender.  While blending, add a splash of water.  After 1 minute, check the mix and you are looking for a thick dough that is elastic in texture, but stiff.

6. Finely chop the onion.

7. Place pine nuts in a pan and heat with a little oil.  These burn easily so don’t leave the pan alone.  Keep moving the nuts around so they all become golden. Drain excess oil from the nuts.  Set aside.

8. Now for the filling, blend the lamb, onion, 2 tablespoon of salt, and 3 heaped teaspoon of JUMA spice.  This is what is looks like...

How to roll and make the Kubba Mosul.

1. Prepare a smooth, clean surface.

2. Wet your hands and place some drops on the surface (This will allow the sandwich bag to stick)

3. Place a sandwich bag down (You can use greaseproof paper if need be) and lubricate the top of sandwich bag, as you did on the kitchen surface.

4. Take a ball of dough, the size of a small tennis ball and place in the centre. Place a sandwich bag on top again.

5. Begin rolling with a rolling pin.  Start from the centre and roll outwards.  Don’t worry if its not a perfect circle.  You can correct this later.  The main thing is to aim for a diameter of around 3mm.

6. Slowly uncover the top layer.

7. Depending on the size of your kubba, place a mould/plate over the top of the flattened bulgar and cut around the border removing any excess.  Don’t throw it though, add it back into the bulgar mix.

8. Once you have achieved a neat circle, you can begin adding the mix.

9. Place the mix in the centre of the disc and begin spreading it, from the centre to the edges. Also, add the pine nuts. Please allow for a 1.5 cm gap from the edge of the disc, as you need this area to glue the discs together.

10.Repeat steps 4 and 5 to create a lid to go over the lamb/pine nut mix.

11.Once you have rolled and cut another disc shape, remove sandwich bag from the top layer, however keep the bottom bag.  Slowly remove the disc and bag from the surface using your hand underneath to support the disc. Then fllip it on top of the pine nuts.

12.Keep the sandwich bag on the top layer and push down on the edges ensuring an air-tight disc.

13.Remove top layer of the bag slowly and smooth all surfaces and edges using wet hands.

14.IMPORTANT: Please leave to stand for around 40 minutes to allow for the kubba to glue together as you do not want any water to get into them when you boil them.

15.Once all discs have rested, you are finally ready to boil them.
Gently, place them in simmering water in a wide, shallow saucepan.
As soon as they begin to float, place on kitchen roll to remove excess liquid.

16.Once cooled, place in the freezer.  You can now grill, fry or boil to order.
I personal like to pan fry them in some olive oil serve them with “Camel” mango pickle.
Delish!!!!