A Rainy Day’s Short-Rib Beet Kubbeh Stew

As soon as winter starts I start thinking about winter stews. Tender slow-cooked meat that melts in your mouth, root vegetables, the long wait and anticipation for the stew to be ready, the smells…

Cooking this dish always takes me back to a stormy winter night in Tel Aviv. I got stranded out the street in a blazing rainstorm and found myself, soaking wet, a small cozy restaurant somewhere in Nahalat Benyamin — Edna.
The night special was a Beet Kubbeh soup — warm, sour, hearty, beefy… its the perfect dish for a rainy day.

If you don’t know what's Kubbeh — they are dumplings with a flavorful meat filling that originate in the Eastern Mediterranean (Levantine cuisine).
There’s a lot of variations for Kubbeh — it can be made out of Bulgur, Flour, Semolina, Rice. In some variations its cooked in a stew while in others is sometimes cooked and served in stew and other times fried and served as is.

This particular Beet Kubbeh recipe originates in Iraq and is made out of Semolina and cooked in a rich broth of beets and root vegetables.

Indgridients

Stew:

• 1.5–2 lb pack of Short Ribs (with bone)
• 1 Large Beets (or 2–3 small ones)
• 3 Carrots
• 1 Celery Root
• 1 Parsnip
• 1 Leek
• Frying Oil (I’m using Avocado Oil)
• 1 cup of red wine
• 5 sage leaves
• 5 cloves of garlic
• (optional) a bunch of cloves and a small moroccan lime (dried lime)
• 3 lt. of beef stock or water(about 12 cups)
• salt & pepper

Filling:

• ~1.36 LB (610) gr of ground beef (I use Costco’s package)
• 2 Red Onions
• 1.5 spoons baharat
• 0.5 spoon salt
• 0.5 spoon of ground pepper.
• 3 cloves of garlic — thinly sliced.

Kubbeh:

• 1 pack of Bob’s Red Mill Semolina (680gr)
• 3 cups of water
• 1 teaspoon of salt

Method

We’ll start with the stew…

Start by slicing the vegetables.
Cut the beets and carrots into small cubes and the Leek into slices about 1 inch wide.
Mince the garlic.

Season the short-ribs with salt and pepper.

In a large pot add some oil and brown the short ribs on medium heat for about 3–4 minutes on each side.
Remove and put aside.

Add the vegetables — carrots, beets, celery root and parsnip and garlic.
Cook on medium heat for about 10minutes until they start to soften.

Add the Wine, Sage and Thyme and cook for 10more minutes to let the alcohol evaporate.

Put the Short Ribs back in.
I like to put them with the bone facing downwards keeping the meat a bit further away from the hot bottom of the pot

Add a bunch of cloves, moroccan lime. These two give the whole stew a kick of flavor and smell.

Add the stock and bring to a boil, then lower the heat and cook for ~3 hours until the meat is falling off the bone.
If your pot is oven safe, you can pre-heat your oven to 330 F and move the pot there for the remainder of the cooking.

While cooking, occasionally check to make sure the liquid covers the content of the pot (and add some water if not).

In the meantime, we can start making the Kubbeh filling:

1. Thinly cut the onions and add into an oiled pan on medium heat.
   Stir it for about 10 minutes until it softens and starts to brown.
2. Add Garlic and the rest of the spices and continue stirring for 2 more minutes.
3. Add the Ground Beef. Cook for about 10 minutes until the meat is properly sealed
4. Remove from heat and filter from access fluids. Let it cool down for a few minutes.
5. Add Parsley
6. Violla! filling is done.

Now let’s make the actual Kubbeh…

About 2.5 hours into the stew’s cooking we can start making our Kubbeh dumplings.
Every Iraqi\Kurdi grandma makes the Kubeh a bit differently.
The basic recipe involves Semolina, Water and Salt to which any one of the following ingridients could be added: Grounded Burghul, Oil, White Flour, Stock instead of water, …

We’ll use a basic recipe here — just Semolina, Water and Salt. Though basic, the right amount of those 3 ingridients results in an amazing dough thats soft and easy to work with but steady and chewy after cooking.

Little “pools” of water means your water level is right.

For a pack of Bob’s Red Mill Semolina which weights 680gr it took me ~3 cups of water to get to the right.
Mix all the ingredients (Semolina, Water, Salt) together. You want to see these little “pools” of water on top after you first mix it.

After ~30 minutes

Let the mixture sit for about 20–30 minutes so that the Semolina can absorb all the water.

Mirit hand-models the perfect Kubbeh

Now for the hard part — making the actual dumplings. Keep your hands wet so that the dough doesnt stock to your hands.
Making the dumplings is actually simple and you’ll get the hand of it after making a couple.
As pictured above, the steps to make the Kubbeh are as follows:

• Flatten a piece of dough on the palm of your hand
• Move it to sit on top of your thumb and index finger
• Fill with as much meat as you can
• Wrap the edges around to close the dumpling

Place dumplings in the stew and cook for 30 more minutes.

Serve with a slice of Lemon.
Tastes best with a sound of rain in the background 🌧 ;)