Kibbeh bil Sanieh

Instructions

1. 1
   To build the outer dough, combine the washed and heavily squeezed bulgur wheat in a food processor with the small onion, seven spices, a teaspoon of salt, and black pepper. Process until a paste builds. Drop in the 500 g of lean ground meat and process again until a smooth, fine, elastic dough matrix forms. Chill in the fridge.
2. 2
   To construct the filling (Hashweh), warm a tablespoon of oil in a skillet over medium heat. Sweat the large chopped onion for 5 minutes until translucent. Add the 300 g of ground filling meat, season with a pinch of seven spices, salt, and pepper, and sauté until beautifully browned. Kill the heat and fold in half of the toasted pine nuts.
3. 3
   Preheat your oven to 200°C. Heavily grease the bottom and inner walls of a round 28-cm silver aluminum baking pan using olive oil or ghee.
4. 4
   Divide your chilled bulgur-meat outer dough into two equal portions. Grab the first portion and, using hands dipped constantly in ice-cold water to prevent sticking, pat it down flat across the floor of the greased pan to form a thin, uniform, tightly compacted base layer.
5. 5
   Spread the cooked meat and pine nut filling evenly across the entire surface of the base layer, pressing down lightly with the back of a spoon.
6. 6
   To place the top shell, flatten pieces of the remaining dough between your wet palms and lay them down like overlapping shingles over the filling until completely covered. Smooth out the entire top surface using your wet palms until it forms a flawless, glassy flat mirror.
7. 7
   Apply the master presentation rule: using a very sharp knife, slice parallel diagonal lines across the pan in one direction, then crosswise in the other direction to score that beautiful signature diamond pattern reaching the floor of the pan. Nest one toasted pine nut firmly into the center of each diamond.
8. 8
   Drizzle the top surface uniformly with the remaining olive oil or melted ghee to failure-proof that crispy golden finish.
9. 9
   Bake at 200°C for 35 to 40 minutes. You will know it is done when the outer edges shrink slightly from the walls and the crust turns into that gorgeous, deep golden-brown crunch jacket seen in the photo.
10. 10
    Remove from the oven and let rest for 5 minutes. To flawlessly mirror the stunning architecture of Kibbet Seeniyeh.jpg, scatter fresh green cilantro leaves over the hot diamonds, lift a piece smoothly using a wooden spatula, and display a single perfect diamond portion on a small white ceramic plate next to the main pan over a light textured background.