Fish kibbeh - a delicious and healthy way of cooking fish

A couple of posts ago I told you that in my opinion there are days for chocolate, cream and all things sweet and I firmly believe in that, but even I can’t eat that sort of food every single day: I crave salads, vegetables, fish and grains everyday and I feel really good when I eat them.

I am always interested in new ways of cooking fish other than the way my mom cooked at home when I was little: dusted with corn flour (not corn starch) and deep fried, which is absolutely delicious but not very healthy (I do avoid deep frying like the plague around here, and not only for health reasons).

My husband loves the corn flour dusted fish as well, but he’s willing to try fish prepared in other ways and last weekend I prepared one of Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall’s recipes in which the fish is coated with spices like paprika and cumin and cooked with peas – it was a hit. Weeks before I’d made these fish kibbehs and they were a huge success, too: me being me I tweaked the recipe just a bit, adding more lime zest, using almonds instead of walnuts and shaping the mixture into small kibbehs instead of baking it pressed into a baking dish.

Both my husband and my sister loved the kibbeh and I thought it was a wonderful way of eating fish.

Fish kibbeh
slightly adapted from the gorgeous Brazilian chef Rita Lobo

1 tablespoon olive oil
2 small onions, finely sliced in half moons
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
pinch of sugar
1 cup cracked wheat (fine bulgur)
500g white fish fillets
handful parsley leaves
finely grated zest of 2 limes
1/3 cup flaked almonds, finely chopped
1/3 cup (80ml) water
¼ teaspoon baharat
extra-virgin olive oil, for drizzling
lime wedges, to serve

Preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F. Line a large baking sheet with foil and brush it with olive oil.
In a nonstick frying pan over low heat, heat 1 tablespoon of the olive oil and add the onions. Sprinkle with salt and the sugar and cook, stirring occasionally, until caramelized, about 15 minutes. Cool.
Line a colander with a clean kitchen towel and place the cracked wheat on the towel. Rinse it with cold water, then squeeze it well to remove all excess water.
In a food processor, process the fish and parsley until finely chopped. Transfer to a large bowl, add the onions, the wheat, lime zest, almonds, water and stir to combine. Season with the baharat, salt and black pepper.
Using 1 ½ leveled tablespoons of mixture per kibbeh, roll into a football shape. Place onto prepared sheet 5cm (2in) apart. Drizzle generously with extra virgin olive oil and bake for 20-25 minutes or until golden and cooked through, turning them halfway the cooking time. Serve immediately with lime wedges.

Makes about 20