Recipe: Kibbe-djaaj

Saturday I spent the morning studying, doing laundry, etc. For lunch, we had fool bi-labneh (fava beans in a yogurt-tahini sauce with chopped parsley and tomatoes), fool bi-khadr (fava beans mixed with tabbouleh), hummus (though they call it something different here), pickled vegetables (green peppers, beets, carrots, cauliflower), scooped up in fresh flatbread and shoved dripping into your mouth. Next time I will learn to make it … recipe forthcoming. It was almost the same meal I had at the restaurant a few days ago, but all the more delicious, reminding me that I’m not really missing out on much by eating all my meals at home.

In the afternoon, since I had asked Laila to teach me new recipes and she promised to do so, she called me in to show me how to make a chicken recipe (kibbe-djaaj).


2 kilo chicken breast, in small pieces
2 potatoes, baked and blended (in small long pieces, I don’t know how she prepared this, with some machine.)

mix chicken, bread crumbs, potatoes, salt, black and white pepper, cinnamon, paprika. Knead, adding water, til homogenous and soft.

Saute chopped onions and mushrooms in vegetable oil; when finished, add butter.

Spread ½ chicken mixture in bottom of oiled pan

Put onion mixture in the middle, then cover with a layer of grated Bulgarian cheese (ashowan). Add the other half of the chicken, spread flat on top (prepared like kibbe).

Refrigerate until ready to bake.


Around 6 we went to their neighbor’s for tea, the Finnish couple that I met on my first evening here. I learned that the apartment that they live in used to be part of our house, the two oldest sons (Oubai and Ihab) lived there when all the sons were home—the connecting door is now covered up with a wall. It is small but homey and peaceful. I also learned that the husband works as a pediatrician in a clinic run by the church that both families attend. The clinic serves the public but in particular Iraqi refugees and in addition to the clinic, there is also a center where both Laila and Ingvar go to teach the women different skills.

Ingvar made a sandwich cake, which I had never seen before. She baked white bread, layered with pickles and smoked ham, frosted with labneh-mayo and decorated with sliced cucumbers and tomatoes. Also cinnamon buns!

They told us a lot about their life in Finland, how university is free for both Fins and foreigners, how the husband has been to 35-ish countries in Europe travelling for a week or two at a time to provide medical aid. They have 3 daughters, one of which I met last week when she was visiting, and also one foster daughter who lived with them for 10 years because her parents both had mental disabilities and couldn’t take care of her. They explained how they came to the decision to take her in—how happy and complete their life was with their three daughters and how they decided you can’t learn about love until you challenge your comfortable existence by bringing someone else in need into your life. And how when they were deciding if they should have Maria live with them or not, the mom was listening to religious programming on the radio and the speaker quoted from the Bible “Don’t be afraid to let Maria into your life,” and how the following day the same quote came up in her reading…i.e. they felt that God was speaking to them and asking them to take her into their family, even though it resulted in a lot of emotional stress on their family, particularly on their own daughters. And how now Maria is married, happy, spending time with her biological mother, getting to know her and coming to terms with her own difficult childhood.

But most of all what I took from their stories and photos was how much I want to see Northern Europe! 1000s of islands in Finland’s archipelago alone, plus 177,000 lakes or something ridiculous like that. And then there’s Sweden, Norway, Denmark just a few hours away. Next trip—next summer.