Quipes for Noche Buena
- maddie
- Jan 1, 2019
- 5 min read
Marlene:
Maddie and I needed to do a photoshoot for the blog. We decided we'd have breakfast in Wynwood and then explore the neighborhood's murals for some photo ops. Maddie's aunt and sister were in town so it was the perfect place for both occasions. Abigail, Maddie's sister agreed to be our photographer. She's an angel. When we arrived we immediately found a wall we liked (they're everywhere). There was only one problem: us. We had no idea how to pose. How do all these Instagram models do it? We decided that standing awkwardly and laughing about things that never happened was the best way to go. It worked.
During our adventure, Maddie's mom mentioned that she still needed to prep for an appetizer that she needed to make for a Noche Buena (Christmas eve dinner and party) they were invited to. She suggested we help her since we needed to make our next recipe for our blog. We wanted our next post to feature my mom making a savory family recipe, which happens to be a very popular holiday dish in the Dominican Republic so, of course, Maddie and Marly rose to the occasion.
For many generations, my mother's family has been making the best Quipes in the world. Quipes are the Dominican version of Lebanese Kibbeh. My mother is Dominican and she learned the recipe from her mother who learned it from her Lebanese aunt and so on.
In the Dominican Republic, there is no such thing as a Christmas Eve without Quipes and pastelitos so every year in the beginning of December we get together, make a bunch and freeze them. This year we brought the tradition to Maddie's family and friends. Maddie says they were a crowd pleaser!
RECIPE:
Filling:
3/4 chopped red pepper
1/2 chopped green pepper
3/4 chopped onion
1 clove of garlic
1 pound ground beef (we used an 80/20 package)
1/4 teaspoon Goya Adobo seasoning
3/4 teaspoon of salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
a dash of water
Raisins
Outside:
1 pound of bulgar wheat number one
3/4 chopped red pepper
1/2 chopped green pepper
1 chopped onion
1 clove of garlic
1 pound ground beef
1 teaspoon allspice
3 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoon pepper
1 tablespoon of olive oil
Special Ingredient alert: 3/4 oz of chopped mint
Maddie:
How we did it:
Start by dealing with the bulgar wheat. You'll want to put it in a large bowl and cover it with hot water. Then, let it sit for 45 minutes, covered, stirring every 15 minutes. You can set this aside while you prep your other components.
Move on to your filling. In a food processor or blender, blend together red pepper, green pepper, onion, and garlic. if necessary, add a dash of water to help with blending. Then, over medium-high heat, cook one pound of ground beef. Once it has browned, add the processed veggies, salt, pepper, and adobo and cook thoroughly. Warning: this is delicious and you might want to eat it all, but hold off, it'll be worth it.
Once this is done, set aside. your bulgar wheat should be about ready. once the wheat is ready, pour it onto a sheet pan and make sure it is relatively dry. Then, add the other pound of raw ground beef. Use your hands to mix these together.
In a food processor or blender, blend together red pepper, green pepper, onion, and garlic. if necessary, add a dash of water to help with blending. Then add these and your spices and olive oil to your wheat and meat mixture. Mix thoroughly. After this process is over you should have two bowls that look something like this.
Presidente for drinking is not required but recommended.
Assembly: The assembly process is hard to describe, but I'm going to do my best. Start by taking a good chunk of the outside, I would say about three tablespoons and use your hands to roll it into a ball. Once you've made a ball, use your thumb to poke a whole inside and roll your thumb around so that there is a pocket for your filling. Add about two-three teaspoons of filling and at least two raisins. then shape the outside so that the filling is encased and your quipe looks like a small football. This is hard at first, Marlene's mom had to show us multiple times before we got a hang of it. I'm still not sure if I got the hang of it, but we did our best. You can see in the picture above that they all looked different. That's because none of us could make quipes as perfect as Marlene's mom. However, this was some of the most fun we had making a recipe, yet.
Now comes the part where you get to fry these babies up. Marlene's mom explained to me how to do this since I would have to do it on my own later that week. She started by giving me some hard and fast rules: do not touch the quipes once they are in the oil, make sure the oil covers the quipe entirely, and make sure not to over cook them. We used a medium sized pot and filled it with vegetable oil. Then, we let it heat up until it was sizzling on medium-high. The quipes were placed in the oil, about three at a time, then they sizzled away for about 3-4 minutes until they were a beautiful brown color on the outside. Then we got to eat them, they were so delicious, I was hesitant to save them for the party. I wanted them all right then and there. We served ours with some hummus!
The day i did this, I followed the same instructions, but I took the quipes out of the freezer about an hour before so that they could thaw. I did them about three at a time in a medium pot. The one rule I broke was touching them. I did end up using a wooden spoon to check on them but only after they had been in the oil for at least two minutes. I was really excited to serve them at our friend's Noche Buena. and they were gone in an instant, within the first 15 minutes of being there. My favorite part about all of this was working with Marlene's mom. I've known Marlene and her family for so long and while I hadn't seen her mom in a while, it felt so easy to work and cook with her. All her directions were in Spanish, and while I understand Spanish it's hard for me to speak it, even after living in Miami my whole life. I hope we did Marlene's family proud with this recipe. And I appreciate them letting us use the recipe on our blog, and helping us along the journey. Happy Holidays and a Happy New Year!
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