Hello, my name is Cothalee Watko and I am a Junior Physics major at Xavier University. The dish that I wanted to share today is one of my personal favorites called quipes. Quipes are a traditional Dominican food that was brought to the island by Lebanese immigrants. The dish consists of wheat pockets stuffed with beef, vegetables, and spices. For me, this was always a dish saved for special occasions. My mother would always make them whenever my family would come over, or if it was a holiday to show how much she loves and cares for everyone around her. The thought and love that goes into the preparation of this dish is the reason that quipes hold such a deep place in my heart.
Prep Time: 5 Hrs
Cook Time: 1 Hr
Servings: 4
Ingredients:
- Bulgur wheat (1 cup)
- Water (1 qt)
- Ground beef (1 lb)
- Bell Pepper (1)
- Basil Leaves (To taste)
- Small white onion (1)
- Salt (3 teaspoons, or to taste)
- Tomato sauce (½ cup)
- Garlic (5 cloves) or garlic powder (To taste)
- Crushed black pepper (⅓ teaspoon)
- Vegetable oil, for frying (2 cups)
Instructions:
- Put the wheat into a bowl. Fill the bowl with enough water to cover the wheat. Let sit for at least 3-4 hours, overnight for the best result. Stir occasionally while the wheat is resting.
- Finely dice onions, bell pepper and garlic, and tear basil. If available use a food processor to mince all ingredients, until a coarse, but paste like consistency is achieved.
- In a bowl, add the ground beef, bell pepper, onion, garlic, and basil. Add a pinch of black pepper and 2 teaspoons of salt.
- Mix the meat and vegetables with your hands until the mixture is uniform throughout.
- Split the mixture into three equal parts. Set two parts aside and place one into a pan.
- Add 2 teaspoons of oil to the meat in the pan and cook over medium heat until browned.
- Add tomato sauce and ½ cup of water and mix. Simmer over medium heat. Once the liquid has evaporated remove from heat.
- Drain the water from the bulgur and sieve it to make sure all water is removed.
- Take the meat that was put aside earlier into a bowl with the dried bulgur. Add the other 1 teaspoon of salt. Knead the mixture together, almost like a dough, until the meat and Bulgur are uniformly mixed.
- Put enough of the bulgur and meat mixture into your hands to be able to make a fairly large ball. With your thumb press a divot into the ball. Keep working until the indentation causes the dough to have equal amounts on all sides. Make sure to leave it open up top.
- Fill the indentation with the cooked meat from earlier, leaving enough room to pinch the top of the dough overtop of the filling.
- Refrigerate the quipes until they become firm.
- Put two cups of vegetable oil into a deep pan and put it over medium-high heat.
- Before placing the quipes into the oil, squeeze them to make sure they won’t fall apart in the oil. Fry the quipes until they are dark brown on the outside.
- Enjoy.
Facts about food insecurity in the Hispanic population of the U.S.:
- Hispanic families are twice as likely as white families to experience food insecurity.
- Food insecurity is less prevalent in people who identify as Cuban than any other Hispanic group.
- Food insecurity occurs more for Hispanic adults that do not have American citizenship than for those that do.
- Food insecurity among the Hispanic population of the U.S. occurs more frequently in cities than any other part of a metropolitan area.
- The prevalence of food insecurity changes little when observing trends across every state.
Source: https://www.ers.usda.gov/webdocs/publications/44080/59326_eib-153.pdf