Balls of Morocco

@Sin Ming Cookhouse / Bakery / Whatever

After our little excursion to Pasha I felt inspired to try and whip up one of the dishes that the Chili Padi liked so much from the kitchen, the Lahm Kefta Tajine (Slow cooked beef meat balls in tomato base sauce with egg, herbs and spices), sadly though without the Tajine I had to make do with the equipment I had in the kitchen: namely the good old sauce pan and the dry fryer

Ingredients – Meatballs

• 500g lean minced beef
• 70g (1 cup) fresh breadcrumbs
• 1/3 cup milk
• 2 fresh red chillies, deseeded, finely chopped
• 1 tea spoon roasted ground cumin
• Salt & ground black pepper
• 3/4 cup of beef stock
• Tomato sauce (see below)

Ingredients – Tomato Sauce

• 4-6 ripe tomatoes
• 1 medium onion, very finely chopped
• 1 1/2 teaspoons paprika
• 1 1/2 teaspoons cumin
• 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
• 1/2 teaspoon hot paprika or 1/4 teaspoon ground hot pepper
• 3 tablespoons finely chopped fresh parsley
• 3 tablespoons finely chopped fresh coriander (cilantro)
• 3 cloves garlic, pressed
• 1/4 cup olive oil

Ingredients – Saffron Rice

• 1-2 cups of long grain rice
• pinch of saffron leaves
• sultanas

Directions

1. Place the minced beef, breadcrumbs, milk, chillies and cumin in a medium bowl and mix with your hands until thoroughly combined.

2. Season with salt and pepper. Roll small portions of the mixture into balls

3. To make the tomato sauce, using the olive oil lightly brown the onions and garlic until they become soft and translucent, add the remaining powdered ingredients and cook until fragrant

4. Dice and add the tomatoes and cook until semi-soft

5. Combine the tomato sauce and stock in a large frying pan and bring to the boil

6. Reduce heat to medium-low and and simmer

7. Shallow fry the meatballs for 5-7 minutes

8. Add the meatballs to the tomato sauce. Cover and simmer, turning the meatballs occasionally, for 5-8 minutes or until the meatballs are just cooked through

9. To make the saffron rice, wash the rice then add the washed saffron and sultanas to it and cook as per rice cooker instructions

With a click of the heels you’re off to Morocco.  The only thing that I was missing was a Tajine, oh well luckily the dish still turned out ok!

Bon Appétit – Sidney