Cross the pond to Morocco. Delicious dinner dish. There are a bunch of tiny lamb meatballs simmering in a rich tomato stew. Then the succulent steamed eggs on top.
Certainly I’m mixing cuisines here. I’ve just begun following a blog called MarocMama. Amanda (an American, I believe) resides in Morocco, and lives in a typical communal family household with her Moroccan husband, their children and his extended family. She writes about travel and food, and her cross-cultural lifestyle. When I saw this recipe, my mind went immediately to shakshuka. Amanda called this a kefta (for the little lamb meatballs). But with the eggs on top, well, it was nothing short of shakshuka for me.
[Shakshuka] was brought to Israel by Tunisian Jews as part of the mass Jewish exodus from Arab and Muslim lands, where it has become a characteristic feature of the local cuisine. Shakshouka is typical of North African and Arab cuisine and is traditionally served in a cast iron pan or, in Morocco, a tajine. It is a Maghrebi dish of eggs poached in a sauce of tomatoes, olive oil, peppers, onion and garlic, and commonly spiced with cumin, paprika, cayenne pepper, and nutmeg. Egg shakshouka evolved from an Ottoman meat stew, also called shakshouka, into a vegetarian egg-based dish. Maghrebi Jews brought it to Israel, where it has become a characteristic feature of Israeli cuisine.. . from Wikipedia
And shakshuka is not usually a meat dish, either, so as I said up top, I’m mixing cuisines and cultural lines. Please no hate-mail! I’d purchased some ground lamb recently and knew I wanted to try this dish. I don’t own a tajine, but I knew that a wide skillet (iron one, even, although I used a nonstick high sided pan to make this) would work. I followed Amanda’s recipe mostly, but did make a few changes. Do use a pan that has a lid.
Recently I read on Food52 about a new-ish method of treating ground meat (that actually came from Cook’s Illustrated) with the addition of baking soda and water. Why? So glad you asked . . . sprinkling a mixture on ground meat helps the meat retain moisture, so it only gives off fat. And oh, does it ever work!
Typically, this dish served in Morocco would have a pile of some kind of soft or crusty bread on the side (chunks of a French baguette, or something similar to naan) so you could scoop up a meatball with the sauce, and drag it through a bit of the oozing egg. However, if that last part’s not your thing, you can cook the eggs until they’re hard and not drag the egg into it unless you wanted it. You could even leave out the eggs – – but then it wouldn’t be shakshuka anymore, just so you know . . . but then, this recipe never started out to be shakshuka. I just renamed it. It began as kefta.
So first off, I mixed up the lamb meatball ingredients, then I poured in a stirred-up concoction of 1/2 tsp baking soda and 1 T water. Then I squished the meatball mixture well, so the baking soda would be distributed. Then it needs to sit for 15 minutes, to soak in, to do it’s thing . . . which is to draw in the water in the meat.
You don’t brown the meat in this recipe. The little meatballs are dropped into the tomato-y sauce you make. While the meat is sitting for the 15-minute soak in baking soda/water, I started the sauce. First it was onion, then garlic, in some EVOO. Turmeric is added, some half-sharp paprika (or use regular paprika and a generous pinch of cayenne), salt, cumin. After the onions had softened a lot, I added in a large can of good San Marzano tomatoes. Next time I make this I won’t add all the juice from the can, as it made a bit too much “soup.” Amanda uses large fresh tomatoes, but I didn’t have any fresh tomatoes at all, so canned would have to do. They happened to be the whole type, so I needed to squish them in my hand to break the tomatoes up into edible chunks. Do simmer that mixture for awhile so the lovely cumin and turmeric spices can mingle with the tomatoes.
That mixture simmered while I made the meatballs. The recipe indicated forming them into tiny grape-sized meatballs. Wow, is that hard! I made about 38 meatballs (pictured) from the one pound of ground lamb.
Amanda mentioned in the recipe that if you crowd the meatballs, they won’t absorb as much flavor from the lovely tomato stew, so to use the extra for another dish. As it turned out, I did have a small bunch of meatballs left over, so am going to make a soup with them in the next few days. I cooked those meatballs in a small frying pan, and there was not one speck of water-type moisture in the pan – only the fat. So easy to do.
Above you can see the full pan. I’m hoping you can see the meatballs a little better. I simmered the tomato mixture uncovered for awhile to try to reduce the amount of soupy liquid. And I only used two eggs, because I’m just a family of one. I’ll be having leftovers one of these evenings.
What’s GOOD: everything about this was delicious. Wonderful. So full of flavor – from the lamb, the turmeric, the cumin, and the good San Marzano tomatoes. Loved it. Even the soft, runny eggs. Such a break from tradition to have eggs in a lamb and tomato stew.
What’s NOT: nothing really. Took a bit of time to make the meatballs, but otherwise it was easy enough. You could probably do this in a little over 45 minutes if you start the tomato stew first.
printer-friendly PDF and MasterCook file (click link to open recipe)
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Moroccan Lamb Meatball Shakshuka
Recipe By: Adapted from MarocMama blog
Serving Size: 4
MEATBALLS:
1 pound ground lamb — or beef, or combination of both
1 tablespoon garlic — minced
1/2 onion — finely diced
1/2 teaspoon salt — scant
1/2 teaspoon paprika
3 tablespoons flat leaf parsley — finely diced
1/2 teaspoon baking soda — mixed with 1 T water
TOMATO SAUCE:
2 tablespoons olive oil — (2 to 3)
1/2 onion — finely minced
28 ounces canned tomatoes — San Marzano, reserving some of the liquid for another use
1 teaspoon turmeric
2 teaspoons paprika — half-sharp, or use regular plus a pinch of cayenne
1/2 teaspoon salt — or to taste
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cumin
1 teaspoon flat leaf parsley — minced
1 teaspoon garlic — crushed
3 large eggs — or one for each serving
1. In a bowl combine the ground meat with crushed garlic, onion, salt, and paprika and a small handful of chopped Italian parsley. Mix well with your hand to combine all of the ingredients. Pour in the mixture of baking soda and water, and massage into the meat. Set aside for 15 minutes for the soda to do it’s job of retaining moisture in the meat.
2. Roll into about 35-40 small balls slightly larger than a grape.
3. In a tajine (or use a large skillet with a lid) add 2-3 tbsp olive oil and minced onion. Place the tajine on the stovetop on medium heat, using a diffuser if you have an electric range.
4. Mix in turmeric, spicy paprika (sudaniya in Morocco), salt, ground cumin, chopped Italian parsley and crushed garlic. Pour in the tomatoes with only about half the liquid from the can and stir well.
6. Arrange the meatballs in the tomato stew so that they each have a little space to soak up the sauce. If you have more meatballs than space in the tajine reserve them for another dish. Each meatball needs enough room for some sauce to surround them. I used a heat diffuser so the mixture would simmer very slowly, and for the next section of cooking the eggs.
7. Cover the tajine and continue to cook on low. Check after 30 minutes. Once the meatballs are cooked through, crack 3 (or more) eggs and place on top of the meatballs and sauce. Cover the tajine again so that the eggs can cook through. Some people like the eggs to be steamed just until they are set but the yolk still is runny. You may also cook the eggs until the yolk is hard.
8. Serve and eat by scooping up bites of meatball and egg with crusty bread.
NOTE: You could also serve this with rice or couscous and scoop servings of the meatballs and the tomato stew with an egg on top onto each plate or bowl.
Per Serving: 511 Calories; 38g Fat (65.8% calories from fat); 26g Protein; 18g Carbohydrate; 3g Dietary Fiber; 222mg Cholesterol; 1301mg Sodium; 9g Total Sugars; 1mcg Vitamin D; 135mg Calcium; 7mg Iron; 846mg Potassium; 317mg Phosphorus.
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