Meatball Tagine

Okay, here we go. So, your mama learned about things like video size and getting videos from the phone to the computer. Hopefully, future posts will go a bit smoother on the upload side of things. Today, I am showing you how to make Meatball Tagine. I made a half batch because leftovers die in the fridge around here sometimes...

This recipe is the carnivore version based on using 1 pound of ground meat which should serve about 4 people, but in the video I am using Morning Star Grillers Meal Starter Crumbles and Veggie broth. If you need to make for a vegan friend you can use a flax egg for the meatloaf. Just google flax egg: it's like ground flax seeds with arm water.

The meatballs are basically Grandma Hat's meatloaf recipe with some additional ingredients and different spices. The spices are the same spices I use for almost all my Moroccan inspired dishes such as my egg spice, the Moroccan fish and Harira. You both know the struggle I had with Khalid, but his mom taught me to cook so many things and she was very nice to me. It's like the Yin/Yang symbol there is always some good in the bad and there is always some bad in good. I find my recipes from Khalid's mom are the ones I love to turn to on cool evenings. I list the spices in descending order to make it easy on me to remember how much shaking are we talking about. 

So, let's talk ingredients:

Spices:

Cumin  

Smoked Paprika 

Cinnamon

Salt and Pepper 

Cayenne  

Turmeric 

Fresh Ginger (minced), Ginger Paste (in a tube or a jar), or you can use ground dry ginger in a pinch

Fresh garlic (mined)

Fresh Parsley

Fresh Cilantro

Meatballs:

1 lb Ground Meat (Beef, Turkey, Chicken) 

1/4 cup Quick Cooking Oatmeal

1 Egg

1 tsp of Tomato paste

1 tsp of Ginger paste

1-2 Cloves of Garlic, minced

1 medium Red Onion, diced

1/2 cup  Dried Apricots, diced

1/4 cup each  Parsley and Cilantro, chopped 

2 tsp of Cumin

1 tsp of  Smoked Paprika

1/2 tsp of Cinnamon

1/8 tsp of Cayenne 

1/8 tsp of Turmeric

1/4 tsp Salt and Pepper

Sauce:

1 Medium Red Onion, sliced

4 cups of broth

4 tablespoons of Corn Starch

4 tablespoons of Apricot Preserves

1 tsp of Tomato paste

1 tsp of Ginger paste

3 Cloves of Garlic, minced

2 cups  Dried Apricots, sliced in half lengthwise or cut in quarters 

1/4 cup each  Parsley and Cilantro, chopped 

2 tsp of Cumin

1 tsp of  Smoked Paprika

1/2 tsp of Cinnamon

1/8 tsp of Cayenne 

1/8 tsp of Turmeric

1/4 tsp Salt and Pepper

Okay, time to get our hands dirty. Speaking of dirty hands, wash your hands before cooking. Put all the ingredients in a bowl and mix it together with you hands. Then make little balls about 1 tablespoon big. Now we are going to fry them to get a sear on both sides. First get some olive oil hot in a skillet, you should have a thin layer coating the bottom of the skillet. You will cook the meatballs about 3-4 minutes on each side. You are going for cooking them enough to hold their shape and have a seared edge on both sides. Put these in an oven proof dish and pop them in the over set at about 350 degrees. The meatballs will finish cooking all the way through in the oven.

While the meatballs continue to cook in the over we will make the sauce. Start with the same skillet you cooked the meatballs in and add some oil and scrape up the bits in the pan. When the oil is hot, add your sliced onion. When the onion begins to soften, add the garlic and ginger about 30 seconds. Now, add your spices. Cook and stir until the spices are fragrant. Now, someone should be asking you what you are cooking because it is starting to smell delicious.  

Next, add your apricots and stir for a minute or two. Next pour in your broth and bring to a boil, reduce heat to a simmer. Carefully stir in the apricot preserves into the simmering broth mixture. In a small bowl, dissolve the 4 Tbsp of Corn Starch in 4 Tbsp of water - it will look like milk. Slowly stir this mixture into your savory broth. Stir until it thickens like gravy. Then we will add the meatballs to our lovely sauce and stir in the fresh parsley and cilantro.

This can be served with pita bread, rice or couscous. Yum! This recipe is Ama approved even though I had to convince her to try it in the beginning :)