Katrina Meynik’s chermoula lamb meatballs recipe
Give these lamb meatballs an unexpected twist by adding a bright and flavourful chermoula sauce.
Sometimes you just can’t beat a meal of meat and sauce. Adding chermoula gives these meatballs a glorious unexpected and bright twist. It does need a bit of time on the stove, so it’s a cook-it-on-the-weekend to eat-sometime-during-the-week kinda meal. This also does marvellously well for a double-batch-and-freeze scenario.
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RECIPE: Chermoula lamb meatballs
Ingredients
- 4 slices white bread, crusts removed
- 250ml (1 cup) milk
- 500g minced lamb
- 1 small onion, peeled and diced
- 4 tablespoons chermoula paste
- 1 x 200g block haloumi, grated
- ¾ cup chopped flat-leaf parsley, plus extra to serve
- 2 garlic cloves, crushed
- 1 large egg, lightly beaten
- Extra-virgin olive oil, for frying
- Coriander sprigs, to serve
Sauce
- 3 tablespoons olive oil
- 2 onions, finely diced
- 3 tablespoons chermoula paste
- 5 garlic cloves, crushed
- 800g tinned crushed tomatoes
- 1 lemon, thinly sliced
- 60g tomato paste
- 2 teaspoons brown sugar
- 500ml (2 cups) chicken stock
Method
- Make the meatballs by soaking the bread in the milk until soft. Squeeze the bread to remove any residual milk. Add the soft bread to a large bowl with the lamb, onion, chermoula paste, haloumi, parsley, garlic and egg. Season, then get your hands in there. Massage the ingredients until fully incorporated. Roll mixture into golf ball-sized meatballs. Set aside on a tray.
- In a heavy-based large frying pan or saucepan, heat the olive oil over medium heat and, working in batches, sear the meatballs all over until golden, about 5 minutes. Remove from the pan and set aside. Make the sauce in the same pan by adding the olive oil. Once hot, sauté the onions until soft and translucent. Add the chermoula paste and garlic and cook for another 1-2 minutes. Add tomatoes, lemon, tomato paste and brown sugar and give everything a good stir. Add the stock and simmer for 10-15 minutes or until the sauce has begun to thicken and reduce.
- Place the seared meatballs in the sauce and continue to cook for 40 minutes or until the sauce has thickened and the flavours have intensified. Taste and season. Scatter with the coriander when ready to serve. Serves 6
RECIPE: Chermoula paste
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon coriander seeds, toasted in a dry pan until fragrant
- 1 tablespoon cumin seeds, toasted in a dry pan until fragrant
- 1 preserved lemon, or to taste
- 1 cup flat-leaf parsley leaves
- 1 cup coriander leaves
- 375ml (1.5 cups) extra-virgin olive oil
- 8 garlic cloves, peeled
- 2 teaspoons sumac
- 4 teaspoons aleppo pepper
- 2 teaspoons sweet smoked paprika
- 2 teaspoons salt
- 1 teaspoons turmeric
Method
- Using a mortar and pestle, grind the coriander and cumin. Rinse the preserved lemon; scrape off and discard the pulp. Transfer the peel to a blender or food processor with the remaining ingredients and blend until combined but still a little chunky. Store in a jar in the fridge for a few weeks.
- Makes about 2 cups
This is an edited extract from From Salt To Jam by Katrina Meynink (Hardie Grant, $40).