Lamb Kefta with Poached Eggs (served ten but just barely)

Lamb Kefta with Poached Eggs
(served ten but just barely)

1 1/2 kilos lamb kefta mince, rolled into lit­tle 1-inch meatballs

1/2 cup veg­etable oil
1 white onion, finely minced
10 soup-size cans peeled plum toma­toes
4 cloves gar­lic, minced, if using plain lamb mince
1 tbsp ras el hanout
1 1/2 tbsps ground cumin
1 tbsp lemon-ginger pow­der
1 tbsp sweet paprika
1 tsp cayenne pep­per
1 tbsp salt
fresh ground pep­per to taste
5 tbsps fresh chopped flat-leaf parsley

In a very large, heavy-bottomed deep saucepan, saute the onion in the oil and add toma­toes and all the fla­vor­ings except 3 tbsps of the pars­ley, which should be set aside. Stir occa­sion­ally over a medium heat, break­ing up the toma­toes with a wooden spoon. In my hum­ble opin­ion, there is no place in this life for tinned chopped toma­toes. Don’t you won­der what sort of toma­toes they use when they know they can get away with them not look­ing like a tomato? Just buy whole and break them up dur­ing the cook­ing process, I say.

This sauce must sim­mer for at least two hours, but it can sit almost indef­i­nitely. I bet it is even bet­ter the sec­ond day, but… there was no sec­ond day. We ate it all.

About an hour before you want to serve the dish, drop the meat­balls into the sauce, in one even layer, as many as you can fit (we ended up with 50 meat­balls and about half fit the first time around). Then cover the pan and leave to sim­mer for 20 min­utes. Lift the lid and the meat­balls will be cooked enough to be quite hardy, so you can stir them about to make room for the other half of the meat­balls. Cover again and cook until done, about 30 min­utes. Again, these can sit almost indef­i­nitely with no risk of becom­ing tough.

When the meat­balls are thor­oughly cooked and you are about 10 min­utes away from serv­ing, break eggs, one at a time, into a soup ladle and lower into the sauce, as many as you can fit (we man­aged about 8). Cover and cook until the eggs are poached, about 8 min­utes. Throw the remain­ing pars­ley on top. Resist the temp­ta­tion to play with the eggs until they are cooked through! I didn’t man­age to make the eggs look per­fect, but hey, it was the first time and they tasted lovely any­way. A bite of egg yolk and a bite of meat­ball smoth­ered in the sauce was… divine.

This dish smells like noth­ing in this world. Your guests will feel they have died and gone to heaven, and you will be a star. I served this with steamed pota­toes driz­zled with olive oil and sprin­kled with pars­ley, and a salad made of cucum­bers and dill in sour cream. Oooh, I wish I had some now.

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