Slow-Cooked Moroc­can Meatballs

Slow-cooked Moroc­can meatballs

(serves 6)

1 kg/2 lbs lean lamb mince

1 cup Panko (Japan­ese) breadcrumbs

1/2 cup milk

2 eggs, beaten

1/2 tsp ground cumin

sea salt and black pepper

sauce:

1 tbsp olive oil

2 tsps ras el hanout seasoning

2 tsps Baharat seasoning

1 tsp ground cumin

2 tsps ground turmeric

dash chilli powder

6 cloves gar­lic, minced

1/2 white onion, minced

4 soup-size tins whole peeled tomatoes

For the meat­balls, sim­ply mix all the ingre­di­ents togeth­er thor­ough­ly and set aside.  To make the sauce, heat the olive oil in a very large, shal­low oven­proof dish and add all the spices, gar­lic and onions.  Fry gen­tly for 1 minute.  Add toma­toes, squeez­ing them into bits as you put them in the cook­ing dish.  Stir well and sim­mer for 15 min­utes on the hob/stovetop.

Make the meat­balls by gen­tly rolling a golf-ball-sized chunk of the meat mix­ture in your hands — it will be a rather wet, frag­ile meat­ball.  Drop each gen­tly into the sim­mer­ing sauce.  Cook for five min­utes on a gen­tle sim­mer, then care­ful­ly turn each meat­ball over.

Place the cook­ing dish into the “slow oven” and sim­mer for at least 1 1/2 hours, but as long as you like, with­in reason!