Kefta Mkaouara Recipe / Moroccan Meatballs, Egg & Tomato Tagine

I never tire of Rick Stein, nor this Kefta Mkaouara recipe, other wise known as Moroccan Spicy Meatballs with Egg and Tomato Tagine.

This is a mouth watering dish of note, everybody who watches this video will be salivating at the mouth. Meatballs have never looked as good as this before and I doubt they ever will. Rick Stein has such a calming and authoritative tone about him too, some of our tweeps refer to him as Uncle Rick and we have taken to labelling him that too. I enjoy watching him cook far more than Gordon Ramsay or Jamie Oliver, he soothes the soul while his recipes soothe the belly.

Naturally for the best results with this Kefta Mkaouara recipe a Tagine will be useful, if not a regular stove top casserole dish with a lid will do the job just fine.

A Tagine is a North African earthenware pot and gives it’s name to the dishes that are cooked in it. These are slow cooked stews which are braised at low temperatures resulting in very tender meat. The conical lid aids convection and enhances the cooking process. You can find more user friendly ceramic ones nowadays which will produce the same results.

A tip for the novice cooks out there, crack the eggs into a separate bowl first. You don’t want to be fishing for egg shells at that late stage of the game, it will only damper the experience.

Morocco here I come!

Serves: 4 Preparation: 20 min Cooking: 1 hour

Ingredients:

Mince Beef or Lamb	450	g
Fresh Parsley	1	small bunch(s)
Ground Cumin	2	teaspoon(s)
Paprika	1	teaspoon(s)
Onion	1
Tomatoes	900	g
Garlic Cloves	2
Eggs	4
Fresh Coriander	1	small bunch(s)
Olive Oil
Salt & Pepper

Method:

Chop the coriander, parsley, onions and garlic
Peel, de-seed and chop the tomatoes
In bowl mix together the mince, parsley, 1 teaspoon of cumin, 1/2 teaspoon of paprika and some salt & pepper.
Make small meatballs, you should target 28 of them

Cooking:

Heat a little olive oil in a deep pan and brown the meatballs
Remove them from the pan when browned.
Add a little more olive oil to heat up.
Chuck in the onions and cook for about 8-10 minutes until soft & golden
Add the tomatoes, 1 teaspoon of cumin, 1/2 teaspoon paprika, the garlic and salt & pepper
Simmer for 15 minutes until the sauce has begun thicken, what you are looking for is a well concentrated flavour.
Return the meatballs to the sauce
If you are not using an oven proof frying pan with a lid, transfer to a baking dish. Otherwise leave as is.
Make four slight impressions and crack open an egg into each one
Bake in the oven at 200C for 15 minutes
Sprinkle with the coriander and best served with crusty or flat bread.

A little wiki about Kefta

Kefta, also called kofta is a Middle Eastern and South Asian meatball or meatloaf.

In the simplest form, keftas consist of balls of minced or ground meat, usually beef or lamb, mixed with spices and/or onions. In Pakistan and Iran, keftas are usually made of beef and chicken. They are often shaped into meatballs which are prepared with a mixture of ground meat, rice, leeks and some other ingredients. The (Kufteh Tabrizi) is also very popular in Pakistan and forms part of the common diet. The vegetarian varieties, like lauki kofta and shahi aloo kofta, are popular in India.

The meat is often mixed with other ingredients such as rice, bulgur, vegetables, or eggs to form a smooth paste. Keftas are sometimes made with fish or vegetables rather than red meat, especially in India. They can be grilled, fried, steamed, poached, baked or marinated, and may be served with a rich spicy sauce. Variations occur in North Africa, the Mediterranean, Balkans and South Asia. In Pakistan, keftas are made of beef and chicken. Nargisi kefta with eggs are also very popular in Pakistan. According to a 2005 study done by a private food company, there were 291 different kinds of kefta in Turkey including the Inegol Koftesi, where it is very popular. In Arab countries, kufta is usually shaped into cigar-shaped cylinders.

Keftas in South Asian cuisine are normally cooked in a spicy curry and sometimes with whole boiled eggs. These kefta dishes are very popular with South Asian families and are widely available from many Pakistani and Indian restaurants.

When hard-boiled eggs are encased in a layer of the spicy kefta meat, the result is called Nargisi kofta. The British dish Scotch egg may have been inspired by the Moghul dish nargisi kofta (“Narcissus meatballs”).

In Bengal, a region of eastern India, keftas are made with prawns, fish, green bananas, cabbage, as well as minced goat meat.

In the Lebanese cuisine, kefta is usually prepared by mixing the ground beef with onion, parsley, allspice, black pepper and salt.

In Moroccan cuisine, kefta may be prepared in a tagine.

About Rick Stein

Rick Stein opened his first business in Padstow in 1974, and now specialises in fish cookery. His business operates four restaurants, a bistro, a cafe, a seafood delicatessen, patisserie shop, a gift shop and a cookery school. His impact on the local economy of Padstow is such that it has been nicknamed “Padstein” despite the phrase being openly disputed by Rick himself.

In 2009 Rick Stein made his first acquisition in the nearby trading village of St Merryn, which is 3.5 miles from Padstow. When taking over the Cornish Arms public house, which is located on the outskirts of St Merryn, Stein’s stated aim was to ‘keep it a traditional Cornish pub’^.

On 1 October 2009, Rick Stein opened with his fiancee publicist Sarah Burns, “Rick Stein at Bannisters” in Mollymook, on the South Coast of New South Wales, Australia. Rick said at the time of opening, “Ever since a memorable weekend eating Pambula oysters and flathead in Merimbula in the sixties, I’ve had the image of the clean blue sea and sweet seafood of the South Coast fixed in my head so when I was introduced to Mollymook about six years ago I knew that one day I would open up a restaurant celebrating local fish and shellfish but keeping it really simple. Bannisters was the relaxed seaside hotel that I was looking for, so when they asked me if I’d be interested in cooking there I jumped at the opportunity”.

As well as running his business, Rick Stein has become a popular television presenter on food. Gaining early exposure after appearing on Keith Floyd’s 1984 series Floyd On Fish as a guest chef, he was noticed by the show’s producer and was later offered the chance to present his own series, similar in vein to the “travelogue” style of cookery show pioneered by Floyd on BBC television including Rick Stein’s Taste of the Sea, Fruits of the Sea, Seafood Odyssey, Fresh Food, Seafood Lovers’ Guide, Food Heroes, and in 2005 French Odyssey about a memorable journey down the canals of South Western France to the Mediterranean, Mediterranean Escapes. This starts where French Odyssey left off, and explores the Mediterranean coastline and islands in search of the best in the region’s foods. Rick Stein’s Far Eastern Odyssey, travelling around Malaysia, Cambodia, Thailand, Vietnam and Indonesia.

His current television programme is about the cooking of Spain off the beaten track.Stein was often accompanied by his Jack Russell terrier, Chalky, who died in January 2007.

A book has accompanied each series, and his book English Seafood Cookery won the Glenfiddich Award for Food Book of the Year in 1989. Rick Stein was awarded the OBE in the 2003 New Year Honours list for services to tourism in Cornwall.