Moroccan Meatball Stew with a Christine Glover Twist

I love Middle Eastern food and Moroccan food. When I saw this recipe on Pinterest, I knew I had to make it. ~Christine Glover

Serves 4 – 6

Soak together:

1/2 cup bread crumbs (I used Planko crumbs)
1/4 cup milk (I used skim milk)

Add:

2 lbs. ground lamb (or beef)–I used Costco’s ground turkey
1 tsp. dry oregano
1/4 tsp. ground nutmeg
1 beaten egg
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. black pepper
2 tbsp. Worcestershire sauce

Mix well and form into 1 1/2 inch balls. Fry the meatballs in in olive oil to brown on all sides. Remove meatballs to a covered, oven safe pan.

Note: I didn’t make balls because the turkey mixture was too soft. Plus, I decided to bake the meat rather than fry it. So I basically had to drop plops of the turkey onto a lightly oil sprayed cookie sheet. I baked them for 35 minutes at 350 degrees, then brought them out to cool. Only one went missing because a naughty cat likes spicy food, too. Who knew Mischief had such an exotic palate?

Then I took my Dutch oven and put a little olive oil into it and cooked the following ingredients.

1 diced carrot
1 stalk diced celery
4 cloves chopped garlic
1 diced red onion
Sauté together until the onions soften, then add this mixture to the pan with the meatballs along with:
6 cups diced canned tomatoes
3/4 cup currents — my local Alabama grocery store didn’t have currents, so I got golden raisins and regular raisins instead. Still yummy, but would love to have currents in my pantry.
1/2 cup raisins
3 bay leaves
1 tsp. ground coriander
1 tsp. ground cardamom
1 tsp. turmeric
2 tsp. ground cumin
4 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp. ground cloves
1/2 tsp. ground nutmeg
1 small red chile minced or 1 tbsp chili paste
2 tbsp. brown sugar
salt and pepper to season

Place in a 350 degree oven, covered for about and hour, then add:

2 cups cooked or canned chickpeas, rinsed

Return to the oven for an additional hour at 325 degrees F. In the last 10 minutes of cooking time you can add:

1 cup olives (optional) I left out the olives. I didn’t think they were necessary and might have overpowered the meal. Had I added olives, I would have added black pitted ones.

Serve over couscous.

I LOVED this recipe. The dish was so aromatic while it cooked and super delicious. And it was really easy to make. I might try to make it with lamb next time, but I liked the ground turkey plops just fine. Hope you try it and while you’re waiting for the stew to cook through, check out my heroes on my Pinterest board here. And stay tuned for the day I release my super secret Pinterest Board featuring The Maverick’s Red Hot Reunion.

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