{"id":713,"date":"2010-08-15T19:36:47","date_gmt":"2010-08-16T02:36:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/melinakantor.com\/?p=713"},"modified":"2010-08-19T18:08:55","modified_gmt":"2010-08-20T01:08:55","slug":"moroccan-sephardic-meatballs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/melinakantor.com\/?p=713","title":{"rendered":"Moroccan (Sephardic) Meatballs"},"content":{"rendered":"

Compliments of my wonderful friend Ruth <\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n

\"\"<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

Actually, Ruth is more than a friend. She’s family. I’ve known her since I was about 3 and a student in her “Tot Shabbat” class at the Jewish Community Center. I still remember making itty-bitty loaves of challah to bring back to my mother.<\/p>\n

During my junior year abroad in Jerusalem, Ruth’s family became my family. I travelled south to Beersheba and the surrounding towns a few times to spend time with her wonderfully warm relatives.<\/p>\n

What spiced the visits up – literally – is that her family is originally Moroccan. Ten years later I still remember her mother’s fish with garbanzo beans. Wow<\/em>. Even more incredible was her sister’s seder. Even with the lack of matzoh ball soup (the Sephardim<\/a> don’t do that), the new melodies and traditions (like passing the seder plate over our heads) made it my favorite seder ever.<\/p>\n

Ruth was over a few nights ago, and she brought Moroccan meatballs with her. So of course I had to get the recipe and share it with you. But you’ll have to keep in mind that this is her mother’s recipe – meaning that it’s totally instinctive – so I’ve got no amounts for us to work with here.<\/p>\n

Note: I’m posting this in conjunction with a recipe for Israeli couscous<\/a>.<\/p>\n

According to Ruth:<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Mix 1 lb of ground beef with with very finely chopped onions and garlic (and maybe a bit of potato).<\/p>\n

Add an egg.<\/p>\n

Add salt, pepper, cumin, nutmeg and cinnamon.<\/p>\n

To see if the seasoning needs adjustment, Ruth, and a bunch of Food Network chefs, recommend cooking one tiny meatball just to taste.<\/p>\n

Put the meatballs in a pot. Cover with water and \/ or broth.<\/p>\n

Add tumeric and some olive oil. Boil for a while. And then simmer.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

At the end, turn the leftover liquid into sauce by adding peas, mushrooms, carrots, etc.<\/p>\n

<\/a>\"\"<\/p>\n

Hope you’ll try this recipe and pass along any tips you learned along the way! I ended up with way too much liquid. I removed the meatballs and reduced it. But next time, I’ll know.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

(Shown here with Israeli couscous<\/a>, organic tomatoes, squash, and olive bread from the farmer’s market. Mom went this morning and got a ton of loot<\/a>.)<\/p>\n

Enjoy!<\/p>\n

P.S. Here’s some good music for you, to set the mood. The last two minutes, when Sarit Hadad<\/a> breaks out the riq<\/a>, are the best. Actually, the Egyptian version of this song is one of my ringtones.\u00a0Anyway, play this whilst cooking and I swear, the flavor will improve!<\/p>\n

[youtube]http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=co1F0X_qnr0[\/youtube]<\/p>\n

\n

\n

\"\"<\/p>\n


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Compliments of my wonderful friend Ruth Actually, Ruth is more than a friend. She’s family. I’ve known her since I was about 3 and a student in her “Tot Shabbat” class at the Jewish Community Center. I still remember making itty-bitty loaves of challah to bring back to my mother. During my junior year abroad […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-713","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-recipes"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/melinakantor.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/713","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/melinakantor.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/melinakantor.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/melinakantor.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/melinakantor.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=713"}],"version-history":[{"count":17,"href":"https:\/\/melinakantor.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/713\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":735,"href":"https:\/\/melinakantor.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/713\/revisions\/735"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/melinakantor.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=713"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/melinakantor.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=713"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/melinakantor.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=713"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}