This week is ‘try something totally new week’ and the Middle Eastern cuisine seemed to be worth a try. We have successfully made lamb before but never minced lamb, so we were quite excited about the result.
We do not know an awful lot about lamb meat, but our experience says to choose low fat lamb meat as to much fat might add a wooly taste to the dish. Making meatballs you need at least 5-10% fat to end up with the perfect consistency, and in this instance we will recommend that you choose low fat lamb meat and them some beef with a little more fat – that way you can avoid that your hard work ends up tasting like an old sheep 🙂

Another thing with these meatballs is the spices…. The Middle Eastern cuisine use a lot of interesting spices and one of them is cinnamon. In Denmark we often combine the smell and taste of cinnamon with christmas, cookies, cakes, rise pudding and so on… So when a meat recipe calls for cinnamon, we rethink making it! But today we are both glad that we decided to make these fabulous meatballs, but in our version of the recipe we have only added half of the advised cinnamon and you can still taste it, so we are glad that we did not add the entire recommended amount.

The last thing to comment on before you go ahead and make these delicious meatballs, is the dressing. Or wait… actually, we have nothing else to say than FABULOUS. We will definitely make this dressing again, as it can be served for all sorts of salads, casserole or just as dipping for a good home baked bread 🙂

 

Ingredients (4 servings)

Meatballs

1 pound beef, minced

1 pound lamb, minced

1 egg

2/3 cup bread crumbs

2/3 cup feta cheese, crumbled

4 shallots, minced

4 garlic cloves, minced

1/5 cup parsley, chopped

1/5 cup mint leaves, chopped

1 tsp. ground cumin

1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon

1 tsp. salt

1 tsp. pepper

Canola oil for frying

 

Herb Dressing

1 2/3 cup sour cream

3 tsp. tahin

1/2 cup cilantro, chopped

1/4 cup mint leaves, chopped

1/4 cup parsley, chopped

1 garlic clove, minced

1 lemon, juice

Salt and pepper

 

Garnish

3 tbsp. pine nuts

Mint and cilantro leaves

 

Place all ingredients for the meatball, except canola oil, in a mixing bowl and knead until combined evenly.
Make teaspoon-sized balls and fry them in canola oil for a few minutes until golden brown. Remove the meatballs from the oil and place them in a heat proof dish and bake in the oven at 400F for 15-18 minutes or until they are well done.

While the meatballs bake in the oven, you can prepare the yoghurt. Place all the yoghurt ingredients in a bowl and stir well to combine. Fridge until serving.

Sprinkle the pine nuts and herb leaves over the finished meatballs and serve with yoghurt together with chopped cucumber, tomatoes and naan bread or as we had it, in corn tortillas. 

 

Bon Appétit!

 

Ingredients (4 servings)

Meatballs

450 g beef, minced

450 g lamb, minced

1 egg

1.5 dl cup bread crumbs

1.5 dl feta cheese, crumbled

4 shallots, minced

4 garlic cloves, minced

0.5 dl parsley, chopped

0.5 dl mint leaves, chopped

1 tsp. ground cumin

0.5 tsp. ground cinnamon

1 tsp. salt

1 tsp. pepper

Canola oil for frying

 

Yoghurt

4 dl sour cream

3 tsp. tahin

1.25 dl cilantro, chopped

0.6 dl mint leaves, chopped

0.6 dl parsley, chopped

1 garlic clove, minced

1 lemon, juice

Salt and pepper

 

Garnish

3 tbsp. pine nuts

Mint and cilantro leaves