Kefta Mkaouara (Moroccan Meatball and Egg Tagine)
Kefta Mkaouara is a Moroccan Meatball Tagine recipe, lightly spiced meatballs are cooked in a tomato sauce with eggs over easy.
- Prep time
- 10 min
- Cook time
- 40 min
- Yield
- 6 servings
- Difficulty
- HARD
Ingredients
- 500 g minced lamb ((or beef, or a mix of both), 10% fat. Lean will tend to dry out.)
- 1 medium onion (finely chopped)
- 2 tsp sweet paprika
- 1/2 chilli powder (or to taste)
- 1 tsp cumin
- 1 tsp salt
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 1 small onion (finely chopped)
- 2 clove garlic (finely chopped)
- 800 g chopped tomatoes ((2 x 400g/14 oz can))
- 1 red capsicum ((bell pepper))
- 1 yellow capsicum ((bell pepper))
- 2 tsp sweet paprika
- 1 tsp cumin
- 1/2 chilli powder
- 125 ml water
- 1 tsp salt (or to taste)
- freshly ground black pepper
- 6 eggs
- finely chopped parsley and coriander/cilantro
- toasted pine nuts or toasted flaked almonds
- grated cheese of your choice (totally optional)
Instructions
- 1
Chop up the onion, parsley and coriander leaves for the meatballs.
- 2
Mix all the meatballs ingredients together in a large bowl, cover, and let sit for 1 hour for the flavours to mingle and develop.In the meantime, wash your hands, and let's get on with the other prep work.
- 3
Finely chop the onion and garlic for the sauce. Set aside.
- 4
Slice the red and yellow capsicums into thin strips about 2.5 cm/1 inch wide.
- 5
Finely chop the parsley and coriander leaves for the final topping now, cover, and keep in the fridge. Or you can do this later after the tagine is cooked.
- 6
Measure and set out all your spices.
- 7
Form little meatballs with the minced meat mixture, wetting your hands as you go along.You should get about 16 - 20, depending on the size.
- 8
Let's start with browning the meatballs in two batches, or 3 if your pan isn't big enough. Heat 1 Tbsp of the oil in a large frying pan on medium heat and fry half the meatballs, shaking the pan gently to roll them about to brown all over. About 3 minutes altogether should suffice.Take them out, set aside and do the next lot.
- 9
Now, take a heavy based saucepan or a tagine and heat 2 Tbsp of oil on medium-high heat for the saucepan. The tagine will take at least 5 minutes to warm up before you can move on to the next step.Remember the diffuser if cooking in a tagine.Click here to read more on how to cook with and care for tagines.
- 10
Sauté the onions and garlic for a minute.Add the pepper and fry for another minute.
- 11
Add all the sauce ingredients and bring to a simmer.If cooking in a tagine, cover and allow about 10-15 minutes for everything to warm up, before lowering the heat down.
- 12
Lower the heat down, cover and cook the sauce and meatballs for 30 minutes. If cooking in a saucepan, stir towards the end as the sauce thickens.
- 13
At the end of this cooking time, make small dips in the sauce and drop the eggs in. Fresher eggs will spread less.
- 14
Cover and cook for 7-10 minutes, until the egg white is set but the yolks are still running.
- 15
If using cheese, sprinkle all over, cover for a minute for the cheese to set.
- 16
Take off the heat, sprinkle the nuts, parsley and coriander all over and serve immediately, as discussed above.