Meatballs can be so satisfying and also convenient, as pretty much all the work can be done in advance.
Ingredients
Chermoula, the paste used to flavour the meatballs, is a North African spice mixture that has hundreds of different uses and is a tremendously handy condiment to have in your fridge. I sometimes drizzle a little of it over a fried egg or rub a mackerel fillet with it before roasting or frying.
Leftover cooked potatoes - given a light crush, then a drizzle of the paste and roasted until crispy are terrific.
Cooked green beans, courgettes, broccoli and cauliflower also lap it up. If you would like to prepare this dish ahead, you can assemble it, ready for the oven, but don’t add the hot chicken stock until you are about to put it into the oven to cook.
Serve the meatballs with grilled sourdough bread and a salad of bitter leaves.
Serves 8
- 6 red onions, peeled and quartered
- 6 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
- 2 sprigs of fresh thyme
- sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
- 2 white onions, peeled and finely chopped
- 2 large garlic cloves, peeled and crushed to a paste
- 450g minced belly or shoulder of pork
- 450g minced chicken, preferably a mixture of both white and brown meat
- 70g fresh white breadcrumbs
- 1 egg, lightly beaten
- 3 tablespoons chermoula
- 2 tablespoons grated Parmesan
- 2 tablespoons chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
- 2 tablespoons chopped fresh marjoram
- 600g cherry tomatoes, peeled and seasoned with salt, pepper and caster sugar
- 550ml chicken stock
Chermoula
Makes 125ml
- 2 large garlic cloves, peeled and roughly chopped
- ½–1 medium-hot fresh red chilli, de-seeded and chopped
- 4 tablespoons olive oil
- 2 tablespoons roughly chopped fresh coriander leaves
- 1½ teaspoons ground roasted cumin seeds
- 1½ teaspoons sweet paprika
- 1 level teaspoon saffron strands pinch of salt
To finish
- 50g green olives, stoned and coarsely chopped zest of 1 lemon 3 tablespoons chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
To serve
- Grilled sourdough bread
Method
- Preheat the oven to 200°C. 2 Toss the red onions in 2 tablespoons of the olive oil. Add the thyme and season with salt and pepper.
- Place in a single layer on a roasting tray and cook in the oven for about 30 minutes, until just tender. Reserve for the final assembly of the dish.
- Heat another 2 tablespoons of olive oil in a heavy-bottomed saucepan, then add the chopped onions and garlic.
- Toss to coat in the oil and cover with a piece of greaseproof paper and a tight-fitting lid. Cook on a very low heat for about 15 minutes to sweat and tenderise without colouring. When cooked, remove from the heat and allow to cool completely.
- To make the meatballs, put the minced pork and chicken, breadcrumbs, egg, chermoula, Parmesan, parsley and marjoram in a large bowl along with the cooled onions and garlic. Mix and season to taste with salt and pepper.
- Fry a tiny morsel of the mixture and taste to check if any further seasoning is required.
- Form the mixture into 50g balls. This should yield approximately 24 meatballs.
- Heat the remaining 2 tablespoons of the olive oil in a heavy frying pan set over a medium heat. When the oil is hot, add the meatballs in a single layer, not too tightly packed. Allow them to sit on the heat undisturbed until they colour well before turning them over to colour on all sides. It may be necessary to brown the meatballs in several batches if your pan is not quite large enough. This is important because if you overfill the pan, they will just stew and not develop the delicious flavour from being well coloured at this initial cooking stage. You are not trying to cook the meatballs through at this stage – you are just colouring them.
- To assemble the dish, scatter the roasted red onions in a large low-sided gratin-type dish and place the meatballs in and around the onions.
- Add the cherry tomatoes seasoned with a pinch of salt, pepper and sugar. Bring the chicken stock to a simmer, then pour it over. Cover the dish with a dampened sheet of parchment paper.
- Place in the oven and cook for 1 hour, until the meatballs are cooked through and feel just firm to the touch.
- Finish the dish with a scattering of the olives, the lemon zest and chopped parsley and serve with grilled sourdough bread.
Chermoula
This is a terrific highly flavoured and spice-laden mixture from North Africa. I love to use it with oily fish such as salmon, mackerel and sardines.
It is also great stirred into a bean or lentil soup and folded through couscous. I sometimes smear a little over a grilled steak, lamb or pork chop just before they come off the pan, in which case I like to turn the piece of meat a couple of times on the pan to expose the chermoula to the heat and slightly caramelise it.
Lemon wedges and coriander and mint leaves make the perfect garnish for the grilled meats. The mixture holds perfectly in the fridge for two weeks.
Method:
- Place all the ingredients in a food processor and blend to a smooth purée.
- Taste and correct the seasoning.
- Transfer to a covered container such as a jam jar and refrigerate until needed.
