Egg and Ground Meat Tagine {Kefta Mkawra}

If you have been a long time reader here you may be noticing some recipes that I posted a very long time ago are reappearing. I have been doing my best to better document ingredients, measurements and tips and tricks of some of these favorite dishes. I have also been retaking the images.  I hope you’ll agree with me that my pictures have improved and include more step by step images. Just in case you forgot how bad they were I’m putting the picture I originally posted with this recipe at the end of this post.

This recipe is one that I used to make very often because it is easy to do and doesn’t take long to cook.  But as we’ve cut back on red meat, and almost cut it out completely, I hadn’t made it in a long time. Instead of ground beef, which is traditionally used, I substitute ground turkey or ground chicken. Any ground meat will work so feel free to experiment or use what you have on hand.

Using 1 pound of ground meat mix in 1 tbsp crushed garlic, 1/2 onion diced finely, 1 tsp salt, and 1 tsp mild paprika and a small handful of chopped Italian parsley. Mix well with your hand to combine all of the ingredients.  Roll into small balls slightly larger than a grape.

In your tagine add 2-3 tbsp olive oil and 1/2 onion minced finely. Place the tagine on the stovetop on medium heat, using a diffuser if you have an electric range. While this is heating up grate the insides of 3 large hothouse tomatoes (or a similar variety) into a bowl and discarding the skins.  Mix into this 1 tsp turmeric, 2 tsp spicy paprika (sudaniya in Morocco), 2 tsp salt, 1 1/2 tsp cumin, 1 tsp chopped Italian parsley and 1 tsp garlic crushed.   Pour this into the pre-heated tagine.

Arrange the meatballs in the tagine so that they each have a little space to soak up the sauce.  If you have more meatballs than space in the tagine reserve them for another dish.  You do want to make sure there is enough room for some sauce to remain. Cover the tagine and continue to cook on low to medium heat. Check after 30 minutes.  Once the meatballs are cooked through, crack 3 eggs and place on top of the meatballs and sauce.  Cover the tagine again so that the eggs can cook through. Some people like the eggs to be steamed just until they are set but the yolk still is runny, however I cook mine until the yolk is hard. Eat by scooping up bites with crusty bread.

Here’s the link to my original post of this and the picture I spoke of…

Oh and one more thing before I go….it’s launch day!!!

Today I’m launching MarocMama on the Road all about travel and MarocMama at Home about everything else! I hope that if either of those topics interest you, you will join me there and I also hope you will stick with me here too. There are a lot of other great things coming in the next few months as well – it’s going to be a great time!