This comes from a cookbook entitled, Flavors and Delights of Yeruham. Yeruham is a small town in the Negev desert. Many of the people who live there came from Morocco originally. This book is filled with recipes from the “Culinary Queens” of Yeruham and stories about their lives and their journeys to Israel.
Ingredients
Sauce:
26-ounce can crushed Italian plum tomatoes
1 tablespoon sweet red paprika (if you like spicy, you may substitute the sweet paprika for hot)
3 tablespoons oil
1 tablespoon tomato paste
3 tablespoons vegetable oil
2 onions, minced
2 slices bread
1 pound ground beef
2 tablespoons chopped cilantro
¼ teaspoon ground black pepper
½ teaspoon Kosher salt
1 teaspoon Ras el-Hanout spice mix*
¼ teaspoon cinnamon
¼ teaspoon turmeric
Preparation
- Heat oil in a large frying pan and fry onions until brown over medium high. Set aside to a cool burner and let cool.
- Wet bread with water and wring out excess. Place ground beef in a large bowl. Crumble bread, add cilantro, spices and fried onion. Mix well with hands.
- Let mixture sit for 10 minutes. Form small meatballs with wet hands.
- In a large saucepot over high heat, add crushed tomatoes and tomato paste. Combine paprika and oil. Add to crushed tomatoes.
- Place meatballs in bubbling sauce, making sure there is enough sauce to cover meatballs. If not, add a little water. Cover and cook on low heat for 45 minutes.
*Ras el-Hanout, Arabic for "head of the shop," is a spice mix from North Africa. The mixture may consist of over a dozen spices including cardamon, clove, cinnamon, ground chili peppers, coriander, cumin, peppercorn, paprika, fenugreek and turmeric.
Yield: 4
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