{"id":7422,"date":"2019-02-04T17:18:55","date_gmt":"2019-02-04T17:18:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.burnedatthesteak.com\/blog\/?p=7422"},"modified":"2019-02-05T00:10:33","modified_gmt":"2019-02-05T00:10:33","slug":"middle-eastern-meatballs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.burnedatthesteak.com\/blog\/2019\/02\/04\/middle-eastern-meatballs\/","title":{"rendered":"Middle Eastern Meatballs"},"content":{"rendered":"

The other weekend, Elizabeth invited us over for dinner to celebrate her eldest’s birthday and the food theme was decidedly Middle Eastern.\u00a0 She requested that I\u00a0 bring the cherry meatballs.\u00a0 Of course it has cherries!\u00a0 You know my cherry fetish well by now.<\/p>\n

This particular dish has been requested by all of my friends at one time or another and as such, has developed quite the following.\u00a0 Jennifer wanted it for her house warming party.\u00a0 You first saw them in my post from the Old 99 beer pairing dinner, The Night Circus, where we adapted it to an amuse bouche because Amanada wanted them.<\/p>\n

It’s actually a riff of a recipe out of Syria.\u00a0 I found it in a cookbook I originally bought because I had to have a different recipe in the book.\u00a0 That’s how I amass cookbooks.\u00a0 I see one recipe and I immediately need the entire book.\u00a0 This particular book funded women refugees.\u00a0 I was sold.\u00a0 And frankly, it’s gotten a lot of use since it arrived a year ago.\u00a0 It’s called Our Syria Recipes from Home, by Hab Azzam and Dina Mousawi.\u00a0 Get the book….it’s fantastic.<\/p>\n

These particular meatballs, or kebab, is it’s called in the book, are made with ground lamb.\u00a0 They’re actually pretty easy to assemble as it’s just minced parlsey and onion and some salt and pepper.\u00a0 The book says to serve it with flatbreads, but I do it with jasmine rice scented with herbs de provence.\u00a0 I omit the pine nuts because frankly, I don’t think pine nuts are so delicious that they warrant twenty bucks or more a pound and the already expensive dish is delicious without them.\u00a0 Walnuts or even pistachios would be fine.<\/p>\n

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I use frozen cherries from Costco.\u00a0 They enable my cherry habit.\u00a0 Making the cherry sauce isn’t hard and the marriage of the meatballs and the sauce is nothing short of magical.\u00a0 The book calls for fresh cherries, but that’s only possible for a brief period once a year.\u00a0 And to be honest, I’d rather just eat the cherries fresh rather than cooking them into oblivion.<\/p>\n

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Cherry Meatballs<\/h2>\n
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Ingredients<\/h3>
  • 2<\/span> lbs<\/span> frozen cherries<\/span><\/li>
  • 1<\/span> cup<\/span> water<\/span><\/li>
  • 2<\/span> lbs<\/span> ground lamb<\/span><\/li>
  • 1 16<\/span> oz<\/span> pomegranate juice<\/span><\/li>
  • 1\/2<\/span> cup<\/span> minced parsley<\/span><\/li>
  • 1<\/span> cup<\/span> minced white onion<\/span><\/li>
  • 1<\/span> teaspoon<\/span> cinnamon<\/span><\/li>
  • 1<\/span> tablespoon<\/span> Kosher salt<\/span><\/li>
  • 1<\/span> tablespoon<\/span> fine ground black pepper<\/span><\/li><\/ul><\/div><\/div>\n

    Instructions<\/h3>
    • Preheat the oven to 350 and line a baking sheet with parchment. Pour the pomegranate juic into a sauce pan and bring to boil.\u00a0 Reduce the juice down to a thin syrup for about on hour, turning down the heat intermittently to avoid burning as it reduces.<\/div><\/li>
    • Combine the lamb, onion, parsley, salt and pepper in a bowl.\u00a0 Form into small meatballs slightly smaller than ping pong balls.\u00a0 Place on the baking sheet and bake until just starting to brown, about 20 minutes.<\/div><\/li>
    • Meanwhile, in a large deep saute pan, combine the frozen cherries, water, and cinnamon on medium high heat.\u00a0 Lower the heat to medium low when the mixture starts bubbling.\u00a0 Add the pomegranate syrup when it's reduced by about three quarters.<\/div><\/li>
    • Add pepper to taste and begin crushing the cherries somewhat with the back of a wooden spoon.\u00a0 Add the finished meatballs and all the juices from the meatballs, lower the heat to simmer, and stir frequently.<\/div><\/li>
    • Garnish with mint or parsley or nuts.\u00a0 Or all of them!\u00a0 Serve with rice.\u00a0 Or Naan!\u00a0 Or pita!\u00a0 Go crazy!<\/div><\/li><\/ul><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n<\/div><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

      The other weekend, Elizabeth invited us over for dinner to celebrate her eldest’s birthday and the food theme was decidedly Middle Eastern.\u00a0 She requested that I\u00a0 bring the cherry meatballs.\u00a0 Of course it has cherries!\u00a0 You know my cherry fetish well by now. This particular…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7425,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wprm-recipe-roundup-name":[],"wprm-recipe-roundup-description":[],"spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.burnedatthesteak.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/8147D5D9-E18C-4E96-8772-3953D174C5C5.jpg","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pagICo-1VI","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.burnedatthesteak.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7422"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.burnedatthesteak.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.burnedatthesteak.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.burnedatthesteak.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.burnedatthesteak.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7422"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.burnedatthesteak.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7422\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7442,"href":"https:\/\/www.burnedatthesteak.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7422\/revisions\/7442"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.burnedatthesteak.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7425"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.burnedatthesteak.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7422"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.burnedatthesteak.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7422"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.burnedatthesteak.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7422"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}