Moroccan meatballs with lemony couscous

I was down with a really bad fever over the weekend, caused by a raw and inflamed throat. I traced it back to having had extremely hot soup, at which point I had scalded my throat and caused this stupid thing. My throat's still quite raw, but not as bad as it was on Friday. So since I was feeling slightly more human today, I thought to make dinner for R and myself as a thank you of sorts for taking care of me over the past few days.

I need to start planning my photography better... especially with a hungry husband around, rushing me to eat and thus taking away my styling time. That's not entirely fair, I've also just really fallen out of practice and have gotten lazy. I assure you though, the recipe may be simple, the photos may be crap, but the food is good!

Moroccan Meatballs with Lemony Couscous
Serves: 2
Meatballs

• 500g minced lamb (or beef)
• 1/2 red onion, chopped 
• 1 garlic clove, crushed
• 1cm root ginger, grated
• Pinch of dried chilli flakes
• 1 tsp cumin
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• Olive oil
• 1 tin (400g) diced tomatoes
• 100ml chicken stock
• 1/2 bunch coriander, chopped

Couscous

• 100g couscous
• 25g butter
• 175ml chicken stock, boiling
• 1/2 bunch coriander, chopped
• Juice of half a lemon
• Crumbled feta (optional)

1. Combine the minced lamb, onion, half of the garlic, half of the ginger and half of the spices in a medium sized bowl, season lightly and mix with your hands (clean, of course), then form the mix into small meatballs
2. Heat the olive oil in a large, nonstick pan, add the meatballs and cook in batches until they're all nice and browned all around. Remove from the pan and add the remaining crushed garlic, ginger and spices and cook in the oil and meat juices for a while. 
3. Add the tinned tomato (with the liquid) and chicken stock to the pan and allow to simmer for 10 minutes, then add the meatballs back in and cook for 20 minutes. Season well. 
4. Place the couscous and butter in a small-medium heatproof bowl, pour the boiling chicken stock and lemon juice then cover the bowl with clingwrap and leave for 10 minutes. Fluff the couscous with a fork, stir the coriander and feta through and serve with the mealtballs.

Hummus Co's Smoky Chipotle Hummus & Baba Ganoush

It looks like everyone's hopping onto the clean eating initiative these days; everywhere I turn I see "clean" menus, friends on the raw food diet, aunts cutting out all processed foods and ingredients, etc. So with Alena and me on our healthy kick, we've been looking up new recipes and any places in town that would help us sustain this diet. Three weeks in and we've been doing very well, I think!

Some friends of ours from work, Fariz and Aneesha, asked me last week if I'd like to try hummus and baba ghanoush by Hummus Co, a new home made gourmet food producer (company?) in KL. Hummus Co is a brand new company started in December of last year, and they're currently in the process of putting their name and product out there in the market, so since I'm doing this Happiness Initiative anyway, why not share the happiness?

Fariz and Aneesha gave me two sample pots last week, and I've stored them in the office fridge to pair with my packed lunches. But for baba ghanoush, I felt like I needed to do something special! Today, I'll share a recipe for Greek Meatballs that I found somewhere ages ago but never got around to trying (I really can't recall where I found this recipe, so if any reader knows it and could kindly point me to a link to credit, I'd really appreciate it).

 

Greek Meatballs
Yield: 16 1 inch sized balls

• 0.5 kg ground lamb
• 1 clove garlic
• 1 1/2 tbsp mint, chopped
• 1 tbsp flat leaf parsley, chopped
• Zest of 1 lemon
• 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp oregano
• Salt and pepper
• 1 egg
• 1/4 cup dried apricots, chopped

Preheat the oven to 180C, combine all ingredients in a bowl, then shape into balls of around 1 inch in diameter and line them up on a lightly greased baking tray. Bake for 20-22 minutes.

I was going to have an open faced sandwich with baba ghanoush and meatballs, but that all went out the window and I ended up just slathering the delicious eggplanty goodness of baba ghanoush onto the meatballs. The flavour combination was fantastic, and I just kinda wish the sample pot of baba ghanoush was like... 4 times the amount LOL.

I've been experimenting with different types of hummus myself, but haven't strayed far from the basic recipe, so this Smoky Chipotle hummus was a very nice surprise! It was smoky, true to it's name lol, and had just the right amount of heat in each bite. I had this hummus on a slice of good grain bread, with some slices of store bought (probably processed) smoked turkey meat, rocket and lettuce. Amazing, and totally hit the spot for workday lunches.

Anyway, I personally don't mind making my own hummus, but there have been days when I've been too lazy and end up not simply because I don't like the hummus that we can get at the supermarkets in town. Now that I've found Hummus Co, I know where I can go to stock up my office fridge lol. Looking forward to trying out their different flavours.

According to their FB, they have the following flavours:
1. Signature Hummus
2. Tangy Jalapeno Hummus
3. Smoky Chipotle Hummus
4. Greek Olive Hummus (OMG I want to try this one!)
5. Classic Pesto Hummus
6. Rich Sun Dried Tomato Hummus

Check out their facebook page for more information. You can place orders by emailing them at hummusco@gmail.com, for a minimum order of 250g. Unfortunately for a big bulk of my readers, you can only order if you live in Malaysia, preferably in KL as you'll have to pick your order up at their HQ.

They also post up some nifty healthy recipes and options for their products. They have a Mediterranean burger recipe that I've got my eye on. Anyone wanna do a barbecue at my place now that the rainy season has let up?

xx Nabs

P.S. I apologize for the crap iPhone pictures, but I'm definitely going to make these meatballs again over the weekend... might update this depending on how bovvered I am lol.