The Tajine Virgin Cooks North African Meatballs in Spicy Sauce.

There is something pretty exotic sounding in ‘Tajine Virgin’. Visions of fleeting glances at the desired mysterious, shrouded in veils, on the edge of a Souk, conjure up that feeling of raw animal anticipation. The allure tends to fade a bit as one realises that the virgin is in fact a baldy, past middle-aged man, with a penchant for flinging himself in at the culinary deep end at every opportunity. Having said that, I suspect there are few better ways to consummate your culinary coming of age than to cook this version of North African Meatballs in Spicy Sauce.

As one would expect when preparing a virgin dish, one doesn’t want to make things too hot. So, I balanced the warmth of the sauce with a serving of Pearl Couscous with Dates. I will avoid any lurid reference to virgins and dates as I am sensitive to the sensibilities of my readers. There may be some new readers too and I wouldn’t want to scare them off on our first date either. Now, back to the matter in hand, North African Meatballs in Spicy Sauce. The ingredients list is long enough.

For the Meatballs

• 1 kilo minced round beef 
• 2 onions
• 3 teaspoons cumin
• 5 cm of fresh ginger, minced.
• 1 heaped teaspoon of chilis flakes
• Salt and pepper to taste
• 1 small tin of tomato purée
• 1 egg
• 1 large handful of panko breadcrumbs
• 1 large handful of parsley
• 1 large handful of coriander

For the sauce

• 1 tin of whole tomatoes 
• 1 small tin of tomato purée
• 1 teaspoon of chili powder
• 1 teaspoon cumin
• 1 cinnamon stick
• 1 pinch or two of allspice 
• 1 teaspoon turmeric
• Zest of half a lemon
• Juice of half a lemon
• 1 large handful of parsley
• 1 large handful of coriander
• Salt and pepper to taste

For the Date Couscous 

• 400 grams of pearl couscous
• 16 or so dates
• Juice of half a lemon
• A handful of chopped spring onions 

The hardest part of this dish is getting everything together. If, you are like me, you will have the ingredients secreted in various presses and drawers around the kitchen. When you have gathered them all together, start by slicing the onions and adding them to a hot tajine to sweat them down a bit.

I avoid all references to the virgin (previously unused) tajine making the onions sweat.

Next, prepare any spices you are grinding yourself (Not something one expects to catch a virgin doing). I prepared the cumin from seed (no joke here) and ground it, having toasted the seeds in a pan.

A good circular motion ensure the seeds are well dispersed and all the flavour gets released….

Gather all the meatball ingredients together and place them in a large mixer.

Everything on the list above is in the bowl. It saves a lot of manual labour.

Mix the ingredients together until combined. Next, make up your balls, as it were.

15 balls from the ingredients above. They are pretty chunky.

Next add all the ingredients for the sauce into the tajine. There will be no need to have washed it after the onions were cooked. It would be a waste of flavour.

The tomatoes will break down when the heat is applied. They have a lovely colour.

When all the ingredients are added, stir to incorporate and turn on the heat to simmer.

There’s lots to talk about in the sauce ingredients. The turmeric adds lovely earthiness.

Cover and simmer for 30 minutes. While this bit of foreplay is going on, it’s time to brown your meat balls. (I could have been very rude here but, I avoided it.)

If I had been better organised, I could have browned them in the tajine. I wasn’t, so I didn’t.

Add the browned balls to the tajine. They might not all fit in. They will if you have a big one. Cover and place in the oven for 30 minutes at 200ºC.

Lovely steamy action going on in the tajine. A virgin no more.

Cook the couscous according to pack instructions and then stir in the other ingredients. Squeeze the lemon juice over and stir again.

The dates add a lovely sweet contrast and the spring onions add a bit of bite.

Gather the diners together and let them witness your coming of age as an experienced tajine cook. You are no longer a virgin.

The spicy sauce and meatballs are sweetened and eased by the lovely date couscous.

There is no going back. You will remember your first time if you cook this delicious take on a classic North African Meatballs. Delicious.