Recipe | Chicken
Meat Balls (Marie Haviv)

A couple of meat ball variations from Marie Haviv:

Meat balls

Galit's mum, Marie, serves these meat balls with Couscous for the Saturday lunch. The Haviv's are Tunisian so expect a good hearty meal. I've also seen, but not tried, a similar recipe which has an extra egg in the meat balls, but doesn't coat them in egg and flour.

1/2 kg chicken or turkey minced
2 onions chopped finely (or grated) & dried with a paper towel
3 cloves garlic, minced
3 - 4 thin slices of white bread, soaked & squeezed
1 egg
Parsley, small bunch, leaves only, chopped & dried with a paper towel
Salt and black pepper

  • Mix

  • Shape

Flour

  • Dip balls in flour

Egg & water beaten

  • Dip floured meat balls in egg

  • Fry

3-4 heaped teaspoons tomato paste
2 cups water
Salt & Pepper
[Optional] 2 cloves garlic, minced and sautéed

  • Add to pot

  • Add fried meat balls to the sauce

  • Simmer (Marie simmers until the sauce is quite dry, but you might want a wetter sauce)

  • Serve with couscous, rice, pasta, etc

"Bullet" Variation

Marie sometimes make a variation called a "Bullet". It is the same as her basic recipe, but has vegetables on each side of the meat ball, like a sandwich. I confess I'll less keen about this option.

Uncooked slices of vege (eg potatoes, aubergine, capsicum)

  • Put uncooked slices of vege (eg potatoes, aubergine, capsicum) on each side of an uncooked meat ball like a sandwich

Egg
Breadcrumbs

  • Dunk the enhanced meat ball in egg then breadcrumbs

  • Then fry as normal.