moroccan kefta

If you haven't made Kayotic Kitchen's kefta yet, do so AT ONCE. I just bookmarked it a couple of days ago and happened to have all the ingredients except the flat-leaf parsley (which was easily procurable at a moment's notice - expensive, but accessible).

I knew as soon as I saw it that the exotic blend of spices would grab my tastebuds and never let go - and I was right. We ooh-ed and ahhhhh-ed over this - and our three-year-old even ate some!

What I did differently:

• Didn't use a chili pepper - just added some extra cayenne.
• Used my new microplane grater (thank you for the lovely White Day present, Stephen!) to grate some of the Vietnamese cinnamon that I won.
  
• I also used the grater to zest one of the lemons I used for the recipe and I added the zest into the meatball mixture, then used half a lemon in the sauce instead of a whole.
• Didn't have any powdered ginger so used all fresh.
  
• Used 300 g (about 3/4 pound) of meat instead of a whole pound and just adjusted accordingly.
• Served it on couscous with a side salad (splashed with grapefruit dressing) and some kabocha (Japanese pumpkin) baked with lemon, olive oil, salt, pepper, and parsley (recipe here - originally from Coffee and Vanilla).
  

This is not a weeknight meal because of the time intensiveness of it (did bits and pieces at a time on a Sunday), but man alive, this is GOOD stuff. Gimme gimme gimme some more!