Grilled Middle Eastern Meatballs

Of all the grumbling I've been known to do about living in semi-rural non-suburbia, I do have to note one sparkling diamond in the rough. About 15 minutes away, we have a spectacular Mediterranean restaurant. It's been there maybe two years and their food is wonderful. It's run by a Lebanese family, I think, and they are always so nice. Every time we go, the same girl waits on us. She's great and the Husband is totally smitten with her accent and tiny diamond nose piercing. Hmm, maybe I'll get one of those while he's away at the academy and surprise him when he gets home one weekend! Or, maybe not.

Grilled Middle Eastern Meatballs

TOTAL TIME: 25 MIN
SERVINGS: 4
Ingredients
1 pound ground chuck
1/2 small onion, finely chopped
1 garlic clove, minced
1 tablespoon minced flat-leaf parsley
1 1/2 teaspoon minced fresh mint
1 1/2 teaspoons zatar
1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground pepper
Bibb lettuce leaves and plain yogurt, for serving


Light a grill. In a medium bowl, gently mix the chuck with the onion, garlic, parsley, mint, zatar, salt, cumin and pepper. Form the meat into 1 1/2-inch balls and flatten them to 3/4 inch thick patties. Grill the meatballs over moderately high heat until pink in the center, about 2 minutes per side. Wrap the grilled meatballs in lettuce leaves and serve with yogurt.

The menu at the Mediterranean restaurant offers a variation of this dish and I was so excited when I found this recipe and decided to use it for my cooking conquest. Now even though it says 'meatballs,' these are, in fact, just like tiny burgers. The prep was super easy and the ground meat and spice mixture resulted in nine meatballs, halving the recipe like I have for all of the others so far. They grilled up quickly, too, so some of them got a little crispy.


So what did they taste like? Let me just say that my picture taking skills don't do this meal justice. Good? Yeah. Really good? Uh-huh. Awesome? Yeah, I'll go there. This tasted much, much better than I had ever hoped. First off, it just had this Mediterranean smell and general taste. Know what I mean? I think it was the spices, which I'll get into in a second. I didn't purchase Bibb lettuce to go with the meatballs because I didn't want to buy a whole head of lettuce just for one dish and have to waste the rest of it when it didn't get eaten. Small dollops of the plain yogurt on top were great and it added just the right amount of moisture to some of the drier, overcooked meatballs. They were terrific and I downed all nine of them in short order.


Now, these spices. Most everyone has salt, cumin, pepper, garlic and maybe even dried parsley on hand. But the thing that threw me was the spice Zatar. I was positive I would never find it here where I live. I looked it up online and it was available through Amazon for about $5, but I didn't feel like paying that much for an unknown substance. So I was mentioning this quandary to a co-worker on Tuesday and another co-worker overheard our conversation. She enlightened us to an international market near our office that carries lots of imported foods and spices. Eureka! So this afternoon, I went out there and basically hit the gastronomic jackpot. Spotted Dick and Garam Masala and Vegemite, oh my! I could have spent hours and lots of money in this place. It's this little store in a nondescript warehouse with four aisles of the most wonderful and strange food products you could ever imagine. For instance, I found a bag of dried fish. And, folks, that's what it was. It looked like a bag of dried anchovies or minnows all staring at you through the plastic, begging for you to reconstitute them and let them free in the nearest creek. Weird candy, Jesus candles, Chinese black beans, Nutella, guava paste and tons of other foods I've forgotten. But one of the aisles was full of little bags of spices. To my amazement, I found a spot labeled 'Zatar.' To my horror and dismay, there was none left. So I found the store manager and asked him if he had any more in stock and lo and behold, he went behind the counter and gave me a bag of green zatar. As in, gave it to me free of charge. Gratis. He said, "You can have this. Just take it home, you know, see if you like it." I was incredulous. And because of his generosity, I purchased $10 worth of things I really didn't need, but it all looked good and fun. So now that I know this little store exists, I'll be there much more than my wallet would appreciate, I'm sure, but I know every trip would be worth it.


So that's the story of zatar and Middle Eastern Meatballs. This recipe is a total keeper and I can't wait to share it with the Husband when he gets home.