Balls of Meat

                   Past few days I’ve had balls on the brain.  Balls of steel, ball games, ballers, cake balls, cheese balls, blue balls (I watched Something About Mary the other day. That scene at the beginning with Ben Stiller and the zipper…lol) Most obvious ball that seems to be popping up everywhere is meatballs. Every food blog lately seems to be doing a rendition of meatballs. It appears ladies and gentleman that meatballs have made a come back. So of course I thought I would jump on the wagon and do my own version. I hadn’t made meatballs in quite some time, and so it was the perfect time. Preparation time is about 10 minutes and cooking time is at least one hour.  I kept the ingredients very simple, but you can add other ingredients to this dish to make it more exciting such as caned green peas, or green beans. My mom (and other Iranian moms) call this type of meatballs; kaleh gonjeshky, which means bird head. I can only imagine the name is to reference the shape of a tiny head.  Regardless of what the Iranians call it, meatballs are simple and tasty and can fill up your hungriest guests. 

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Ingredients:
- 2 onions
- 0.500kg pack of ground beef
- 1/2 teaspoon ground pepper
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 1/2 teaspoon turmeric 
- 1/2 table spoon ghee or oil
- 1 cup tomato past
- 1 lemon
                                                                                        - 1 cup baby carrots
                                                                                         - 1 large tomato

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Peel one onion.
Cut small enough to fit in your mixer and mix as fine as possible.
Put the onions in a large bowl.

In the same bowl, put in your pack of meat.
Add all your spices; pepper, salt and turmeric.
Roll up your sleeves and get in there with your hands to give it a good mixing.
Make sure all the onions and spices have been well mixed in. 
Set bowl aside. 

In a deep pan, bring your oil to heat.
Cut your second onion and put in pan to fry.
Fry until light brown and have the heat between low and medium. 
While the onions are frying, take small handfuls of your meat mixture and roll into balls. They should be about 1" in diameter.
Place balls on the onions in pan. 

If you notice the onions or the meatballs sticking add 1/4 cup water. Leave heat on medium. 
While your meat is cooking, put the tomato paste in a small bowl and add one cup water to it.
Mix it so that the paste dissolves.
Add the tomato paste solution to your meat in the pan. 

Let it cook on medium heat for 10 minutes.
Cut your lemon in half and squeeze one half in your pan. 
Add your baby carrots.
Cut the tomato in large cubes and add in as well. 
Cover and cook for 20 minutes.

Squeeze the second half of the lemon in now.
Cover and cook for 30 minutes.
** if you wanted to add in a can of green peas or green beans, this is the time to do so. Drain the water in the can first.

Let it simmer on low for another 15- 20 minutes. 
As long as there is enough water in your pan, the longer it simmers, the more flavor.
Once the red juice and the oil separate, it is now ready to be served.

Enjoy with rice or with bread.