Keftedes

The second recipe for our first week of Symon Sundays was Keftedes, small lamb (or beef) meatball eaten as appetizers. Being not much of a meat eater, I figured this recipe would be much more appealing to Sage than myself. However I was intrigued by the untraditional spices in this, such as cinnamon and nutmeg, along with cumin and corriander.

These were easy to make, and can be prepped ahead of time and refrigerated until ready to cook. We considered baking these instead of frying, but we decided to stick with the recipe. I didn't get mint for garnishing because I do not like mint at all with food. (Mint is for toothpaste and mouthwash in my mind.) But I wish I'd gotten it anyhow, because our meatballs looked a little bare with just its drizzle of olive oil, cracked pepper and lemon zest.

At very first taste, it just tasted like biting into a hunk of meat to me, but as I continued chewing I bagan to taste the various flavors in this- the cinnamon, the cumin, the lemon- and they became something more than just a meatball. They were really good! We ate ours appetizer-style, but they'd be equally delicious over pasta, drizzled with extra olive oil and lemon. Ashlee has the recipe posted.