How To Put a Syrian Spin on Your Hanukkah Feast
Make a batch of keftes—sweet-and-sour Syrian meatballs with cherries and tamarind
December 02, 2015
Micah Siva
Micah Siva
Most Americans associate meatballs with spaghetti and tomato sauce. Sephardic and Middle Eastern Jews think of albondigas or keftes—patties that are often eaten at Hanukkah, because they are sometimes fried in oil.
This Syrian sweet-and-sour keftes recipe—flavored with dried sour or sweet cherries and tamarind sauce and baked rather than fried—has been handed down in the family of Melanie Franco Nussdorf, a Washington, D.C., lawyer who loves to cook the dishes of her ancestors who came to New York from Aleppo five generations ago.
Tamarind, from the Arabic meaning “date from India,” is an ancient sweet-and-sour fruit originally from Africa. From the Middle East, tamarind traveled with Arabs and Jews to Spain and was later brought by the Spanish to Latin America. Tamarind paste, easily purchased today, used to be made at home, via a laborious process of first softening then squeezing in cheesecloth. It is a lovely flavoring component, not only in Syrian cooking, but Persian, Iraqi, Georgian, and Indian dishes.
Within Jewish communities, you often can guess that a dish has Syrian roots if you find tamarind listed in the ingredients. Tamarind was once used the way we use tomatoes today to add acidity, depth, and sweetness to a sauce. Since Melanie’s family recipe also contains tomato paste—a relatively recent addition to Old World cooking—we can tell that it has been updated over the years. But it remains a Syrian dish at heart, perfect for Hanukkah.
Keftes Garaz: Sweet-and-Sour Syrian Meatballs
FOR THE MEATBALLS:
1/2 cup pine nuts
2 sweet onions, diced
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 pounds ground beef
2 cloves garlic, minced
1⁄2 cup matzo meal or bread crumbs
1⁄4 teaspoon ground Aleppo or Marash pepper
1⁄2 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon ground allspice
1⁄4 teaspoon cinnamon
Salt and freshly ground pepper to taste
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon tamarind concentrate
2 teaspoons tomato paste or ketchup
FOR THE SAUCE:
4 tablespoons olive oil
1 diced onion
1 tablespoon tamarind concentrate
1 1⁄2 cups pitted sour cherries (If you cannot find sour cherries, frozen Bing or dark sweet cherries will work just fine)
1 1⁄2 cups dried cherries
Juice of 1 lemon
1 teaspoon ground allspice
Salt and freshly ground pepper to taste
1 cup beef stock
1 cup red wine
2 tablespoons chopped parsley or cilantro
1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
2. Mix ground beef with one diced onion in a large bowl.
3. Toast the pine nuts, stirring often, in a small dry skillet over medium heat, until lightly brown, about 5 to 10 minutes. Remove to a medium bowl.
4. Sauté half the onions in oil on a nonstick frying pan until lightly caramelized, about 20 to 30 minutes.
5. Add the onions to the bowl with the pine nuts, then add the ground beef, garlic, matzo meal or bread crumbs, Aleppo or Marash pepper, cumin, allspice, cinnamon, salt, and pepper. Break the eggs into the bowl and stir in the tamarind and tomato paste or ketchup, mixing gently with your hands until just combined.
6. Mold into small balls, about 1 1⁄4 inches in diameter. Put on 2 rimmed baking sheets and bake for about 20 to 25 minutes or until done, but still juicy. You should get about 40 meatballs.
7. While the meatballs are baking, make the sauce. Heat the oil in a medium saucepan set over medium-high heat. Add the onion and sauté until transparent, then add the tamarind, pitted, sour or frozen cherries, dried cherries, lemon juice, allspice, salt, pepper, beef stock, and wine. Simmer together, uncovered, for about 20 to 25 minutes until the sauce is slightly thickened.
8. Mix the meatballs with the sauce and serve over rice, sprinkled with chopped parsley or cilantro.
Yield: 6 to 8 servings
The Recipe
Joan Nathan is Tablet Magazine’s food columnist and the author of 10 cookbooks including King Solomon’s Table: a Culinary Exploration of Jewish Cooking from Around the World.
