This guest post is from the beautiful Charlotte Strong – fantasy writer, librarian, climber and walker.  I can’t wait to make this myself as it sounds wonderful. This recipe is made even more awesome by the fact she used the word ‘crozzled’. Is that even a word? If not, it should be.
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Both me and my husband are fans of big flavours, and quick and easy meals you can put together after a day at work.  We’d come across the idea of cheese stuffed meatballs in various places, so we decided to have a go at coming up with our own take.

We picked feta for our cheese because we knew it would soften when cooked, rather than melting and escaping from its meatball prison.  I always use breadcrumbs in any homemade meatball/burger recipe, both to help bind the mixture and because when I’ve tried solid-meat versions they’ve come out a little dry and dense.  For this recipe the only bread we had in the house was a Warburton’s orange fruit loaf, so that’s where the sweet part of this recipe comes from.  For the spice, we started with two of my favourites, ground cumin and ground coriander, combined with fresh garlic and chilli.  For this recipe, we also went with smoked paprika, because the orange and raisins in the fruit loaf had put us in the mood for something a bit Moroccan-ish.

Feta Stuffed Lamb Meatballs

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Serves

2 - 4

Ingredients

• 500g Lamb Mince
• Feta Cheese (cut into cubes)
• 3-4 teaspoons Garlic Puree (or 3-4 crushed cloves)
• ¼ teaspoon Fresh Chilli (finely chopped *)
• 1 teaspoon Dried Cumin
• 1 teaspoon Ground Coriander
• 1 teaspoon Smoked Paprika
• 2 Slices Warburton's Orange Fruit Loaf (or other fruit bread, crumbed **)

Directions

1.	Preheat oven to Gas Mark 4 / 180°C / 350°F
2.	In a large bowl, add the breadcrumbs and spices to the mince and mix well.
3.	For the meatball construction, take a lump of your mince mixture, a little larger than a golf ball, and make a flat patty in the palm of your hand.
4.	Place a cube of feta in the middle, and shape the mince around it until it’s covered.
5.	Fry the meatballs in 2tsp olive oil until nicely crozzled on the outside, then transfer them to the oven for 5-10 minutes to finish cooking through. (I use a metal handled frying pan, which will happily sit in the oven, but if you don’t have one of those then any high-sided roasting tin will do the job. The meatballs will shrink as they cook, so they may split apart a little)
6.	Serve with flatbread or pita, a leafy salad and fruity chutney

Note

* We keep a jar of ready-chopped easy-chilli in the fridge.  Most supermarkets do these now, and they tend to give a consistent level of spice.  A quarter teaspoon gives a mild kick, but if you like things a little hotter add a bit more.  Chilli powder would also work.

 

** Or 1.5 slices white bread, 25g sultanas, 1tsp cinnamon and a half tsp of orange juice.  Add the juice to the mince rather than the breadcrumbs, so they don’t go soggy too soon.