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| Timeline | Preparing Meatballs | Preparing Tomato and bell pepper sauce | Preparing rice |
| 0 min | Heat the olive oil in a skillet over medium heat. Add the onion and cook for about 5 minutes, stirring occasionally, until soft but not brown. Remove the skillet from the heat, and allow the onion to cool. | Heat the olive oil in a pan over medium heat. Add the garlic, shallots and bell peppers and cook for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the peppers are soft but not brown. | |
| 10 min | Add the onion to the lamb with the egg, lemon juice, cumin, cayenne, mint, salt and pepper in a large bowl. Use your hands to squeeze all the ingredients together. With wet hands, shape the mixture into small balls. | Add the tomatoes, orange rind and salt and pepper and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat as far as possible and let simmer uncovered for 45 minutes, or until the liquid evaporates and the sauce thickens. This will take 50 minutes in all. | |
| 20 min | Place on a baking sheet and chill for at least 20 minutes. | ||
| 30 min | To cook the rice, allow 5 minutes for it to come to the boil | ||
| 40 min | 20 minutes rice simmering time | ||
| 50 min | Heat a small amount of oil in a skillet, and arrange as many of the meatballs as possible in a single layer but without over-crowding them. Cook over medium heat for about 5 minutes, until brown on the outside but still pink inside. Probably you need to cook two times for such amount of meat. So, it will take 10 minutes at all. | Puree the sauce through a sieve or in a food processor. Taste and adjust the seasoning if necessary. |