Chop up the onion, parsley and coriander leaves for the meatballs.
Mix all the meatballs ingredients together in a large bowl, cover, and let sit for 1 hour for the flavours to mingle and develop.In the meantime, wash your hands, and let's get on with the other prep work.
Prep Work - Aromatics and Peppers
Finely chop the onion and garlic for the sauce. Set aside.
Slice the red and yellow capsicums into thin strips about 2.5 cm/1 inch wide.
Finely chop the parsley and coriander leaves for the final topping now, cover, and keep in the fridge. Or you can do this later after the tagine is cooked.
Measure and set out all your spices.
Form the Meatballs
Form little meatballs with the minced meat mixture, wetting your hands as you go along.You should get about 16 - 20, depending on the size.
Let's get Cooking
Let's start with browning the meatballs in two batches, or 3 if your pan isn't big enough. Heat 1 Tbsp of the oil in a large frying pan on medium heat and fry half the meatballs, shaking the pan gently to roll them about to brown all over. About 3 minutes altogether should suffice.Take them out, set aside and do the next lot.
Now, take a heavy based saucepan or a tagine and heat 2 Tbsp of oil on medium-high heat for the saucepan. The tagine will take at least 5 minutes to warm up before you can move on to the next step.Remember the diffuser if cooking in a tagine.Click here to read more on how to cook with and care for tagines.
Sauté the onions and garlic for a minute.Add the pepper and fry for another minute.
Add all the sauce ingredients and bring to a simmer.If cooking in a tagine, cover and allow about 10-15 minutes for everything to warm up, before lowering the heat down.
Lower the heat down, cover and cook the sauce and meatballs for 30 minutes. If cooking in a saucepan, stir towards the end as the sauce thickens.
At the end of this cooking time, make small dips in the sauce and drop the eggs in. Fresher eggs will spread less.
Cover and cook for 7-10 minutes, until the egg white is set but the yolks are still running.
If using cheese, sprinkle all over, cover for a minute for the cheese to set.
Take off the heat, sprinkle the nuts, parsley and coriander all over and serve immediately, as discussed above.
Notes
Includes a resting time of one hour for the meatballs, before cooking.