Shakshouka

The sauce is cooked until the oil separates out of it before any egg goes near the pan.

Egg. Vegetarian, but not vegan — contains egg.

Ingredients

• 6 eggs
• 800 g ripe tomatoes, skinned and chopped
• 2 tablespoons tomato purée
• 2 red peppers, chopped
• 1 onion, finely chopped
• 4 cloves garlic, sliced
• 5 tablespoons olive oil
• 2 teaspoons ground cumin
• 2 teaspoons paprika
• ½ teaspoon cayenne
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• salt and black pepper

to serve

• a handful of coriander or parsley, chopped
• flatbread

Method

1. THE SAUCE IS COOKED UNTIL THE OIL SEPARATES OUT OF IT BEFORE ANY EGG GOES NEAR THE PAN. Twenty-five or thirty minutes, not ten. The test is visible and unambiguous: the mixture stops looking like chopped tomatoes in liquid, darkens from red to brick, and little pools of orange oil come to the surface and sit there. That separation means the water has gone and the sugars have started to concentrate -- and it is the whole flavour of the dish. Eggs added to a loose watery sauce poach in tomato water, the whites spread into it, and what arrives is pale and thin.
2. THE EGGS GO INTO WELLS AND THE PAN IS COVERED. The back of a spoon used to push six hollows down to the pan base, an egg into each, lid on, eight to ten minutes over a low heat. The steam sets the tops of the whites without overcooking the yolks. Uncovered, the whites stay translucent on top while the bases toughen.
3. THE WELLS GO DOWN TO THE PAN BASE. Pressed firmly, so each egg sits on hot metal and its base sets at once, holding the egg where it was put. On a cushion of sauce, the white spreads sideways and the six eggs become one sheet.
4. THE PEPPERS GET LONGER THAN THE TOMATOES. Chopped red pepper in with the onion for ten minutes before any tomato, until soft and beginning to catch. Added with the tomatoes they stay firm and squeaky, and the sauce needs their sweetness built in rather than sitting on top.
5. THE SPICES ARE FRIED IN THE OIL, NOT STIRRED INTO THE SAUCE. Cumin, paprika and cayenne into the hot oil with the garlic for thirty seconds before the tomatoes, so they bloom. Added to a wet sauce they taste raw and powdery, and paprika in particular never comes good.
6. IT IS TAKEN OFF WHILE THE YOLKS ARE STILL LIQUID AND SERVED IN THE PAN. The residual heat of a heavy pan goes on cooking them for a minute after it leaves the flame, so it comes off looking slightly underdone. Set yolks are the commonest fault and they are a matter of thirty seconds.
7. The olive oil heated in a wide heavy pan and the onion and red peppers cooked 10 MINUTES, until soft and beginning to catch.
8. The garlic, cumin, paprika and cayenne added to the OIL for 30 SECONDS.
9. The tomato purée fried 2 MINUTES, then the chopped tomatoes, sugar and seasoning.
10. Cooked 25 to 30 MINUTES, until the sauce has DARKENED TO BRICK and POOLS OF ORANGE OIL sit on the surface.
11. Six WELLS pressed into the sauce with the back of a spoon, RIGHT DOWN to the pan base.
12. An egg broken into each.
13. LID ON, cooked over a LOW heat 8 to 10 MINUTES, until the whites are set and the yolks still LIQUID.
14. TESTED: the whites should be set in six distinct rounds and the yolks runny. Spread whites mean the wells were too shallow or the sauce too wet.
15. Scattered with coriander and taken to the table IN THE PAN, with bread.

Our own recipe. This one was written for this site rather than taken from anywhere, so there is no source to point you at. The quantities and the order of the steps are choices, not the only way to do it.

Filed under Egypt · All recipes