Şakşuka

There are no eggs in it, and the vegetables are fried separately and only then put under sauce.

Vegetarian, but not vegan — contains dairy (yoghurt).

Ingredients

the vegetables

• 2 aubergines, diced
• 2 courgettes, diced
• 2 long green peppers, sliced
• 2 potatoes, diced (optional)
• salt, for drawing the aubergine
• 300 ml sunflower oil, for frying

the sauce

• 4 tomatoes, skinned and chopped
• 1 tablespoon tomato purée
• 5 cloves garlic, crushed
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• salt and black pepper

to serve

• 150 g thick yoghurt
• a handful of parsley, chopped

Method

1. THERE ARE NO EGGS IN IT. This needs saying first because the name is shared with a North African dish that is mostly eggs poached in sauce, and the two are completely different objects. This is fried vegetables under a cold garlicky tomato sauce, eaten as a cold meze with bread. Nothing is poached in anything. If a recipe for this has eggs in it, it is a recipe for the other dish.
2. EVERY VEGETABLE IS FRIED SEPARATELY AND ONLY THEN PUT UNDER SAUCE. Aubergine, courgette, pepper and potato each go into the oil on their own and come out when they are done, which is a different time for each. Thrown in together, the courgette is mush before the potato is cooked, and the aubergine has drunk all the oil. They are then combined, and the sauce goes over the top rather than the vegetables being cooked in it -- which is the difference between this and a vegetable stew.
3. THE AUBERGINE IS SALTED AND LEFT FOR HALF AN HOUR FIRST. Diced, salted, drained in a colander thirty minutes, then patted dry. It draws out water, and a drier aubergine absorbs dramatically less oil -- the difference is visible in the pan. Unsalted aubergine will soak up whatever oil is offered and the dish becomes a sponge.
4. THE SAUCE IS COOKED SEPARATELY AND IS HEAVILY GARLICKED. Five cloves, crushed raw into the hot oil for a few seconds before the tomato. The sauce is cooked down to a thick spoonable mass in its own pan, ten minutes, and the garlic has to be assertive enough to read when everything is cold.
5. IT IS ASSEMBLED AND THEN LEFT TO COOL TO ROOM TEMPERATURE. An hour at least. The vegetables take up the sauce as they cool, which is when it stops being fried vegetables with sauce on and becomes one dish.
6. THE YOGHURT GOES ON IN SPOONFULS AT THE END AND IS NOT MIXED IN. Dropped on cold, so some of each mouthful has it. Stirred through, it turns the whole thing pink and muddies the tomato.
7. The aubergine diced, SALTED and drained in a colander 30 MINUTES, then PATTED DRY.
8. The oil heated in a deep pan.
9. The potato fried until golden, lifted out. Then the aubergine. Then the courgette. Then the peppers -- EACH SEPARATELY, each lifted out when done.
10. All drained on kitchen paper and combined in a shallow dish.
11. In a clean pan, the olive oil heated and the crushed garlic in for 10 SECONDS only.
12. The tomatoes, purée, sugar, salt and pepper added and cooked 10 MINUTES to a thick spoonable sauce.
13. The sauce spooned OVER the fried vegetables, not stirred in.
14. LEFT TO COOL to room temperature, at least 1 HOUR.
15. The yoghurt dropped on in SPOONFULS and the parsley scattered over.
16. TESTED: the vegetables should be distinct and not greasy, under a thick sauce. Oily means the aubergine went in unsalted.

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 Turkey · All recipes