Sunday, March 03, 2013

Shakshuka

I don't think I can begin to reconstruct how I stumbled across this recipe the other day but I had to try it immediately. Shakshuka (or shakshouka) is a common dish in North African and the Middle East with various groups laying claim to its origin (typical for this area, really; what don't these tribes fight about?) and is often served for breakfast. It can be made in large quantities limited only by the size of your largest skillet and works well as a vegetarian main dish. Don't let the simplicity of the dish fool you: it has some wonderful flavors, textures, and colors.

I'm going to give a bare bones version of the dish here. You can visit this link or this one for more elaborate recipes.

Slice or dice some onion and garlic. Place in a large skillet with olive oil.

Add sea salt, chili pepper, paprika, and cumin to taste. Be generous, this dish is suppose to be quite fiery! Mix the spices in with the onions. Simmer, stirring often, until the onions begin to turn clear.

I've not researched this but I like to add dry spices to cook with onions because I think this method brings out more of the flavor than adding spices later to a cooking liquid. Anecdotal, of course, but my tongue tells me this method works well.

Dice several fresh tomatoes. I used canned because that's what I had and they work just fine too but you need to drain the juice from them. Let's be practical: we don't all have access to good fresh tomatoes and we don't need to be food snobs all the time.

Add the tomatoes and a container of tomato paste to the skillet. Stir well and cook for 15 minutes or so over reduced heat. Stir frequently to prevent sticking or burning. The mixture should be gently bubbling but not throwing tomato sauce all over the kitchen.

When you decide the tomatoes and the spices and the onions have joined forces long enough, carefully crack some eggs on top (be careful not to break the yolks), spacing them evenly. Allow the eggs to cook completely. This might take a few more minutes and you might need to reduce the heat a bit more.

Most recipes call for diced parsley to be thrown over the top but I didn't have any and it tasted totally fabulous without it.

One cooking pan, total prep and cook time about 40 minutes, vegetarian, relatively low fat and low salt (unless you overdo it). Plan on each person eating two eggs. It's a winner!

1 comment:

AI said...

My mom used to make a dish very much like this... basically eggs poached in a tomato sauce, with more of an Italian twist. We called it tomeggies!

These spices sound really good.