Shakshuka: Impress Your Friends and Family With a Deceivingly Simple Recipe
The North African dish is full of complex flavors, and preparing it is a breeze.
I was suitably impressed with Baba’s shakshuka, enough so that I tried preparing the dish myself. Well, “myself”—in all fairness, this recipe is a modified version of one published in Cook’s Illustrated. Myself-ish if you like.
It’s not a difficult recipe, and the hour-long process is mostly spent intermittently stirring the simmering sauce. The final product is a vivid-looking mixture—which is what “shakshuka” means in Arabic—with bold, spicy flavors.
- 3 tbsp vegetable oil
- 2 onions, finely chopped
- 2 yellow peppers, stemmed and seeded, cut into small cubes
- 6 garlic cloves, minced
- 2 tbsp tomato paste
- 2 tsp ground cumin
- 2 tsp turmeric
- 1 tsp cayenne pepper
- 2 cups jarred piquillo peppers, coarsely chopped
- 1 (14.5 oz) can diced tomatoes
- ¼ cup water
- ½ cup water
- 2 Turkish bay leaves
- ½ cup chopped cilantro
- 8 eggs
- ½ cup crumbled feta
- Heat oil in a 12” skillet over medium-high heat. Add onions and bell peppers and cook until they start to brown. About 10 minutes.
- Add garlic, tomato paste, cumin, turmeric, a pinch of salt and pepper, and cayenne. Stir frequently until the paste darkens—about 3 minutes.
- Stir in piquillo peppers, tomatoes and their juice, water, and bay leaves. Bring to a simmer.
- Reduce heat to medium-low and cook until sauce thickens—about 15 minutes.
- Off heat, discard bay leaves, and stir in half the cilantro.
- Transfer 2 cups sauce to a blender, process until smooth, and return to skillet. Stir, and bring sauce to simmer over medium-low.
- Off heat, make 4 indentations (2-inch wide) in sauce, and crack 2 eggs into each hole. Season eggs with salt and pepper.
- Cover and cook over medium-low until egg whites just set—about 7 minutes.
- Sprinkle with feta and remaining cilantro, and serve.
The leftovers make for a good pasta sauce, particularly over some al dente cavatappi.
Web Source
Shakshouka. (2023, January 27). In Wikipedia. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shakshouka
I was not able to find Cook’s Illustrated’s recipe online, but if you search for “shakshuka” in their app, it’ll pop up.