A few days ago my mom was busy in the garden so I volunteered to cook. I wanted to make a middle-eastern dish called Shakshuka. We had all the ingredients available coz my mom has a well stocked kitchen of course!
Shakshuka basically is a tomato based dish with onions and peppers with poached egg in it. The egg is poached in the thick tomato sauce. It is usually topped with cheese and cilantro.
I found the canned tomatoes to make the tomato sauce but decided to try making it with baked beans instead. Just to try. I think I was just curious. Anyway this recipe would have worked with either one. In my opinion maybe tomato paste is nicer and I will try that next time. I also used Chinese celery instead of cilantro as the garden only has Chinese celery. Similar, though.
Without further ado, here is the recipe for a basic baked beans shakshuka. It is super easy to make. And the ingredients are interchangeable. It is a very forgiving recipe and it is up to you what to add. Instead of sausages like I did, you can add in any meat you want. Or can skip the meat. Instead of curry powder you can add any herbs/spices you want.
Shakshuka
Ingredients
2 tomatoes
1 can baked beans
1 onion
half a capsicum
1 tbsp mashed garlic
3 sausages
1 tsp curry powder
3 eggs (more if more people served)
cheddar cheese
cilantro for garnishing
Method
- Chop up the onion, capsicum and tomatoes. Mash garlic. Slice 3 sausages.
- Put some oil in the pan and fry the garlic, onion and capsicum until fragrant.
- Go ahead and add sliced sausage and tomato and stir fry.
- Pour in baked beans. Add a little curry powder and let simmer.
- When boiling, crack the eggs and pour whole into the sauce.
- Simmer for 10 minutes or more until eggs are poached.
- Top with cheddar cheese and simmer until cheese is melted.
- Garnish with a few leaves of cilantro.
Basically, you can serve it directly from the pan like we did. We used a spoon to scoop it out onto our plates. The egg was a bit over done when I cooked it. It didn't ooze out like it is supposed to. But it was still nice. I would def make it again, but with canned tomatoes.
Labels: dinner, home cooking, meals, recipe
