Shakshuka

2024-08-13
Source: bunch of different recipes online I can't recall
Effort: medium

Ingredients:

• 5-12 plain tomatoes
• 1 can of conserved tomatoes
• 1x onion
• 5x cloves of garlic
• Bell peppers or most kinds of non-spice pepper.
• 5 or so eggs
• Additional meats or vegetables can be added as desired.
• Sugar, salt and pepper.

NOTE: for a vegan variant, you can replace the eggs with diced, firm tofu. Smoked tofu works best. I have actually tried this, it works well. The heart of the dish is the tomato and vegetable stew.

Prep:

• Dice up the onions, add into pan, steam with oil
• Add in 5x cloves of garlic into pan, crushed
• Add in any and all spices you deem well-fitting. Paprika, garlic powder, onion powder, pepper flakes, oregano, maybe rosemary/thyme and similar such spices all work well here.
• If you're adding in other vegetables, add them in at this point and let sautee for about 2-5 minutes
• Add in all of your tomatoes. ‡
• Saute for like 15 minutes approx, until the mixture thickens somewhat. † It's fine to simmer for 20 minutes or more even. Point is, you're aiming to be able to make a lil hole that will not collapse so you could crack your eggs into it.
• Add in about a teaspoon of sugar, season with salt and pepper.
• Crack in the eggs
• Another 8-10 minutes with lid on
• Serve, aim to have at least one egg on any given plate

‡: There's a pitfall here. Store-bought tomatoes tend to have too little moisture in them to cook as-intended. So, you're aiming for at least 15 minutes of simmering under heat. If there is too little moisture to allow the stew to simmer for that long without burning, you should add about a cup of water to remedy that. Don't worry about using too much water either, just boil it off if it comes to it.

†: Be sure to stir often. The main way of screwing up this dish is to not stir the stew often enough, which lets the bottom of the stew to caramelize while the top stays liquid, thus leading to an overcooked-feeling meal.