The Comeback Dish: Seggsy Margherita Shakshouka

Ok, well it's been a while since I last posted...I had a backlog of dishes that never made the blog--partially due to culinary frustrations, lack of space in my micro-kitchen, some element of cooker's block, etc. But of course, now I need to get back in the swing. Let me know your food curiosities--Indian or general--and I will research and post!

So this dish is inspired by Italian and Middle-Eastern cuisines. The word "Shakshouka" is of Tunisian origin--it's basically a dish of egg and tomato with spices. The spices are fried with tomato and eggs are cracked on top and left to cook in unbroken, "sunny side up" form.

I added my own stuff to it, like roasted garlic and eggplant, and made it more Italian, to resemble a Margherita pizza, but with no crust and with eggs. I also didn't add spices, except for salt and pepper. My flavors came from the vegetables and basil. This is odd for me, since Indian food is so spice-heavy, but sometimes it's nice to taste what you're eating. After I made this, I was like, I need to stop being so spice-obsessed.

And it's sooo prettttyyyy...!

Ingredients:

1. 1/2 a large eggplant, or 2 Japanese eggplants
2. Olive oil - eyeball it, but you shouldn't need more than 1 cup
3. 2 cloves garlic
4. 1 small onion (I prefer red onions these days - SOO much more flavor), chopped
5. 1 can diced tomatoes
6. 4-7 basil leaves
7. salt, pepper
8. 3-4 eggs
9. 2-3 slices fresh mozzarella cheese
10. Optional - red pepper flakes
11. Optional - other "toppings"/vegetables: olives, artichoke hearts, mushrooms - you would not need to roast these veggies, but just cook them down and season before adding the tomatoes and eggs.

Preparation:

This is SO EASY, a frat boy could do it. First, pre-heat your oven to about 375 F. Once oven is ready, chop the eggplant into fairly large pieces and sprinkle salt on the fleshy parts (not skin, because it doesn't absorb salt). After salting, rub enough olive oil over the eggplant pieces to cover them. Pop them in the oven for about 30 minutes or until well-roasted. Check on it every 15 min to see how well-done it is, because ovens vary, so you don't want to burn them.

Once your eggplants are roasted, start heating some olive oil in your skillet. Make sure you use a big enough skillet that it feels like the size of a small to medium pizza--maybe 12". Once hot, add the whole garlic cloves. This flavors the oil, without creating an overly strong garlic flavor. The other ingredients are mild, so you don't want to overpower with garlic, unlike in Indian food, where you can mask the garlic in spices.

Keep turning the garlic so it doesn't burn. Burnt garlic is nasty and strong, so keep it movin. Once the oil is hot and garlic roasted, add the chopped onions and eggplant. If you're adding red pepper flakes, add those with the garlic, before you add anything else if possible. Get the onions and eggplant going until the onions are sweatin' brown. The eggplant should be cooked at this point. You may want to add a little more olive oil, if all the oil has been absorbed by the onion and eggplant. Season with salt and pepper.

Then, mix in the diced tomatoes. Taste what you have to see if it needs additional seasoning. Add seasoning (salt and pepper) as necessary. Don't stir it around too much--just enough to mix the veggies through with tomatoes. You want a caramelization on the sides of the pan of tomato, once all the water has cooked off. You may need two 14 oz. cans of tomatoes depending on how big your pan is and how many eggs you plan to add. You want a nice bed of tomato, so add another can if you feel you don't have enough with 1 can, or if you decide you want more vegetables. The tomatoes have to cover your vegetables in the pan.

Once the tomatoes are caramelizing on the sides of the pan, it's time to add some eggs! Crack the eggs open, yolks in tact, into the pan (or into a bowl so as to remove any shell that breaks off before pouring it into the pan). Crack about 3-4 eggs into the pan according to how much space you have in the pan. Let the eggs cook about 30 seconds with the cover on the pan. Then, lay your fresh mozzarella slices onto the pan too and cover again. The above picture is the cheese-less version, but I made a cheese version the other day, and it's FAB. Once the eggs are cooked (poached, not fully cooked through to yoke), turn off the heat. Now lay the basil leaves artfully over the pan.


Beauty in a pan. You'll want to take toasted french bread or olive bread and just eat it out of the pan.