Shakshuka

Also spelled as shakshouka, shakshuka is a delicious one-pot egg dish with its origins in North Africa. In the Tunisian dialect shakshuka (Arabic: شكشوكة‎) means a “mixture”.  The name reflects the way of cooking shakshuka: You make a filling mixed up of different ingredients in a pan and nudge them around on low heat.

A staple of many Middle Eastern cuisines, shakshuka is a combination of poached eggs, tomato sauce, chili peppers, onions, garlic, and spices like cumin and cayenne pepper. 

A flavor explosion, this one-skillet meal can be a perfect choice for breakfast, dinner, or lunch. You can also enjoy it cold and mop up the rich tomato stew with pita bread when watching a TV show or following andar bahar tips for gambling on your PC. Or let your tastebuds concentrate on this one-pan wonder. Since you are here, I would like to tell you more about shakshuka, its preparation, and how to serve it in a traditional way. 

Shakshuka Recipe (For 2 People) 

Ingredients:

4-6 eggs

6 tomatoes

2 red peppers

2 green peppers

1 medium onion

2-3 garlic cloves, minced

4 TBSP olive oil

1 medium hot chili

1 TSP Cinnamon

1 pinch sugar

1 TSP paprika powder noble sweet

1 small handful fresh coriander/parsley

Pepper 

Salt

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Preparation:

1. Before you start cooking, thoroughly prepare the vegetables. Peel the tomatoes. Peel the seeds from the bell peppers. Thinly dice the tomatoes and finely chop the bell peppers. Peel and mince the garlic cloves. Finely chop the onion. 
2. Before putting all the products into the skillet, heat it over medium-high heat and add olive oil. When the oil heats up a little, add the chopped onion, chopped garlic, and pepper to the skillet. Sauté the mix for five minutes until the onion is translucent and then add spices to the skillet.
3. In a minute add to the skillet tomatoes, alternatively, you can use tomato paste. If the vegetables are not juicy, it is better to splash them with a little water, otherwise they will quickly burn. To enhance the flavor, you can throw a pinch of salt and sugar into the mixture. Then stir all the vegetables together for 30 minutes. 
4. Add eggs to the skillet. Create a well with a wooden spoon and break the egg directly into it. So the same with all the eggs. Season the eggs, reduce the heat to low, and stir everything together for 6-10 minutes. Vary the cooking time depending on how firm you like the egg yolk. 
5. The dish is ready! Now sprinkle on shakshuka chopped parsley/coriander and don’t forget to serve it with fresh bread. Yummy! 

How To Serve A Shakshuka

Want to serve a shakshuka traditionally? Then place the skillet with shakshuka in the center of the table and serve it along with bread, spreads, and vegetable salads. It is traditional to serve it with hummus, tomato salad, pita bread, tahini sauce, and feta-yogurt dip. And since there are many other forms of shakshuka, you can serve the shakshuka inside the whole bread and garnish it with cilantro and feta cheese. 

There are vegan shakshuka, green shakshuka, as well as shakshuka variations with zucchini, eggplants, potatoes, and beans. The Turkish variation of this dish, şakşuka, doesn’t include eggs but includes zucchini and eggplants.

If you are an adherent of North African cooking, then you can diversify the dish by adding feta cheese to it. To understand what kind of shakshuka you like, you should try to cook each of them.

Also Read: A Beginner’s Guide To Brunch

Culinary Secrets For Perfect Shakshuka

1. An important moment of cooking shakshuka is the choice of a skillet. It should not be too wide, otherwise the eggs will simply drown in the tomato sauce. For the dish to turn out as intended, you should break and pour in the eggs one by one. 
2. After you add all the necessary ingredients, leave them to stew for another ten minutes, after you have reduced the heat to a minimum.
3. Like runny yolks? Then, as soon as the eggs begin to lose transparency, cover the skillet with a lid for three minutes. And if you prefer liquid eggs, you do not need to cover the saucepan but increase the cooking time by a couple of minutes.

As a pair for your morning tea or coffee or a hearty family dinner, shakshuka is a visually Stunning colorful, and flavorful dish. Why not delight your tastebuds then? Where is your pan?