🔗 Share this article

So, hear me out: the most delicious egg dishes are made without baking. Through culinary experiments, realizing that using a cover creates a steamy environment that gently cooks the eggs, yielding tender soft-cooked egg with a tender white plus liquid yolk. Direct oven heat from baking proves harsher than steam, typically causing to dry everything out and harden the yolk. Here are two sauce options to get started, but get creative. Option one involves a straightforward coconut turmeric blend, while the merguez ragu puts a twist on traditional spicy eggs, essentially, eggs cooked in zesty tomato base.

Golden Coconut Sauce Baked Eggs (featured)

Prep 10 minutes
Cook 55 min
Serves Two servings

Extra virgin oil
1 onion, peeled and finely chopped
Salt
2 garlic cloves, crushed and chopped
10g fresh ginger, peeled and finely chopped
Golden spice
Cumin seeds
Aromatic leaves
Coconut milk
Canned chickpeas
A few basil leaves, and additional for topping
Fresh eggs
Green chilies, finely sliced, to serve

Set a 25cm heavy cast-iron pot over medium-high flame. Add a shot of olive oil, add the chopped onion and a pinch of salt, and cook for five to six minutes. Add the garlic, ginger, turmeric, cumin seeds and curry leaves, leave to sizzle, stirring occasionally for a few minutes, pour in creamy liquid and the chickpeas and their tin liquid. Bring to a boil, reduce to a simmer, and leave it to tick over for 30-35 minutes, until thick and golden. Add salt to taste, then stir in the basil leaves.

Employ a utensil to create four little pockets within the sauce, break eggs into each. Dust each egg with a little salt, cover the skillet, gently heat briefly, until the whites are set and the yolks just warm. Take off the heat, garnish with more basil and sliced chilies, then serve immediately.

Spicy Sausage Sauce and Pickled Peppers Baked Eggs

Preparation 10 minutes
Cooking time 45 min
Serves Two

Oil
Merguez sausages
1 tbsp harissa
Toasted cumin
2 garlic cloves, minced garlic
Canned tomatoes
Fine sea salt
4 eggs
1 handful pickled peppers, roughly chopped
Fresh parsley, minced
3 tbsp thick Greek yoghurt
Fresh lemon, wedge-cut, for serving

Heat a skillet at moderate temperature. Drizzle olive oil when heated, peel sausages and pinch small amounts of the meat into the pan, almost like little meatballs. Lower temperature, then slowly brown the sausagemeat, releasing flavorful oils. Roll the merguez pieces around the pan while cooking, to brown evenly.

Once browned, incorporate harissa, cumin, and garlic into the skillet, increase to medium heat sauté while stirring, for several minutes, until aromatic, and garlic softens. Tip in the tomatoes, salt to taste heat to simmer. Turn down the heat to low and leave to blip away for 20 minutes. Sauce will thicken, intensify in color, as oils separate.

With a spoon making indentations in the sauce, then crack an egg into each. Sprinkle the top of each egg lightly salted, cover skillet. Simmer briefly on low flame, until the whites are set with yolks runny.

Take off the heat, top with pickled peppers, parsley, a blob of yoghurt, and oil splash, with lemon on side.