Shakshuka

If the comments about this dish on Smitten Kitchen (the excellent food blog from which I got the recipe) are anything to go by, the origins of this dish are up for debate. Suffice it to say, there is general agreement that it comes from somewhere in the Middle East. My roommate, who spent last semester teaching in Egypt, says he definitely ate it there. The one thing that I think everybody can agree on is that it is delicious.

This dish (recipe here) became one of my standby dishes when I lived in Sarajevo, because most of the ingredients were easily available, it's incredibly cheap to make, and it's incredibly easy to prepare. Also, it's perfect for company, because it seems much more difficult and impressive than it is, so it looks nice enough to serve to guests, but if you've had a busy day you don't have to spend hours on it.

Tonight, it was the first dinner I served to my brother and his girlfriend who came to visit me in my brand new New York apartment. To prepare shakshuka you make a delicious sauce of garlic, onions, chilis (you can substitute bell peppers for the anaheim or jalapeno peppers called for in the Smitten Kitchen version if you don't like heat, or if you can't find chilis, for example, because you live in Sarajevo. If you want the heat but don't have the chilis you can add a bit of cayenne or substitute spicy paprika for sweet.) and tomatoes. You then poach eggs in this deliciousness. It's ideal if the yolks are runny, but let me say that I, being a general failure at runny yolks, often overcook the eggs, and it still tastes fine to me. Apparently, in some parts of Egypt at least, they use scrambled eggs and add them to the sauce later. I have never tried this, but it sounds just as delicious as the version I have had. At the end, you can add feta (or, probably more traditionally, halumi) to it. Sometimes, instead of thinning the tomato and onion mixture with water, I do it with wine for what is an absolutely delicious, and I'm sure completely inauthentic, version. Tonight, I served it with a baguette from the little French bakery down the street, and with Apothic Red wine, which is my current favorite affordable red. 10.99 a bottle here in NYC, and it's so good, I wish I could just consume it by the bottle, rather than the glass. I've also eaten it with Somun in Bosnia, with pita, with no bread at all, and once I added some brown rice to soak up all the delicious sauce. All of it was yummy.

Give this recipe a try next time you don't have a ton of time, and can't stand the thought of another frozen meal. I guarantee you won't regret it, and it won't break the bank.