🔗 Share this article

Consider this: the most delicious egg dishes are made without baking. When testing these recipes, discovering that covering the pan produces a humid atmosphere for cooking the egg tops, resulting in perfectly cooked soft-cooked egg featuring set whites and flowing center. The intense, dry heat from baking is much more aggressive compared to steaming, and has a tendency to dry everything out resulting in firm yolks. Presenting two flavorful bases to get started, encouraging customization. The first features an easy golden coconut sauce, whereas the spicy sausage sauce puts a twist on classic tomato-baked eggs, or, to the likes of you and me, eggs baked in spicy tomato sauce.

Golden Coconut Sauce Steamed Eggs (pictured above)

Preparation A quick 10 minutes
Cooking time Just under an hour
Yields Two people

Extra virgin oil
One medium onion, peeled and finely chopped
Fine sea salt
2 garlic cloves, minced garlic
10g fresh ginger, peeled and finely chopped
1 tbsp ground turmeric
Cumin seeds
Aromatic leaves
Creamy coconut
Chickpeas
A few basil leaves, plus extra to serve
Fresh eggs
Green chilies, finely sliced, for serving

Heat a cast-iron pan over medium-high flame. Pour in some oil, incorporate onions seasoned with salt, fry until softened. Incorporate aromatics and spices, let them sizzle, occasionally stirring for three to four minutes, then tip in the coconut milk and the chickpeas and their tin liquid. Heat until boiling, lower heat to gentle cook, and leave it to tick over for 30-35 minutes, until thickened and deep yellow in colour. Season with salt, mix in fresh basil.

With a spoon’s back forming small wells across the base, add eggs individually. Season eggs with a little salt, then cover the pan with a lid, and cook on a low heat for a few minutes, when whites are cooked with yolks still runny. Take off the heat, garnish with more basil and thinly sliced finger chillies, and serve.

Merguez Ragu with Tangy Peppers Steamed Eggs

Prep 10 minutes
Cook 45 min
Yields Two

Olive oil
Merguez sausages
Harissa paste
1 tsp cumin seeds
2 garlic cloves, minced garlic
Canned tomatoes
Fine sea salt
Fresh eggs
Pickled peppers, coarsely cut
Fresh parsley, finely chopped
3 tbsp thick Greek yoghurt
Fresh lemon, sliced into wedges, as garnish

Set a 25cm heavy cast-iron pot on a medium heat. Add two tablespoons of olive oil when heated, remove the skins from the sausages and pinch small amounts of the meat into the pan, almost like little meatballs. Lower temperature, cook until golden, so it renders out all that spicy, flavour-packed fat. Stir merguez while cooking, to brown evenly.

After browning, mix in spices and garlic to the pot, adjust to moderate flame sauté while stirring, for several minutes, until aromatic, and the garlic has lost its raw edge. Pour in tomato contents, salt to taste and bring to a simmer. Turn down the heat to low and simmer slowly about 20 minutes. Sauce will thicken, thicken and deepen in colour, with oils separating and surfacing.

Employ utensil forming wells across base, break eggs in. Season eggs lightly salted, place lid on pan. Simmer briefly over a low heat, when eggs set with yolks runny.

Take off the heat, finish with chopped pickled peppers, herbs, yogurt dollop, plus oil drizzle, accompanied by lemon.