Shakshuka

What happens when you serve a pepper-hating egg-hating kid shakshuka, I must have been out of my mind to serve this one night for dinner!. But  Hugh's (Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall)  Shakshuka recipe in his river cottage food tube looks so delicious that I just had to make it. Okay so there were the gags and  whys and "do I really have to eat this"
, but like a good boy and knowing my rule "you eat what's in front of you ", he ate it all up.  I believe in kids learning to eat well,  and also being able to eat when they go out, being picky eaters means you will have a tough time when travelling. Its not like I don't give them a choice, but always two choices what would you two like to eat today, ... or do you want pasta or flat bread tonight.  You teach your kids to eat or at least try something new, and you have to eat it too by the way. other wise there will be " you are not eating how come I have to eat it!".

Shakshuka is a Middle Eastern recipe where eggs are poached in delicious pepper and tomato sauce. In this recipe he uses spices such as paprika and saffron, something that's not very easy to get hold of  in Maldives I know, just use a bit of chilli powder and forget the saffron in this case.

Recipe : Shakshuka , adapted from Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall 's Shakshuka Recipe on  River cottage food tube.

serves 4

6 tomatoes, medium plum ones very ripe ones.
1/2 red bell pepper, seeded and cored , sliced thinly
1 capsicum, thinly sliced
1 tsp tomato paste
pinch of saffron (optional)
1/2 tsp paprika ( or use chilli powder for some extra heat)
2 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
1 onion , thinly sliced
1/2 tsp of  cumin seeds
1/2 cup water.
salt and pepper
4 eggs
2-3 tbsp olive oil

Heat a pan of water to boil, pop the tomatoes in and cook over simmering heat for 5 minutes, remove and place the tomatoes in cold water, remove the skin and finely slice the peeled tomatoes.

Heat a large frying pan, add the cumin seeds and the onions and fry till softened slightly.

Add the peppers and capsicum and stir fry for a few minutes. ( I think a little bit of scotch bonnet will be nice in this as well) . Then add the tomatoes, garlic , saffron and paprika. Stir fry. Add tomato paste ( you don't need to add tomato paste if you have those summer tomatoes, the tomatoes I had were not very ripe so I added the paste to give it a more tomatoey taste.  Add the water, place the lid on and simmer to soften everything, about 5- 10 minutes.

Remove lid, add salt adjust seasoning and then lower heat to the lowest and make little wells in four areas in the sauce and add the eggs in each.  Sprinkle a little salt and pepper on the egg and then put the lid on and cook on low heat for 5 - 8 minutes.  Or you can put in the oven. I cooked mine on the stovetop as I wanted the eggs to just set.

Remove and serve with bread.

Linking this over to I heart cooking clubs(IHCC) theme for this week,  Eggs!