Weekend No-Bake Shakshuka

It’s the weekend, and you’ve all got a little bit more time to make something delicious for breakfast (or maybe brunch, or lunch!). What do you cook? Shakshuka, of course! This one pan wonder is a meal you can cook with your family, and enjoy together with a torn, crusty baguette or two. Shakshuka in Arabic means “all mixed up” – our style of cooking. It packs a flavour punch and you’ll more than likely have the ingredients in your pantry already. So, what is shakshuka? It’s a dish that features eggs poached in a hearty, spiced tomato sauce and topped with fresh herbs. It can be baked in an oven or it can be cooked over a stovetop with a saucepan and lid. 

There are a lot of variations of the humble shakshuka out in the world. For us, we use cumin, cayenne and paprika with Billinudgel Smoke Hot Sauce to create a beautifully spiced smoky flavour. We top our shakshuka with creamy Meredith Dairy Marinated Goat Cheese, sprigs of fresh parsley and chopped spring onions. We also mop up shakshuka with a torn piece of baguette. It’s beyond delicious.

This weekend we decided to make our shakshuka in the backyard. Because a lot of us are spending more time at home due to government restrictions and personal choice, we wanted to take our kitchen outside. Cooking outdoors is lots of fun – it’s quite a novelty actually! Whether it’s your backyard, front yard, deck, balcony or verandah, cooking outdoors can be a great way to enjoy spending time with your family and friends while staying at home. If you cook our shakshauka in your backyard (you can totally cook this recipe on your stovetop in the kitchen), you’ll need some bits and bobs, which we've included below. Ok, let's get cooking! 

Ps. You can also see how our Weekend No-Bake Shakshuka came alive in our backyard in this video here. 

Ingredients

• Olive oil
• 1 Red onion, diced
• 1 Red capsicum, diced
• 3 roma tomatoes, diced (any tomatoes will do)
• 3 cans of tinned whole tomatoes
• 2 tbsp tomato paste
• Billinudgel Smoked Hot Sauce
• 1 tsp cayenne pepper
• 1 tsp ground cumin
• 1 tsp paprika 
• Sea salt and pepper, to season
• 5 large eggs
• Handful of fresh flat leaf parsley, to garnish
• Meredith Dairy Marinated Goat Cheese, to garnish 
• Crusty baguette, for serving

Equipment

If you're cooking this shakshuka outdoors, here is the gear you'll need below. You'll find all of the links to these items in our Outdoor Cooking Checklist blog post. But don't stress, if you don't have this gear, you can totally cook this shakshuka on your stovetop. And if you don't have a lid that fits your frypan, you can use aluminium foil. The beautiful thing about this meal is that it really is all about mixing it up, so enjoy!

• Gas stovetop
• Gas bottle
• Frypan with lid 
• Wooden spatula 
• Dinnerware and cutlery
• Knife
• Chopping board

Method

1. Heat frypan or cast iron skillet to medium heat. Add a good splash of olive oil to the pan.
2. Add chopped onion and cook until they start to soften. Add chopped capsicum and cook until it also starts to soften. 
3. Add chopped tomatoes, tinned whole tomatoes and tomato paste, and stir to combine. You may need to break down the whole tomatoes using a wooden spatula, that's why I love using this one as it's perfect for this. 
4. While the tomato mixture is simmering, add Billinudgel Smoked Hot Sauce, cayenne pepper, ground cumin, paprika. Stir to combine. Add salt and pepper to season. Add more of the spices to season as you prefer. Stir to combine. The mixture should be bubbling away nicely on the stovetop.
5. Crack one egg at a time and place in the mixture. Using the base of the wooden spatular, make a hole in the sauce and carefully crack your egg into it. Your egg whites should look clear.
6. Place the lid on top of the frypan and let it cook for 5 to 10 minutes. We love our eggs runny, so we're aiming for translucent egg whites. If you like your eggs cooked hard, wait until the egg whites are opaque white. 
7. Take off the stovetop and top with goat cheese, flat leaf parsley and spring onions. Drizzle some of the marinated olive oil from the goat cheese, and season with more spices, salt and pepper if you like. 
8. Enjoy with a crusty baguette, and mop up the shaksuka with your bread.