Shakshuka, for every college kid's hot plate





I was debating what should be my inaugural recipe and post for this blog of mine. Should it be my Arugula salad with baked stuffed figs and a homemade vinaigrette?!, should I share one of my mom's traditional Indian recipes?!, or my all time favorite recipes from two of my favorite cookbooks?! There will be plenty of time to share all of that, but this post will be dedicated to a discussion we had at home, with my son, about his college culinary life. Some of his friends from his high school varsity soccer team, who graduated, try to lure him to come to their college, by saying, you know when you are in college, the one thing you can't wait for is to come back home to your mom's home cooked meal, but here, the food is so good, that thought won't cross your mind. Another friend who graduated Facebooked him that the down side of his campus is the lack of Chipotle, but rumor has it it's coming next year. These boys know FOOD and as odd as it sounds, do think about it when thinking about their college life. Our son, now a senior, is on a mission to collect some recipes for his hotplate in his dorm room. Something simple, something to share, extremely filling and delicious. This is the first of his collection.

This recipe is a guideline you can adjust according to taste. We, for example, like a bit of a kick in our food but not everyone can handle it.

Shakshuka

Ingredients:
4 garlic cloves, minced
1 medium onion, diced (opti onal)
1 jalapeno, sliced lengthwise and sliced into half moons
3 - 4 tablespoons olive oil
3-4 med./large tomatoes, diced
8 oz tomato sauce
1 teaspoon  paprika
1/8-1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes 
1/8-1/4 teaspoon black pepper
1/3-1/2 teaspoon salt, or to taste
1/2 cup or more finely chopped cilantro
1/4 cup water, if necessary
6-8 large eggs

Fresh baguette, challah or any other fresh loaf

Directions:
In a deep frying pan sweat garlic, onion and Jalapeno in a bit of oil on low to medium. Do not brown or burn garlic, it will turn bitter. Add tomatoes and cook for about ten minutes on medium, add tomato sauce, paprika, salt and fresh black pepper according to taste. Crack eggs and drop gently one by one into sauce, next to each other in the pan and cook on low/medium according to desired level of doneness. You are sort of poaching the eggs in the tomato sauce....traditionally the yellow of the eggs should be runny when serving. If more firm eggs are desired cover the pan with a lid. Garnish with fresh cilantro leaves but not a must. Can break bread and eat directly from the pan as a communal meal, or can be served individually.

Variations:
Can cube  red bell pepper and sweat/fry it with garlic and sausage possibly too. We use merguez spicy Moroccan lamb sausage or turkey sausage, but any sausage will be fine.
If adding other vegetables, always, always cook with garlic,onion and oil as a first step to cook/soften them.
Improvise, be creative, use your imagination!!

12 comments:

  1. I met Shulie in 1999, when our sons were in school together. We soon learned that we had a shared love of food, and we spend some lovely time cooking together, teaching each other about new foods.

    Shulie introduced me to Bisteeya, a lovely casserole-type dish that I still salivate over to this day! Hopefully she'll be posting that recipe with accompanying video on this blog! In turn, I taught her how to roll sushi with sashimi rice and a variety of fillings.

    We have not seen each other for many years now but ours was a friendship forged over culinary delights, and I'm sure we will meet and break bread together again one day :)

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  3. I ADORE THIS!!! WANT SOME NOW!!! I just love you Shulie and have wanted to leave comments for some time now - YOU'RE AWESOME!!!

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  4. Thanks Debra!! I was dipping the baguette in the leftovers minutes ago as my electricity came back on:). It's so quick, delicious and satisfying meal on the run! Love you my friend, you do know that I hope:).

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  5. This has me drooling this morning! YUM! I'm definitely going to try this...reminds me of the Italian "eggs and sauce" we've enjoyed in my house since I was a kid.

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  6. Thanks Tina. Would love to get your mom's recipe if it's not a secretive heirloom recipe. I do hold back some for fear of separation anxiety and some are plainly extremely complex. All my mom's recipes. This Shakshuka is best with the freshest challa or baguette, tear the bread, dip and scoop. So satisfying so fresh:).

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  7. It's a family recipe indeed...I'll send along shortly (I have to dig it out). Mostly it's just the sauce that's the recipe...and then pour over a fried egg...it's heaven! I will definitely be trying your recipe for brunch SOON!

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  8. Shulie, I don't know how I did not discover your beautiful blog earlier! My daughter is a sophomore in college, and moved into her first apartment this past Fall. She loves to cook and I collect different, easy, ethnic recipes for her to try.
    I will pass this on to her, with warmest thanks to you.
    Cannot wait to read the whole blog (as you se, I started from the beginning):)

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  9. Yum! This reminds me so much of uova in purgatorio (Eggs in Purgatory). One of my favorite ways of enjoying eggs.

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  10. Shulie I love looking back at your first post! Shakshuka was a great choice since it's so timeless.

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  11. I have not tried eating Shakshuka before and would love to eat this using fresh bread to scoops the mixture of eggs and yummy gravy.

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