Hairy Bikers Shakshuka Recipe

Hairy Bikers shakshuka is a pan for the middle of the table, with eggs set into soft peppers and onions warmed by cumin and caraway. While there are no calories listed in Chicken & Egg, I work a plate with yoghurt out at about 405, ready in 50 minutes.

Shakshuka has “so many recipes”, as Si and Dave put it, and their latest is “packed full of herbs and spices”. Where I’d expect cumin on its own, caraway sneaks in too, and a small bunch each of coriander and parsley gets stirred through.

Before an egg goes anywhere near the pan, the sauce wants to be thick enough to hold a well but loose enough not to catch. So I taste it after 5 minutes, adding the sugar only if the tomatoes are sharp and a splash of water if it tightens up.

Hairy Bikers Shakshuka Recipe

Author: Alex Saidani Cooking Method:Simmering Cuisine:British Middle Eastern Courses:Brunch

Difficulty:BeginnerPrep time: 20 minutesCook time: 30 minutesRest time: minutesTotal time: 50 minutesServings:4 servingsCalories:405 kcal Best Season:Summer

Description

A thick, herby tomato and pepper sauce is the bed here, and the peppers in it should keep a little bite. Then crack the eggs into little wells, take them off while the yolks still run, and spoon the yoghurt alongside.

Ingredients

For the sauce

• 3 tbsp olive oil
• 2 large onions, sliced
• 2 red peppers, deseeded and cut into long slices
• 2 green peppers, deseeded and cut into long slices
• 4 garlic cloves, finely chopped
• ½ tsp cumin seeds
• ½ tsp caraway seeds
• ½ tsp cayenne
• 1 tbsp tomato or red pepper purée
• 8 ripe tomatoes, cored and chopped, or 2 x 400g cans of tomatoes
• 1 tsp sugar (optional)
• small bunch of coriander, roughly chopped
• small bunch of parsley, roughly chopped
• sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

To finish

• 8 eggs
• 8 tbsp thick yoghurt

Instructions

1. Soften the veg: Heat the olive oil in a large frying pan that has a lid, then add the onions and peppers and season them well. Cook over a medium heat until they soften but still have a little bite, without letting them collapse.
2. Add the spices: Add the garlic and cook for 2 minutes, then sprinkle in the cumin seeds, caraway seeds and cayenne. Stir in the tomato or red pepper purée and cook for a couple more minutes, until the paste starts to separate.
3. Simmer the sauce: Add the tomatoes with a splash of water and simmer, uncovered, for about 10 minutes until reduced a little. Taste after 5 minutes, adding the sugar if the tomatoes need it, and a splash more water if the sauce looks dry.
4. Stir in the herbs: Once the sauce has reduced, stir in the coriander and parsley.
5. Crack in the eggs: Make 8 little wells in the sauce, then break each egg into a cup and slide it into a well. If 8 won’t fit, divide the sauce between 2 pans and cook 4 eggs in each.
6. Cook and serve: Cook for a few minutes more, until the whites are just set and the yolks are still runny. Serve straight away, with the thick yoghurt on the side.

FAQs

What’s in the Hairy Bikers full English shakshuka?

It’s a fry-up in one pan: sausagemeat rolled into meatballs and glazed in HP sauce, bacon lardons, button mushrooms, haricot beans and optional black pudding. As Si and Dave warn in One Pot Wonders, it’s “proper filling, so you won’t need lunch”, especially with the hot buttered toast.

If sausage and beans is your thing, their sausage and bean casserole from the same book roasts the bangers before the beans go in. On Hairy Bikers Go North, they cooked a full English shakshuka in West Yorkshire, in the episode first shown on 21 October 2021.

Is there a shakshuka with merguez sausages?

Yes, and it’s a cracker: Si and Dave brown 6 merguez, chop them up and simmer them in peppers and tomatoes with smoked paprika. While it feeds 2, a side dish stretches it to 4, and coriander, parsley and mint go over the top.

Merguez, which they call a North African speciality, are little spicy lamb sausages usually flavoured with harissa. For a bowl with the same warmth, their red lentil and harissa soup takes one or two tablespoons, so you set the heat.

How do I keep the yolks runny?

I pull the pan off the heat the second the whites set, because the hot sauce keeps cooking the yolks. For the merguez version, Si and Dave top each yolk with Greek yoghurt under the lid, which they say stops it firming up.

Feta does a similar job in their One Pot Wonders baked eggs with feta and tomatoes, scattered over the yolks to shield them. If anyone at the table is pregnant, the Food Standards Agency says eggs stamped with the British Lion mark are safe served runny.

Is shakshuka Middle Eastern or North African?

Ask Si and Dave and you’ll get two answers, because they call it Middle Eastern in Chicken & Egg and North African in Meat Feasts. Though both are fair, I like their One Pot Wonders note that they first discovered and cooked it in Israel.

If you’ve searched BBC Food, you’ll find two more listed under their name: a shakshuka and a British shakshuka. And their lamb tagine, also from Meat Feasts, is another North African dish worth a go, with lamb neck slow-cooked in saffron and dried apricots.

Can I make shakshuka ahead?

Yes, the sauce, anyway. Once it’s made up to the herbs, I keep it in the fridge overnight, then reheat it until it bubbles and crack in fresh eggs. Because eggs go rubbery when reheated, I never cook them ahead.

Out of tomato season, Si and Dave allow 2 x 400g cans instead of 8 fresh tomatoes. But don’t save it for breakfast, since to them it’s “a great one-pot lunch or supper as well as a brunch”.