Shashouka, to you and me, is a dish of eggs roosting atop an earthily-spiced layer of stewed red peppers, onion garlic and tomato, flash-grilled until the whites are set but yolks provocatively aquiver. A dish like this is eaten all over Northern Africa, particularly in Tunisia and Morocco. The inspiration for mine was born from The Book of Jewish Food by Claudia Roden. The differences here are a fleet of fat, copper-skinned sausages, a little treacly balsamic vinegar and an avalanche of feta cheese. Use any sausage you fancy. They must be fresh, though, not smoked or boiled. I like the garlicky, rosemary lamb ones, or the Moroccan merguez.
I do not use tomatoes here. I just decided not to use them, I haven't honestly figured exactly why yet, but the overall result is golden and that is all that matters. If you have hot, sweet or bittersweet smoked paprika, use it in place of the normal sort.
Ingredients
6 - 8 fresh lamb, beef or pork sausages
75g - 100g feta cheese
4 eggs
2 red peppers
2 yellow peppers
2 garlic cloves, peeled and finely chopped
1 red onion, peeled and finely sliced
1 teaspoon paprika
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon good balsamic vinegar
Extra virgin olive oil
Preheat the oven to 200 degrees Celsius. Arrange your sausages in an 8" circular baking tin. Any smallish oven dish will suffice. Drizzle over some olive oil for lubrication.
De-seed the peppers and slice them finely. Over a moderate flame, heat some olive oil in a wide saucepan that comes with a lid. Throw in the onions and sweat till translucent and soft, about 8 minutes. Add the garlic and peppers, turn over in the oil, cover with lid, lower flame and then stew for 30 minutes. Place the sausages into the preheated oven.
When the peppers have collapsed into a softened heap, a bit like a thick compote, add the cinnamon and paprika. Fry for just one further minute. Retrieve the sausage-carrying dish. If there is an excessive amount of oil leaked from the sausages, drain it off. Spoon the cooked peppers over. Crumble over feta and bake for 5 minutes. Then, with the oven door ajar, crack over the eggs and push in for a final 1 - 2 minutes. The eggs should be just partially cooked, with the yolk still gleaming and shiny.
Crack over some pepper and eat with warm pita. You could sprinkle over some chopped mint, if you want, where its cool sprightliness offsets the hot, pleasantly churlish flavours at hand.
Ingredients
