🔗 Share this article

Consider this: the most delicious egg dishes never require an oven. When testing these recipes, I found that simply adding a lid generates steam to cook the top of the eggs, resulting in perfectly cooked soft-cooked egg with firm whites plus liquid yolk. Direct oven heat in conventional ovens is much more aggressive compared to steaming, often leading to dry everything out and harden the yolk. I’ve given you two sauces to get started, encouraging customization. The first features an easy turmeric coconut curry, whereas the spicy sausage sauce puts a twist on traditional spicy eggs, or simply put, spicy tomato eggs.

Golden Coconut Sauce Steamed Eggs (featured)

Prep 10 minutes
Cooking time Just under an hour
Serves 2

Extra virgin oil
1 onion, trimmed and minced
Salt
2 garlic cloves, peeled and finely chopped
Fresh ginger root, minced ginger
Turmeric powder
Toasted cumin
6-8 curry leaves
Coconut milk
Canned chickpeas
A few basil leaves, plus extra to serve
4 eggs
2 green finger chillies, finely sliced, as garnish

Use a heavy skillet on a medium-high heat. Add a shot of olive oil, toss in the onion and a pinch of salt, fry until softened. Add the garlic, ginger, turmeric, cumin seeds and curry leaves, let them sizzle, stirring occasionally briefly, pour in creamy liquid including chickpea can contents. Let it bubble, then turn down to a simmer, let it simmer for 30-35 minutes, until thickened and deep yellow in colour. Season with salt, incorporate basil.

Use the back of a spoon making four indentations across the base, add eggs individually. Sprinkle the top of each egg with a little salt, cover the skillet, and cook on a low heat for two to three minutes, when whites are cooked and the yolks just warm. Take off the heat, finish with a few extra basil leaves plus chili slices, ready to enjoy.

Merguez Ragu with Tangy Peppers Baked Eggs

Prep 10 min
Cook Under an hour
Serves Two portions

Olive oil
Spicy lamb sausages
1 tbsp harissa
Cumin seeds
Garlic cloves, peeled and thinly sliced
Tomato base
Fine sea salt
Four eggs
1 handful pickled peppers, diced
Chopped herbs, finely chopped
3 tbsp thick Greek yoghurt
1 lemon, cut into wedges, as garnish

Use a heavy pan on a medium heat. Add two tablespoons of olive oil and, once it’s warm, remove the skins from the sausages and pinch small amounts of the meat into the pan, almost like little meatballs. Lower temperature, cook until golden, so it renders out all that spicy, flavour-packed fat. Roll the merguez pieces around the pan as they cook, to brown evenly.

After browning, incorporate harissa, cumin, and garlic to the pot, turn up the heat to medium sauté while stirring, for three to four minutes, when fragrant, and garlic softens. Add tomatoes, add seasoning let it bubble. Lower to gentle simmer and leave to blip away for 20 minutes. The ragu will reduce, thicken and deepen in colour, with oils separating and surfacing.

With a spoon to create four little pockets within sauce, then crack an egg into each. Sprinkle the top of each egg lightly salted, place lid on pan. Simmer briefly over a low heat, until the whites are set with yolks runny.

Take off the heat, finish with chopped pickled peppers, herbs, yogurt dollop, plus oil drizzle, with lemon on side.