Coconut Turmeric Curry and Spicy Sausage Sauce: The Chef's Oven-Free Egg Dishes Recipes

Let me explain: the most delicious egg dishes are made without baking. When testing these recipes, realizing that using a cover generates steam that gently cooks the eggs, yielding tender soft-cooked egg featuring set whites and a warm, runny yolk. The intense, dry heat from baking is much more aggressive versus moist heat, often leading to dry everything out and overcook the yolk. Presenting two flavorful bases to get started, encouraging customization. One is a super-simple turmeric coconut curry, and the second offers a merguez ragu puts a twist on eggs in purgatory, or simply put, eggs cooked in zesty tomato base.

Turmeric Coconut Curry Baked Eggs (shown above)

Preparation 10 minutes
Cooking time 55 minutes
Yields Two servings

Extra virgin oil
1 onion, skinned and diced
Fine sea salt
2 garlic cloves, minced garlic
Fresh ginger root, grated ginger
1 tbsp ground turmeric
½ tbsp cumin seeds
Aromatic leaves
200ml coconut milk
Chickpeas
A few basil leaves, and additional for topping
Fresh eggs
Fresh chilies, julienned, as garnish

Use a heavy skillet on a medium-high heat. Add a shot of olive oil, toss in the onion seasoned with salt, fry until softened. Add the garlic, ginger, turmeric, cumin seeds and curry leaves, let them sizzle, mixing now and then for a few minutes, pour in creamy liquid along with chickpeas and liquid. Heat until boiling, lower heat to gentle cook, allow to cook slowly about 35 minutes, until thickened and deep yellow in colour. Adjust seasoning, mix in fresh basil.

Employ a utensil making four indentations across the base, add eggs individually. Dust each egg with salt, then cover the pan with a lid, gently heat for a few minutes, until the whites are set and yolks warmed. Turn off stove, finish with a few extra basil leaves and thinly sliced finger chillies, and serve.

Spicy Sausage Sauce with Tangy Peppers Baked Eggs

Prep Quick prep
Cooking time 45 min
Yields Two

Olive oil
2 merguez-style lamb sausages
Harissa paste
Toasted cumin
Garlic cloves, peeled and thinly sliced
400g good-quality tinned tomatoes
Seasoning
Four eggs
Tangy peppers, roughly chopped
Fresh parsley, minced
Greek yogurt
1 lemon, cut into wedges, for serving

Heat a skillet at moderate temperature. Drizzle olive oil and, once it’s warm, take off sausage casings and break off pieces of the meat into the pan, resembling tiny meatballs. Lower temperature, brown the meat slowly, releasing flavorful oils. Move sausage pieces during cooking, to brown evenly.

After browning, incorporate harissa, cumin, and garlic to the pan, adjust to moderate flame fry with mixing, briefly, until the mix smells fragrant, and the garlic has lost its raw edge. Add tomatoes, add seasoning heat to simmer. Lower to gentle simmer and simmer slowly about 20 minutes. Sauce will thicken, become richer and darker, as oils separate.

With a spoon making indentations across base, break eggs in. Dust with salt lightly salted, cover skillet. Simmer briefly gently, when eggs set with yolks runny.

Take off the heat, garnish with peppers, parsley and yogurt, and oil splash, accompanied by lemon.