I need to get more creative with brunch. I specifically
didn’t say breakfast, because the only time I have enough time to cook a proper
morning meal is the weekend, and on those occasions I don’t crawl out of bed at
a time where the first meal could reasonably be called breakfast.
I have a newfound respect for eggs. Eggs are great. I used
to scoff at those adverts a few years ago where someone would look in a nearly
bare fridge, but suddenly have enough ingredients to cobble together a Spanish
omelette. I used to think eggs were only really useful for baking and in a fry
(and of course in the family party staple – egg and onion sarnies!), but I’ve
since grown very fond of the egg.
I love them nestled in a baked avocado, and scrambled eggs
on salty buttered toast is probably my favourite comfort food in the world. I
saw an interesting photo the other day, that looked like a big tomatoey egg in
a pan, and I was intrigued. It turns out I was quite late to the game with
shakshuka, it’s been having a big moment for a while now and I want to leap on
board!
It’s basically a delicately spiced, Middle-Eastern tomato
based baked egg dish, traditionally eaten for breakfast. And I am in LOVE! I
often find that tomatoes can be too sour and overpower a dish, but here
everything complements each other and you get a deeply rich flavour which goes
perfectly with eggs. Mine has a bit more egg to salsa mix than traditional, but
I do love eggs. You could either double the recipe but keep the egg number the
same, or just use one egg (and make it a meal for one) if you want more of the
tomatoey part.
