We owe our introduction to shakshuka to the rain in Tel Aviv. After breakfast we left the hotel with extensive plans to explore the old area of the city. But suddenly it began to rain quite heavily. I didn't have an umbrella with me. I had to go to the first cafe I came across on Allenby Street.
The cafe is small. Two groups sat in the hall and had a hearty breakfast, as is customary in Israel. We sat down at the only unoccupied table and looked around. Visitors from Russia were seated in one corner of the hall, and locals in the other. Both of them ate shakshuka - Israeli scrambled eggs in a thick tomato sauce with hot and spicy spices. I was unable to have a second breakfast, but my husband made a courageous decision and ordered shakshuka.
Shakshuka, the most popular Israeli breakfast dish
The dish came to Israel from Libya and took root so much that most Israelis quite sincerely consider it Jewish scrambled eggs. In the local soil, shakshuka has acquired many variations, using onions and green onions, red peppers, potatoes, sausages and even corn (read about the most common types of shakshuka in Israel below).
The shakshuka that we tried for the first time (and I, of course, could not resist and joined my husband - purely for educational reasons) was traditional. It was served with a salad of finely chopped cucumbers and tomatoes, which Arabs call “Arab” and Israelis call “Israeli.” An absolutely necessary addition to the scrambled eggs was warm challah: using a fork, you certainly help yourself with bread, dipping it into the sauce. The challah was also served with fresh goat cheese.
Upon returning to Moscow, I prepared shakshuka for breakfast. I admit that I went a little overboard with the harissa brought from Tel Aviv: it turned out to be fiery and hot. But the excessive spiciness of the dish did not overwhelm, but rather enhanced its other flavors. I think shakshuka will firmly enter our home diet. Here are some practical tips for preparing it.
Use a large deep frying pan if you are cooking for the whole family, or an individual small frying pan for one person.
You can use either fresh or canned tomatoes.
The sauce should be quite spicy; if there is no harissa, you can use adjika.
The sauce must be completely cooked (in terms of spices and salt) before adding the eggs. It will no longer be possible to interfere.
For a more beautiful shakshuka, so that the egg does not mix with the protein, you can first break it into a cup and carefully insert it, making a small depression in the sauce.
The sauce can be prepared in advance, which makes it easier to make portioned dishes in small pans.
Ingredients:
- 4 tbsp. vegetable oil for frying;
- 2 cloves garlic, minced;
- 5 large tomatoes or 1.5 cups canned;
- 1 tsp harissa or a mixture of crushed garlic, paprika and hot pepper;
- salt, ground black pepper;
- 0.5 tsp ground cumin (optional);
- a pinch of cumin (optional);
- 2 tbsp. tomato paste;
- 8 eggs;
- 1 cup – 240 ml.
Harissa:
- 0.5 kg. dry sweet red pepper;
- 2-3 dry hot red peppers;
- 10 cloves of garlic;
- 0.5 cups of olive oil;
- 1 tbsp. salt;
- 1 tbsp. ground cumin;
- juice of 2 lemons.
- Preparation time: 5 minutes
- Cooking time: 25 minutes
- Serving: 4 servings
Fry chopped garlic in vegetable oil in a frying pan. Add tomatoes, spices and fry over very low heat for 15-20 minutes. You can cover the pan with a lid so that the tomato sauce does not splash in all directions.
Add tomato paste and simmer for a few more minutes, checking the sauce for salt and spiciness. The sauce should be spicy.
Add the eggs one at a time, arranging them as desired.
Reduce heat and simmer for 5-7 minutes or until whites are completely white.
If you want the yolk to be white, cover the pan with a lid.
Add a raw egg to the sauce
Zhanna Gur's book “New Israeli Cuisine: A Culinary Journey” lists three more types of shakshuka.
Shakshuka with onions and sweet peppers. Fry onions and sweet peppers at the very beginning, and then according to the above recipe.
Shakshuka with sausages. Lightly fry the small sausages and then follow the recipe.
Shakshuka of the Israeli army. A soldier always has a can of corn and beans in his backpack. Add beans and corn to the pan, draining the water, and continue according to the recipe.
I brought ready-made harissa from Israel, but it can also be prepared at home. The ingredients below will yield two cups of harissa.
Israeli cuisine is an amazing mixture of European and oriental influences. From Mediterranean gastronomy she inherited an abundance of vegetables, fruits, herbs, olive oil and fish. Spices and sweets came to it from the East. If you put it all together, you get an amazing mix. One of the most traditional dishes is Israeli shakshuka, the recipe of which is known to both old and young. Simple ingredients and quick preparation are the key to a great breakfast!
What is shakshuka?
The interesting name in Russian is interpreted in different ways, most often - scrambled eggs with tomatoes. Agree, it doesn’t sound so intriguing anymore, and it doesn’t quite correspond to the truth. Indeed, tomatoes and eggs are the basis of the dish, but this is not everything. This simple food is a source of national pride for Israelis. Scrambled eggs shakshuka, the recipe of which goes back centuries, came to Israel from the cuisine, namely from Tunisia, and is characterized by a spicy and pungent taste. In the traditional version, this is a hearty breakfast, but it can be served for lunch or dinner. The base of the shakshuka (without adding eggs) is called matbuha and is itself a separate element.
The ingredient composition of a dish can vary greatly depending on the region of the country, city district, and even individual families can offer you their own recipe. Shakshuka, the step-by-step recipe for which is extremely simple, is a truly excellent dish. Therefore, we will focus on preparing the basis of a hearty breakfast - matbukha sauce, and also offer you three options for shakshuka.
What do you need for Moroccan sauce?
Absolutely everyone will like matbukha; the only question is how much you will add it to the main dish. This is quite a spicy sauce; it makes no sense to make it less spicy, as this will make it lose its charm and essence. To prepare it, you will need:
- tomatoes - 500 g;
- onion (large) - 3 pcs.;
- bell red pepper (large) - 2 pcs.;
- red and green hot peppers - 1/2 pod each;
- garlic - 2 large cloves;
- sweet - 2 tsp;
- coriander - 1 tsp;
- ground cumin - 1 tsp;
- olive oil - 100 ml.
Shakshuka is prepared based on this particular sauce. The recipe and cooking steps are simply simple. Having studied them once, in the future you will be able to easily prepare a quick and satisfying breakfast.
Cooking steps
Take a thick-bottomed cauldron and heat olive oil in it. Next, add the onion, cut into half rings, and ground sweet paprika. This gives it a beautiful hue. Next, add all the other ingredients: hot red and cut into rings along with seeds (if you want to reduce the degree of spiciness, remove them), chopped garlic, cubes of sweet paprika and tomatoes. Simmer the vegetable mixture over medium heat until soft for another twenty minutes, then add spices and salt to taste. In times when there were no blenders and mixers, Moroccans prepared matboukha for 5 hours. During this time, the vegetables turned into a homogeneous, aromatic mass. Now three hours of simmering on low heat and subsequent grinding using miracle technology is quite enough.
The sauce is primarily used to make shakshuka, but you can try it in other combinations to add variety to your daily menu.
Shakshuka: a recipe “according to Israel”
As already mentioned, the basis of the dish is the sauce, the recipe for which and the cooking technology are given above. It is clear that this volume will be too much for an ordinary family breakfast. Therefore, reduce the amount of ingredients several times. For a large portion, one large tomato and half an onion are enough.
The cooking steps remain the same, but the time is significantly reduced; 10-15 minutes are enough to stew vegetables. Next, simply spread the mixture with a spatula, making some kind of holes, and break the eggs into them. Cover the pan with a lid and cook for another 5-8 minutes over low heat. Before serving, sprinkle everything with your favorite herbs, such as cilantro, dill, and here you have shakshuka. The recipe is the simplest. You can add your own ingredients if you wish. Be sure to serve it with fresh bread, a crusty baguette or pita bread (as in the dish’s homeland).
Of course, you need to know the basics, but why not experiment sometimes? This is exactly what the chefs offer. Here is a recipe using khug and baarat. But first, it’s worth finding out what these exotic components are.
Cooking skhug and baarat
Many traditional Israeli spice mixtures are quite difficult to find in our country, so it would be a good idea to prepare them yourself. Skhug is another sauce originally from Yemen, based on hot peppers. Baarat is a mixture of spices and herbs. So, to prepare the khug, place 3 green chilies, 4 large garlic cloves and 1 tsp in a blender bowl. salt, and then grind everything until smooth. More than one shakshuka can be made from this mixture; the recipe requires adding only 1.5 tsp. The rest of the sauce can be stored for a week in the refrigerator in a tightly sealed jar.
For the baarat you will need one teaspoon each of cinnamon, cardamom, bay leaf, cloves and black pepper. Grind the dry mixture thoroughly in a mortar and store in the refrigerator.
Chef's shakshuka recipe
Such a hearty breakfast is prepared and served in a large frying pan. The ingredients in the recipe are for 3 servings.
- eggs - 6 pcs.;
- tomatoes - 400 g;
- onions (diced) - 100 g;
- tomato paste - 2 tbsp. l.;
- baarat - 0.5 tsp;
- shug - 0.75 tsp;
- parsley - to taste.
Place diced tomatoes in a deep cold frying pan and sprinkle with salt, add khug and baarat. Stir the mixture lightly and put on fire. Once it starts boiling, add tomato paste. First dilute it in 0.5 cups of water. Let the mixture boil again and then simmer over low heat until the liquid has evaporated by half, resulting in a thick, viscous mass.
Next, make holes in the resulting sauce and break the eggs into them, after the whites have set slightly, close the lid and cook for another 10 minutes. Sprinkle the finished dish generously with herbs and black pepper, serve with hummus and fresh cucumber salad.
Shakshuka, the recipe for which the chef offers, has a richer spicy taste than the traditional one. It is worth noting that adding spices is generally a matter of taste, so feel free to experiment.
Shakshuka with eggplant
This version of the traditional recipe can safely serve not only as breakfast, but also as a full lunch or dinner. To prepare it you will need:
- eggs - 3-4 pcs.;
- tomatoes - 300 g;
- onion (large) - 1 pc.;
- bell red pepper (large) - 1 pc.;
- eggplant - 300 g;
- red and green hot peppers - 1/4 pod each;
- garlic - 2 large cloves;
- ground sweet paprika - 2 tsp;
- coriander - 1 tsp;
- ground cumin (cumin) - 1 tsp;
- olive oil - 4 tbsp. l.
Heat vegetable oil (olive) in a frying pan and fry the onion and garlic, sprinkled with ground sweet paprika, until golden brown. Then add the eggplant cut into strips, diced bell pepper and cook the vegetables over low heat until soft. Next, add tomatoes and spices, simmer the mixture over low heat for another 20 minutes. The next steps in the process are similar. Make small “pits” and break the eggs into them, cook under the lid for 8-10 minutes.
In conclusion, it is worth saying that shakshuka, the recipe and ingredient composition with the possibility of many variations, which we have offered, will pleasantly surprise all those who are tired of the usual scrambled eggs or omelet for breakfast.
Banal scrambled eggs with tomatoes is the simplest recipe that even a child can master. But when real professionals get down to business, then a primitive dish turns into an exquisite delicacy before our eyes. Israeli mothers are famous for their culinary delights, so below are several recipes for making that same scrambled eggs with tomatoes, which received the unusual name shakshuka in the Promised Land.
Shakshuka is a traditional Israeli dish consisting of fried eggs in tomato and vegetable sauce. Despite the rather unusual name, this appetizing and tasty dish is prepared very quickly and simply. The entire cooking process is divided into two stages: preparing the vegetable sauce and actually frying the eggs.
The dish, prepared from familiar ingredients, turns out to be very filling and nutritious, which means it is great for breakfast. By following the instructions, you can achieve amazingly tasty results.
Shakshuka - step-by-step recipe with photos
By preparing an intricate scrambled egg, in the morning you can recharge yourself with energy, strength and a great mood for the whole day.
Cooking time: 25 minutes
Quantity: 2 servings
Ingredients
- Bell pepper: 1 PC.
- Tomato: 1 pc.
- Bow: 1 goal.
- Eggs: 3 pcs.
- Garlic: 2 cloves
- Salt, black pepper: taste
- Vegetable oil: for frying
Cooking instructions
First you need to prepare all the ingredients required to prepare shakshuka. Chop the onion.
Cut the bell pepper into small pieces.
Cut the tomato into small cubes.
Now that everything is prepared, you can start cooking the shakshuka. Pour oil into a frying pan and heat it up. Place onions and peppers in a heated frying pan. Fry for 10 minutes.
Add tomatoes, black pepper and salt to taste to the fried vegetables. Stir and simmer the vegetables for another 7 minutes.
After a while, add garlic crushed using a special press to the vegetables.
Immediately after adding the garlic, use a spoon to make indentations in the resulting vegetable mixture and break the eggs into them. Lightly salt the eggs and cook over low heat for about 5 minutes until the egg white turns white. The yolk of the eggs should remain liquid.
After 5 minutes, season the finished shakshuka with fresh herbs if desired and serve with a slice of bread.
Jewish scrambled eggs shakshuka – Israeli classic video recipe
Classic Jewish shakshuka is not only tasty and healthy, but also very beautiful. Many mothers will appreciate these advantages, as well as the speed of preparation.
Products:
- Chicken eggs – 4 pcs.
- Red tomatoes, very ripe – 400 gr.
- Bell pepper – 1 pc.
- Onion (small head) – 1 pc.
- Garlic – 2-3 cloves.
- Ground hot and sweet red pepper.
- For frying - olive oil.
- For beauty and benefit - greens.
- A little salt.
Algorithm of actions:
- First you need to prepare the vegetables. Peel the garlic, rinse. Chop finely. Peel the onions, put them in water and rinse. Cut into very small cubes.
- Cut off the tail of the sweet bell pepper, remove the seeds, and rinse. Cut into beautiful cubes.
- First cut the washed tomatoes into small slices and cut them into cubes.
- In heated olive oil, fry the onion and garlic until they acquire a golden color.
- Then add pepper to this frying pan and simmer.
- Next up are the tomato cubes, send them along with the vegetables and simmer them all together for 7 minutes.
- The next step is very important - you need to make four indentations in the hot vegetable mixture with a spoon, break the eggs into them, and this must be done very carefully, the yolk must remain intact. Some Jewish housewives claim that protein can ruin shakshuka. Therefore, two eggs are completely broken into a mass, only the yolks are taken from two, but they must retain their shape.
- Add the indicated spices and herbs. Add salt and fry until the protein is ready.
- Transfer to a dish, sprinkle generously with chopped herbs, you can take parsley, dill or a duo of these aromatic herbs.
To understand the process, you can use the video recipe, watch it once and start preparing shakshuka in parallel.
When preparing shakshuka, it is important to take care of the quality of the products. It is advisable to take the freshest eggs; many housewives suggest that they are tastier in orange shells. Of course, the ideal result will be obtained with eggs from domestic village chickens, where the yolk has a stunning color.
- Another secret is that the eggs for shakshuka should not be cold, so it is recommended to remove them from the refrigerator about an hour before cooking.
- The same high quality requirements apply to tomatoes. You need to take only ripe ones, dark red, burgundy shades, with fleshy pulp and small seeds.
- Again, the best result will be obtained if the tomatoes are from your own garden or dacha, or, in extreme cases, purchased at the market from a farmer.
- It is recommended that before adding vegetables to the frying pan, peel them. This is done simply - a few cuts and dousing with boiling water. After this procedure, the skin is removed on its own.
- The same applies to peppers; according to the classic recipe, they need to be peeled; a different method is used, different from tomatoes. Bake the peppers in the oven until soft, carefully remove the skins.
- The oil for shakshuka must be made from olives, and first cold pressed, otherwise it will not be real shakshuka, but a banal scrambled egg with tomatoes.
In general, shakshuka is the right ingredients, culinary creativity and amazing results!
Cook: Karina Kumykova
Shakshuka— I became acquainted with this word quite recently. Why do I say the word and not the dish? Yes, simply because from early childhood scrambled eggs with tomatoes- one of my favorite quick meals. But only now I found out that eggs fried with tomatoes are called a certain word in many countries around the world, namely, shakshuka. But what is the peculiarity, more precisely, What is the difference between shakshuka and regular scrambled eggs with tomatoes? I think the main difference is the addition of spices to the dish. But let's start in order.
for 4 servings
Ingredients:
- olive oil - 4 tbsp.
- onion head - 1 pc.
- red pepper - 1 pc.
- green pepper - 1 pc.
- garlic cloves - 6 pcs.
- sweet paprika - 2 tsp.
- cumin or cumin seeds- 0.5 tsp
- cayenne pepper - 0.5 tsp.
- ripe tomatoes or tomatoes (tomatoes) in their own juice— 800 g.
- sugar - 2 tsp.
- lemon juice - 1 tbsp.
- eggs - 6-8 pcs.
- coriander or parsley leaves
Cooking method:
- Finely chop the onions and peppers into cubes.
- Pass the garlic cloves through a garlic press.
- Heat olive oil in a frying pan, add onion.
- Fry the onion until golden brown, add pepper.
- When the peppers are soft, add the garlic and all the spices except the cayenne pepper to the pan. Fry everything for a few minutes.
- Add the tomatoes and mix everything well or even mash it a little.
- Add sugar and bring shakshuka to a boil.
- Reduce heat and our future shakshuka should cook over low heat for 30 minutes.
- Add cayenne pepper.
- Beat in the eggs. Cook the eggs over low heat for 10 minutes until the white becomes firm and the yolk remains soft.
- Sprinkle the finished shakshuka with finely chopped coriander leaves.
Shakshuka
Shakshuka is the best scrambled egg!
5 out of 5
3 reviews
Scrambled eggs with tomatoes - how to cook correctly?
Shakshuka is a dish originating from North Africa, which over time has gained immense popularity in the Middle East, especially in Israel. Currently, this dish has begun to spread in Europe. Tunisia is considered the birthplace of shakshuka, and in translation the word shakshuka means "mixture". This is exactly what shakshuka is. But a mixture of what, what products, besides eggs and tomatoes?
As I already said, these are definitely spices, but also vegetables and herbs - parsley or coriander leaves (cilantro). Although adding vegetables is optional, this dish is often prepared with bell peppers. You can also add zucchini. In winter, pre-boiled potatoes are often added to shakshuka. Shakshuka is served with bread.
There are countless variations in how to prepare shakshuka. If we talk about one of the main components of shakshuka - tomatoes, then it must be said that here you can use both fresh (this is how Yotam Ottolenghi prepares shakshuka) and canned tomatoes in their own juice. By the way, just recently I learned very interesting fact about tomatoes. Turns out, fried tomatoes, as well as canned tomatoes, are healthier than fresh ones. Tomatoes contain powerful antioxidant lycopene, which not only has a rejuvenating effect on the body, but also prevents the risk of cancer. So, it has been proven that lycopene is better absorbed if the food contains fats, and also if the tomatoes were cooked with heat treatment. Thus, lycopene, so to speak, is better prepared for absorption by our body. Conclusion: eat shakshuka every day - you will be healthy! 🙂 For example, I really love it, but after I learned about the benefits of lycopene, I will probably resort to the above-described shakshuka recipe more.
What do you need to know about preparing eggs for shakshuka? In principle, there is only one thing: ideally, the yolks should not curl. As soon as the whites have curled, but the yolks are not yet there, remove them from the heat and serve!
Now about the spices. Chili is a must-have component of this dish.. This could be sweet paprika, cayenne pepper, or even fresh chili pepper. The main thing is that there is chili pepper in some form. Cumin or cumin grains are also very often found in the list of ingredients for shakshuka.
I found this recipe for shakshuka in a column in the Guardian newspaper. Its author is a journalist and author of numerous books about food, Felicity Cloake (I don’t risk translating into Russian. :))
Food combination: eggs with tomatoes
Normal me scrambled eggs with tomatoes and shakshuka, of course, are not the only dishes that successfully combine eggs with tomatoes. Another such dish is a very common dish in China, which is called fried eggs with tomatoes. In China it is called differently: xi hong shi chao dan or fan qie chao dan, it all depends on the region. But, in essence, they mean one thing - fried eggs with tomatoes.
We know how to cook scrambled eggs with tomatoes, let’s call it in Russian. We also know how to cook scrambled eggs with tomatoes in the Jewish way - shakshuka. What is the difference between Chinese scrambled eggs and tomatoes from all others? The main difference is the cooking technique for both the eggs and the tomatoes. Tomatoes are always cut into slices, and eggs are always beaten before frying. SIGUTE_DI in one of the LJ communities very well described this recipe for fried eggs with tomatoes in Chinese and posted step-by-step photographs.
Which scrambled eggs with tomatoes do you like best?
