From The Cafe - Shakshuka

Hi all, welcome to our newest feature on our little site. 'From The Cafe' is going to bring you regular recipes and ideas straight from our cafe at Car & Kitchen. However, in saying that we are starting in a bit of a strange moment as the cafe is shut for obvious reasons - so this recipe comes from our wonderful chef Abi's home kitchen. Abi is one of our talented chef's here at Car & Kitchen, she has a fantastic command of tastes & flavours bringing in lots of different influences to her cooking. Her first recipe is Shakshuka - which up to a few weeks ago I hadn't heard of! But Abi cooked it up for me as we were looking to add it to the menu before all this madness took hold and it blew my head off (in a good way). It was so rich in flavour, just the right amount of spice and deliciously fresh - just ace! So I would highly recommend it and I'd highly recommend staying tuned to this blog over the coming weeks as we share more recipes and ideas From The Cafe (...Abi's house).

Enjoy,

Henry.

Shakshuka - (Serves 4)

This delicious middle eastern dish works as brunch, lunch or dinner and is a favourite in our household. We add chorizo sometimes. There are lots of versions. Don’t feel constrained…

I blend recipes but this is predominantly thanks to the Hairy Bikers but with a blend and a look to Ottolenghi too

 Ingredients

• 3 tbsp olive oil
• 2 large onions, thinly sliced
• 2 red peppers, cut into long slices
• 2 green peppers, cut into long slices
• 4 garlic cloves, finely chopped
• ½ tsp cumin seeds
• ½ tsp caraway seeds
• Spices can vary to taste and Yottam Ottolenghi adds cumin so if you like it do add
• ½ tsp cayenne pepper
• 1 tbsp tomato or red pepper purée
• 2 x 400g tins tomatoes
• 1 small bunch fresh coriander, roughly chopped
• 1 small bunch fresh parsley, roughly chopped
• 8 free-range eggs
• 85g/3oz feta, crumbled
• 8 tbsp thick natural yoghurt or labneh
• salt and freshly ground black pepper

Method

1. Heat the olive oil in a large, lidded frying pan. Add the onions and peppers and season with salt and pepper. Cook on a medium heat until just softened. Add the garlic and cook for a further 2 minutes. Sprinkle in the cumin and caraway seeds and the cayenne pepper. Stir in the tomato or red pepper purée and cook for a couple more minutes until the paste starts to separate. Add the tomatoes with a splash of water.
2. Simmer for 10 minutes, uncovered, until reduced a little. Taste after 5 minutes and add a little sugar if you think the tomatoes need it. Keep an eye on the texture – you don’t want it runny, but it mustn’t get too dry, either. Add another splash of water if necessary. When the sauce is reduced, stir in the herbs.
3. Make 8 small wells in the sauce. Break an egg into a cup and drop carefully into a well, repeat with the remaining eggs. Cook for a few more minutes until the whites are just set and the yolks are still runny. Sprinkle over the crumbled feta. Serve with yogurt or labneh on the side.
4. In the cafe as we need to plate the dish without too much of a wait we were going to poach an egg and add this to the dish after we have swirled in the yoghurts, then add the herbs and feta at the end, just to save on time but baking the egg is the traditional way. Serve with a good bread to suit.

Give it a try and let us know how you get on in the comments.

Stay Safe & Enjoy.

Abi