🔗 Share this article

So, hear me out: the best baked eggs don’t ever hit the oven. When testing these recipes, realizing that using a cover generates steam for cooking the egg tops, resulting in perfectly cooked perfectly poached egg with a tender white and flowing center. Direct oven heat from baking is much more aggressive than steam, and has a tendency making dishes dry and overcook the yolk. I’ve given you two sauces as inspiration, though feel free to experiment. The first features an easy coconut turmeric blend, whereas the spicy sausage sauce reimagines eggs in purgatory, essentially, eggs cooked in zesty tomato base.

Turmeric Coconut Curry Steamed Eggs (shown above)

Preparation 10 minutes
Cook 55 minutes
Yields 2

Olive oil
One medium onion, skinned and diced
Salt
2 garlic cloves, minced garlic
10g fresh ginger, grated ginger
Golden spice
Cumin seeds
6-8 curry leaves
200ml coconut milk
Chickpeas
Fresh basil, plus extra to serve
Fresh eggs
2 green finger chillies, thinly cut, for serving

Heat a cast-iron pan over medium-high flame. Add a shot of olive oil, incorporate onions with some salt, and cook for five to six minutes. Add the garlic, ginger, turmeric, cumin seeds and curry leaves, let them sizzle, stirring occasionally for a few minutes, then tip in the coconut milk along with chickpeas and liquid. Bring to a boil, reduce to a simmer, let it simmer for half an hour, until thickened and deep yellow in colour. Adjust seasoning, mix in fresh basil.

With a spoon’s back to create four little pockets within the sauce, then crack an egg into each. Sprinkle the top of each egg with salt, then cover the pan with a lid, gently heat for a few minutes, until egg whites firm with yolks still runny. Remove from heat, finish with a few extra basil leaves plus chili slices, then serve immediately.

Merguez Ragu and Pickled Peppers Steamed Eggs

Preparation Quick prep
Cook 45 minutes
Serves Two portions

Oil
Spicy lamb sausages
1 tbsp harissa
Toasted cumin
Garlic cloves, peeled and thinly sliced
Tomato base
Fine sea salt
Four eggs
1 handful pickled peppers, diced
Chopped herbs, diced
3 tbsp thick Greek yoghurt
Fresh lemon, sliced into wedges, as garnish

Heat a skillet at moderate temperature. Drizzle olive oil once hot, peel sausages forming small bits adding to pan, almost like little meatballs. Reduce heat, then slowly brown the sausagemeat, extracting spicy fats. Move sausage pieces while cooking, to brown evenly.

After browning, incorporate harissa, cumin, and garlic into the skillet, adjust to moderate flame and cook, stirring, for several minutes, until the mix smells fragrant, and garlic softens. Pour in tomato contents, add seasoning heat to simmer. Reduce to low heat cooking gently for twenty minutes. Ragu thickens, thicken and deepen in colour, with oils separating and surfacing.

Employ utensil to create four little pockets across base, break eggs in. Dust with salt with a little salt, cover skillet. Simmer briefly over a low heat, until whites firm with yolks runny.

Remove from heat, top with pickled peppers, parsley and yogurt, and oil splash, accompanied by lemon.