Shakshuka

New Year! New recipes, and as a result new blog posts.

Throughout 2012, I'll be participating in reddit's 52 Weeks of Cooking challenge. Every week, I'll write about a recipe that features a specific ingredient, dish type, theme, or cooking technique. I'm also participating in the 52 Weeks of Baking challenge which follows a similar format.

As part of Week 1 in the challenge, (ingredient: eggs), I set out to make Shakshuka. A somewhat recent favorite in the dinner rotation, Shakshuka is eggs poached in a spicy tomato sauce. You may be glad to hear that the amount of spice can be controlled in case you aren't a fan of steam coming out of your ears. (Or of runny noses, teary eyes, etc). I've been putting hot sauce/red pepper flakes on about 90% of my meals, but I still believe the spice is very tolerable in the recipe below. Feel free to drop the number of peppers if you are worried.


Shakshuka
Adapted from Smitten Kitchen
1/4 cup olive oil
3 stalks of celery, chopped
5 Anaheim chiles stemmed, seeded, and finely chopped
1 small yellow onion, chopped
5 cloves garlic, chopped
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 tablespoon paprika
2 14.5-ounce can petite diced tomatoes, undrained
Kosher salt, to taste
6 eggs
1/2 cup blue cheese, crumbled
1 tablespoon chopped flat-leaf parsley
Heat oil in a 12-inch pan over medium-high heat. Add chopped celery and cook for 5 minutes. Occasionally, give the chopped vegetables a stir. Add chiles and onions and cook until soft, about 6 minutes. Add garlic, cumin, and paprika, and cook, stirring frequently about 1 minute.
Add tomatoes to pan, along with 1/2 cup water, reduce heat to medium, and simmer, stirring occasionally, about 15 minutes. Season sauce with salt.
Crack eggs over sauce, evenly distributed across sauce’s surface. Cover pan and cook until yolks are just set, about 5 minutes. Remove from hear, baste the whites of the eggs with tomato sauce, being careful not to disturb the yolk. Sprinkle cheese and parsley over Shakshuka before serving.

Serve over rice pilaf and enjoy!