Tunisian chakchouka

Ingredients

• Bell peppers5
• Tomatoes600 g
• Onions2
• Garlic5 clove
• Harissa2 tbsp
• Tomato paste2 tbsp
• Ground caraway1 tsp
• Ground coriander1 tsp
• Eggs6
• Olive oil80 ml
• Capers2 tbsp
• Bread — to serve400 g
• Salt and pepperto taste

Salt and spices grow more slowly than the rest: doubling a dish does not double the pepper.

Weight converts to ounces and volume to cups. Grams of flour are not turned into cups, because that depends on how tightly it is packed.

Method

1. 1

   Char the peppers over a flame until the skin blackens, cover them with a bowl for ten minutes and peel them.

   25 min

2. 2

   Cut the peeled peppers into strips, the tomatoes into dice and the onion into slices.

   12 min

3. 3

   Fry the onion and garlic in olive oil until soft, eight minutes.

   10 min

4. 4

   Stir in the harissa, tomato paste, caraway and coriander and cook them two minutes.

   4 min

5. 5

   Add the peppers and tomatoes, season and stew twenty minutes to a thick paste.

   22 min

6. 6

   Make wells in the sauce with a spoon and break an egg into each.

   4 min

7. 7

   Cover and cook six minutes, until the whites set and the yolks stay liquid.

   8 min

About the dish

The peppers are charred over a flame and skinned. That smokiness is what separates Tunisian chakchouka from the Israeli shakshuka with raw pepper.

The sauce is reduced long, to a thick paste, and only then do the eggs go in. A loose sauce will not hold them and the white runs across the whole pan.

The harissa is stirred into the sauce rather than served alongside. The Tunisian version is hot by definition, and a mild chakchouka reads as unfinished here.

Worth knowing

• — The sauce has to be very thick. If it is loose the eggs sink and hard-boil instead of setting on top.
• — Keep the lid on for all six minutes. An open pan gives no steam to set the top of the white.
• — The capers go in at the end, with the eggs. Cooked, they lose their acidity, and it is that acidity the rich sauce needs.

Nutrition

Per serving at the base yield, calculated from the ingredients rather than measured in a lab.

Calories

380 kcal

Protein

16 g

Fat

24 g

Carbs

26 g

More from Tunisia

• Brik — A thin sheet of pastry with an egg inside, fried so the yolk stays liquid.
• Tunisian lablabi — Chickpeas in a garlic broth poured over torn stale bread, with an egg, cumin and harissa.
• Ojja with merguez — A fiery tomato stew with merguez lamb sausages and eggs stirred into the sauce.