Spicy Tomato Baked Eggs

I’m trying to rein in my carnivorous tendencies at the moment and eat less red meat - obviously that wasn’t the case at the weekend where I was almost caveman like in my red meat choices (raw and rare being the order of the day on Saturday).

So with that in mind yesterday afternoon I dreamt up a vaguely Moroccan spicy tomato concoction into which to throw some eggs and bake.

I pulled a lot of other spices and so forth from the shelves and racks including Spanish sweet paprika, Korean red pepper flakes, ras el hanout and more before deciding on the ingredients below. Originally I was going to use fresh tomatoes (hence those in the photo) but then I remembered a tin of Cherry Tomatoes hidden away in the back of the cupboard which I thought would be perfect in this.

It was really rather good. 


Serves 1


1 tbsp olive oil
1 banana shallot, finely chopped (I wanted to use a red onion but I’d run out)
1 large garlic clove, finely chopped
1 red chilli, finely chopped (you can discard seeds if you like)
1 Guindilla pepper (the long pickled light green Spanish chilli peppers in jars like this - optional)
60g mushrooms
Tin cherry tomatoes
Freshly ground salt and pepper
½ tsp demerara sugar
1/4 tsp cumin powder
Worcester sauce
Red wine vinegar
2 tsp Belarazu rose harissa (but any harissa is fine)
2 tsp smoked chilli jelly (optional)
Large handful coriander, chopped
2 eggs
Optional: Freshly grated Parmesan, to serve (only about 1 tbsp)

Heat the oil over a medium heat and cook the onion & chillis until the onions are softened and translucent - about 10 minutes.  Turn down the heat if they start to brown.

Add the garlic and cook for a couple more minutes.

Add the cumin and mushrooms and cook for a few minutes more.

Tip in the tomatoes, harissa, chilli jelly, a good splash of red wine vinegar and a couple of large splashes of worcester sauce, season well with salt & pepper and the sugar. Squash the cherry tomatoes down a bit with the back of a wooden spoon and simmer for 20 minutes before stirring in half the coriander (if the tomato mixture appears to be getting too dry splash in a little water).

While it is simmering, preheat the oven to 180C/gas 4.

Once the sauce is done, pour into an ovenproof dish (I use a small frying pan that I am able to remove the handle from) and make 2 shallows into which you crack an egg each.

Place in the oven and bake for 10-15 minutes or until the whites are set and the yolks cooked to how you like them.

Sprinkle is a little grated parmesan, if using and scatter with the remaining coriander.  Serve with warm wholemeal pittas or crusty bread.

Read More »

Cod Cakes in Tomato Sauce

I should do some sort of recipe census one day and see which chefs I tend to cook most of. I’m pretty sure that Yotam Ottolenghi would feature pretty highly up the list. Everything I’ve tried of his so far has been winner and there are many more I still want to try (braised eggs with lamb, venison stew and black pepper tofu all spring immediately to mind).

The Guardian website is a good source of his recipes and of course that was where I saw this one. These fishcakes are it seems, according to Ottolenghi “popular among Syrian Jews” being as they “capture much of the spirit of Sephardi food”. They are also delicious.


Cod Cakes in Tomato Sauce
serves 2

1½ slices good white bread, crusts removed
300g white fish fillet, skinless and boneless,
½ medium onion, peeled and finely chopped
2 garlic cloves, peeled and crushed
15g flat-leaf parsley, finely chopped
15g coriander, finely chopped
½ tbsp ground cumin
¾ tsp salt
1 large free-range egg, beaten
2 tbsp olive oil
For the tomato sauce
1 tbsp olive oil
¾ tsp ground cumin
¼ tsp sweet paprika
½ tsp ground coriander
½ medium onion, chopped
65ml white wine
200g tin chopped tomatoes
½ red chilli, deseeded and finely chopped
1 small garlic clove, crushed
1 tsp caster sugar
sea salt and black pepper

First make the tomato sauce. Heat the oil in a very large frying pan for which you have a lid and add the spices and onion. Cook for eight to 10 minutes, until completely soft, then add the wine and simmer for three minutes. Add the tomatoes, chilli, garlic, sugar, half a teaspoon of salt and some black pepper. Simmer for about 15 minutes, until quite thick, taste to adjust the seasoning and set aside.

While the sauce is cooking, make the fishcakes. Put the bread in a food processor and blitz to breadcrumbs. Chop the fish very finely and put in a bowl with the breadcrumbs and everything else but the olive oil.

Mix well, use your hands to shape into compact cakes about 2cm thick and 8cm wide. If the cakes are very soft, refrigerate for 30 minutes so they firm up (you could also add some dried breadcrumbs to the mix, but do so only sparingly – the uncooked cakes should be quite wet).

Heat half the olive oil in a frying pan and sear the cakes for three minutes on each side, so they colour well on both sides. Add the remaining oil as you fry the cakes.

Place the seared cakes gently, side by side, in the tomato sauce – if need be, squeeze them a bit so they all fit in a single layer.

Add just enough water partially to cover the cakes – about 100ml or so – cover the pan with a lid and simmer on a very low heat for 15–20 minutes.

Turn off the heat and leave the cakes to settle, uncovered, for at least 10 minutes before serving.

Serve warm or at room temperature with, for instance, some steamed couscous.

Read More »

Tarragon Gondi

This is yet another good Ottolenghi recipe that he has himself adapted from one in Gideon Kalimian's The Persian Kitchen (a book that I have not been able to find any reference to on t’internet). I think what drew me to this - apart from the fact that despite the criticisms he gets (usually related to long lists of weird ingredients, which I quite like) I like to cook his recipes - is the fact that two of the ingredients, dried limes and lime powder, I already had in the cupboard and was keen to find an interesting and unusual recipe for.

Gondi is Jewish Persian dish of matzo-less meatballs served in a soup, traditionally on Shabbat. The recipe may seem to call for a huge amount of fresh herbs but they are fairly essential to Iranian cuisine and the intensely bittersweet and aromatic dried limes also lend the soup a distinctly Persian flavour. Both dried limes and lime powder can be sourced quite easily on the internet - try Persopolis or Spice Mountain and the same shops can also be visited in person in Peckham or Borough Market respectively.


Tarragon Gondi
serves 3

50g basmati rice
250g minced beef
1 medium onion, finely grated or whizzed up in a spice grinder
15g fresh tarragon, leaves picked & chopped
½ tbsp ground cumin
1 tsp dried Iranian lime powder
3-4 dates, pitted & roughly chopped
sea salt &freshly ground black pepper
1250ml chicken stock
1 whole dried Iranian lime, pierced with a sharp knife or skewer
2 large carrots or 4-5 large chantenay carrots, peeled & cut into 5cm x 0.5cm batons
200g tinned chickpeas, drained
½ tsp turmeric
5 cardamon pods, lightly crushed
10g basil leaves, roughly shredded
10g mint leaves, roughly shredded

Cook the rice in a small pan of boiling water for four minutes then drain, refresh with cold water and drain again. Shake the sieve to get rid of any excess water. Tip the rice into a large bowl and add the beef, onion, tarragon, cumin, lime powder and dates, as well as a large pinch of salt and a good grind of black pepper.

Mix everything together well then shape into small balls weighing about 40g each (you should have 12 or so in all). Cover and put in the fridge for half an hour, to firm up.

In a large pan put the stock, limes, carrots, chickpeas, turmeric, cardamom and ½ a teaspoon of salt. Put on a high heat, bring to a boil, then turn the heat to low.

Carefully lower the meatballs into the broth and simmer gently for 30 minutes, until the meat and rice are cooked and the stock has reduced by about half (cover the pan if it reduces too much).

Towards the end of the cooking time press the lime with the back of a spoon, to help release its juices.

Divide the gondi and veg between bowls, spooning the soup on top and sprinkling with the herbs to serve.

Read More »

Spicy Tomato Baked Eggs

I’m trying to rein in my carnivorous tendencies at the moment and eat less red meat - obviously that wasn’t the case at the weekend where I was almost caveman-like in my red meat choices (raw or rare being the order of the day on Saturday).

So with that in mind yesterday afternoon I dreamt up a vaguely Moroccan spicy tomato concoction into which to throw some eggs and bake.

I pulled all manner of spices and so forth from the shelves and racks including Spanish sweet paprika, Korean red pepper flakes, ras el hanout and more before settling on those below.  Originally I was going to use fresh tomatoes (hence those in the photo) but then I remembered a tin of cherry tomatoes hidden away in the back of the cupboard which I thought would be perfect in this.

It was really rather good.

Moroccan-esque Baked Eggs
Serves 1
1 tbsp olive oil
1 banana shallot, finely chopped (I wanted to use a red onion but I’d run out)
1 large garlic clove, finely chopped
1 red chilli, finely chopped (you can discard seeds if you like)
1 Guindilla pepper (the long pickled light green Spanish chilli peppers in jars like this - optional)
60g mushrooms, chopped
Tin cherry tomatoes
Freshly ground salt and pepper
½ tsp demerara sugar
¼ tsp cumin powder
Worcester sauce
Red wine vinegar
2 tsp Belazu rose harissa (but any harissa is fine)
2 tsp Belazu smoked chilli jelly (optional)
Large handful coriander, chopped
2 eggs
Optional: Freshly grated Parmesan, to serve (only about 1 tbsp)

Heat the oil over a medium heat and cook the onion & chillis until the onions are softened and translucent - about 10 minutes.  Turn down the heat if they start to brown.

Add the garlic and cook for a couple more minutes.

Add the cumin and mushrooms and cook for a few minutes more.

Tip in the tomatoes, harissa, chilli jelly, a good splash of red wine vinegar and a couple of large splashes of worcester sauce, season well with salt & pepper and the sugar. Squash the cherry tomatoes down a bit with the back of a wooden spoon and simmer for 20 minutes before stirring in half the coriander (if the tomato mixture appears to be getting too dry splash in a little water).

While it is simmering, preheat the oven to 180C/gas 4.

Once the sauce is done, pour into an ovenproof dish (I use a small frying pan that I am able to remove the handle from) and make 2 shallows into which you crack an egg each.

Place in the oven and bake for 10-15 minutes or until the whites are set and the yolks cooked to how you like them.

Sprinkle over a little grated parmesan, if using, and scatter with the remaining coriander.  Serve with warm wholemeal pittas or crusty bread.

Read More »

"Joojeh" kebab with rice & orzo pilaff

There’s a Persian restaurant near me called Deeyar which I’ve been to with friends a few times fairly recently - the Khoresht Ghormeh Sabzi (lamb stew with fenugreek sauce, red kidney beans & dried lime) is quite good, the Khoresht Geimeh Bademjun (lamb, aubergine, yellow split peas, tomato & dried lemon stew) is fab and the two aubergine starters (one with fried onions & dried yoghurt and the other grilled aubergines mixed with garlic, fried onion and tomatoes - kind of like a baba ganoush) are amazing. Particularly with the taftoon bread that they freshly bake in a clay oven at the front of the restaurant when you order.

On a recent visit, one wet and cold Saturday lunchtime, I opted for the Joojeh Kebab.  A skewer of chunks of chicken breast marinated in saffron, onion and lemon, it was succulent and beautifully fragranced.

It seemed an easy enough dish to recreate at home so having some chicken thigh fillets still in the fridge post-Nepalese curry I whipped up a marinade, with the addition of yoghurt to further tenderise the meat and then grilled the kebab for lunch yesterday.

I just wish I had a clay oven to make some taftoon bread!

Chicken Kebab marinated in saffron, lemon & yoghurt
Serves 1

NOTE: This needs to be started the day ahead of when you want to eat it as the marinating takes 24 hours

Small pinch of saffron threads (about 5 threads)
2 Tbsp warm water
Banana shallot (or small onion), minced (I put the onion into my grinder and made a paste)
Juice of ½ lemon
75-100g natural yoghurt (you need enough to cover the chicken pieces) 
Freshly ground black pepper
Two skinless chicken thigh fillets, cut into chunks
Tomato & large mild green chilli, for grilling
Lemon wedges
Za’atar / sumac

Place the saffron in a small bowl and crush to a powder (as much as possible).  Stir in the warn water and let steep for 5 minutes or so.

In a medium bowl stir the saffron water into the yogurt, onion, lemon juice, and pepper.  You can add some salt if you wish but I choose not to as salt can draw out juices from the chicken while it is cooking and can make it a bit tough and dry.

Mix in the chicken pieces, stirring to ensure coated thoroughly, then cover and place in the fridge for 24hours.

When you are ready to cook, preheat the grill and while it is doing so thread the chicken pieces onto a skewer.

Grill for 5 minutes initially then turn them and add tomato halves and a long mild green chilli to the grill.  

Grill for 5-10 minutes more.  Ensure juices in chicken run clear (insert a sharp knife into a fat piece) then serve with the orzo rice pilaff (see below), the tomato and chilli, lemon wedges and a healthy sprinkling of za’atar.

Orzo & rice pilaff

50g long grain white rice
2 tbsp orzo
olive oil
knob of butter
125ml vegetable stock
small bunch parsley, chopped

Heat a dash of olive oil in a pan, add the orzo & rice and stirfry for a few minutes.

Pour in the stock, add the butter and turn heat down as low as it will go and clamp a lid on.

Simmer gently for 5 minutes then remove from heat, take off lid, put a clean dry teatowel across the pan and replace lid (I do this to clamp the lid on even tighter as at this point you are steaming the rice and don’t want the steam to escape).

Leave for 10-15 minutes.  When you remove the lid, the rice should be cooked, slightly moist and fluffy.  If not cooked enough or too wet, put lid back on and put on a low heat source for 5 more minutes.  When cooked, fluff with a fork and stir in the parsley.  Serve with the kebabs and vegetables.

I should point out that although tasty enough, I was a little disappointed in the kebab.  It just didn’t have the lovely succulence of that in Deeyar.  I wonder if it was because I used thigh instead of breast.  I think a bit of experimentation may be required with this one.  The pilaff on the other hand, especially with the charred chilli and tomatoes, far exceeded my expectations and was utterly scrumptious.

Read More »