🔗 Share this article

So, hear me out: the most delicious egg dishes never require an oven. Through culinary experiments, realizing that using a cover produces a humid atmosphere to cook the top of the eggs, yielding tender soft-cooked egg with a tender white and a warm, runny yolk. Direct oven heat from baking acts stronger compared to steaming, typically causing to dehydrate ingredients resulting in firm yolks. Here are two sauce options as inspiration, encouraging customization. One is a super-simple turmeric coconut curry, whereas the spicy sausage sauce puts a twist on classic tomato-baked eggs, or simply put, eggs baked in spicy tomato sauce.

Golden Coconut Sauce Baked Eggs (shown above)

Prep A quick 10 minutes
Cooking time Just under an hour
Serves 2

Extra virgin oil
One medium onion, peeled and finely chopped
Sea salt
Two garlic cloves, crushed and chopped
10g fresh ginger, grated ginger
1 tbsp ground turmeric
½ tbsp cumin seeds
Curry leaves
200ml coconut milk
Chickpeas
Basil leaves, and additional for topping
4 eggs
2 green finger chillies, julienned, to serve

Set a 25cm heavy cast-iron pot on a medium-high heat. Drizzle olive oil, incorporate onions and a pinch of salt, and cook for five to six minutes. Mix in garlic, ginger, and spices, let them sizzle, mixing now and then for a few minutes, then tip in the coconut milk including chickpea can contents. Heat until boiling, lower heat to gentle cook, let it simmer for half an hour, when sauce is rich and yellow. Adjust seasoning, incorporate basil.

With a spoon’s back to create four little pockets in the sauce, then crack an egg into each. Sprinkle the top of each egg with salt, then cover the pan with a lid, simmer over low heat for two to three minutes, until egg whites firm and yolks warmed. Remove from heat, finish with a few extra basil leaves and thinly sliced finger chillies, then serve immediately.

Merguez Ragu and Pickled Peppers Baked Eggs

Prep 10 minutes
Cook 45 min
Serves Two portions

Oil
2 merguez-style lamb sausages
Spicy paste
Cumin seeds
Garlic cloves, sliced thin
Tomato base
Seasoning
Fresh eggs
Pickled peppers, diced
Chopped herbs, finely chopped
Greek yogurt
Fresh lemon, wedge-cut, for serving

Heat a skillet at moderate temperature. Add two tablespoons of olive oil and, once it’s warm, peel sausages and break off pieces into the skillet, like mini balls. Turn down the heat, cook until golden, extracting spicy fats. Roll the merguez pieces around the pan during cooking, to brown evenly.

When golden, mix in spices and garlic into the skillet, turn up the heat to medium and cook, stirring, briefly, until the mix smells fragrant, and garlic softens. Pour in tomato contents, salt to taste let it bubble. Reduce to low heat cooking gently for twenty minutes. Ragu thickens, intensify in color, with oils separating and surfacing.

Use the back of a spoon making indentations across base, then crack an egg into each. Season eggs with salt, then cover the pan with a lid. Cook for two to three minutes on low flame, until whites firm and yolks warmed.

Turn off stove, top with pickled peppers, parsley, a blob of yoghurt, and oil splash, accompanied by lemon.