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Shakshuka! With a Nod to India Recipe

Excerpted from ‘The Global Pantry Cookbook: Transform Your Everyday Cooking with Tahini, Gochujang, Miso, and Other Irresistible Ingredients’ by Ann Taylor Pittman and Scott Mowbray

Published September 25, 2023

bowl of shakshuka! with a nod to india from the global pantry cookbook, showing a runny egg surrounded by cooked tomatoes and flatbread beside the bowl

Kevin J. Miyazaki

Active time: 26 minutes

Total time: 30 minutes

Serves 4

Eggs cooked in tomato with aromatic spices make a dish famous in North Africa and the Middle East as well as — in different form — India. Our version is a bright, happy, Mediterranean-Indian mash-up. It brings toasty mustard seeds, garam masala spice, ghee, and curry leaves to the party for a vibrant dish that’s even more delicious served with Indian breads.

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If you want to add bread, look for frozen parathas, which are unleavened layered flatbreads, in your local Indian supermarket or Trader Joe’s. The layered flatbreads can be placed directly on a hot unoiled griddle while still frozen. They puff and brown to a rich treat — crispy outside, soft within.

Ingredients

1 teaspoon yellow mustard seeds
3 tablespoons ghee
1 tablespoon minced or grated peeled ginger
1 clove garlic, minced or grated
1 red bell pepper, diced
½ medium onion, minced
1 tablespoon garam masala
1 teaspoon Kashmiri mirch, hot paprika, or other ground hot chile pepper
½ teaspoon kosher salt
2 cans (14 ounces each) fire-roasted diced tomatoes, undrained
8 to 12 curry leaves
½ cup hot water (optional)
4 large eggs
½ cup minced fresh cilantro
8 parathas, or 4 pitas

Directions

cover of the global pantry cookbook showing rows of ingredients including oils and sauces

Courtesy: Workman Publishing

Heat a large skillet over medium heat for 1 minute. Add the mustard seeds and toast until they are aromatic and popping, 1 to 2 minutes. Add the ghee, ginger and garlic; cook until fragrant, stirring constantly, 30 seconds to 1 minute. Add the bell pepper and onion; cook, stirring frequently, until soft, about 5 minutes.

Add the garam masala, Kashmiri mirch and salt, and cook until very fragrant, stirring frequently, about 2 minutes. Add the tomatoes and curry leaves and cook until the tomatoes start to break down, about 3 minutes more. If the mixture is thicker than a watery gravy, add 1⁄2 cup hot water. Carefully crack the eggs into the tomato sauce and cover the pan; cook until the yolks have a white film and are cooked, but the yolks are still wobbly, about 5 minutes.

Remove the pan from the heat and use a large spoon to scoop out egg and sauce into four shallow bowls. To make the dish prettier, break each egg yolk gently with a fork. Garnish with a bit of cilantro and serve with your chosen bread.

Tip: To get the egg white properly cooked, we cook this dish with the lid on, so still-runny yolks gain a slight whitish film when the eggs are done. You can pretty up each serving this way: Dole egg and tomato into serving bowls and then gently break a yolk with a fork to loosen some yellow.