Shakshouka

Shakshouka

In order to make Shakshouka, you need to start off by making a Matboucha.

Matboucha

I use this matboucha as my base for many recipes that require a tomato based sauce.  My kids love making it without the chillies as a pasta sauce.

Ingredients:

• 1 kg Roma tomatoes-chopped or Rosa tomatoes-halved   (if you can’t find these any other tomato is fine just make sure they are fully ripe)
• 1 onion diced
• 1 sweet pepper diced
• Chilli- use to taste- I like to put about 5-6 chillies in but if you prefer less heat use less- or none at all! (I prefer using the medium sized chillies that have a lot of flesh on them and don’t have too much heat.  I fry them, peel the skin off and slice the chilli.  I usually use different colour chilli to pepper so my kids don’t mix them up and bite into the chilli thinking it’s a pepper)
• 2 tbls (heaped) paprika
• 1 tsp chopped parsley- fresh is best but if not available use dry
• ½ tsp garlic (powder or freshly crushed- sometimes I just crush 2 fresh cloves with the flat side of a knife and add that to the pot
• Salt and pepper to taste
• Oil to cover bottom of pan

 Method

1.       Saute onion until starting to brown

2.       Add peppers and chillies.  Keep stirring for 5 minutes.

3.       Now add the spices stir continuously- you don’t want to burn the paprika but you do want it to fry a little bit

4.       Add the tomatoes and stir

5.       Reduce heat to medium heat and let it simmer until all the waters from the tomatoes evaporate, stirring every once in a while making sure the bottom doesn’t stick.

For the shakshouka, cover the bottom of a frying pan with the matboucha you made.  Break eggs and drop them on top.  Cover pot and cook on high for 5 minutes.  When serving, make sure to serve both the egg and matboucha with a LOT of bread- or what we love is with Challa.