With an abundance of tomatoes from my garden about to rot on my countertop and nothing planned for dinner last night, I had inspiration. I made Shakshuka! Not only was it my first time making it, it was my first time eating it. So, I can say with confidence, it was the best Shakshuka I’ve ever had. Also, the worst, but…
I glanced at a few recipes to get the idea and then came up with my own take. It was easy, delicious and came together very quickly. I was able to use many ingredients from our garden, which always feels like a win.
I rough chopped a ton of tomatoes, onion, whole garlic cloves and one hot chili pepper, drizzled with a bit of evoo and seasoned with s&p. Spread on a baking sheet and put under the broiler until everything had a good char on it. I then took the chili peper out and diced it up, smooshed the roasted garlic cloves into a paste and added everything into a le creuset on low heat on the stove. Seasoned the mixture with ras el hanout, cumin, allspice and paprika and let it simmer to dry up and thicken a bit. I then made four wells and dropped in an egg in each. Covered the pot and let it simmer for about 15 minutes. I then uncovered, topped with some feta cheese and popped it under the broiler for a quick minute (I don’t care for runny eggs, so wanted to make doubly sure they were well-cooked). Finally, I sprinkled with some chopped parsley, cilantro and mint.
Served with naan (because I didn’t have pita).
It was really good! Would and will definitely make again. Most recipes that I saw called for canned tomatoes, so I think this is a great year-round larder stash kind of meal, too.
When I make a pasta dish, I (used to…) combine the sauce and the pasta in the skillet, top it with parm and mozzarella, and bake it at like 350 for about 10-15 minutes.
Well, the oven went out the other day, so here I was with my pasta dish looking all happy and lovely in its pan. I still wanted to top it with cheese, so I put the stove burner on low/med-low, put a lid on the pan, and let it sit there for about 15 minutes. The cheese ended up melting, but not drying out at all, so it was very gooey – and, I thought, quite delicious. So maybe that’s something to try; it will be my new method of melting cheese on top of pasta.
Shakshuka is a regular late summer/fall thing in our house as my mom was from Morocco and that type of thing is a staple there. I do mine stove top!
Similar to shakshuka with the egg my mom would also just do what we call “hot sauce”. Hot sauce is not a liquid but more like a dip. Great for tortilla chips, pita, on the side of eggs or meat, crackers, all sorts of ways! Think salsa but more chunky and not so thin.
On tonight’s menu…
Thick cut loin porkchops, seared in a cast iron skillet and finished in the oven
Portobella mushrooms topped with blue cheese
Rice and beans
Preheat oven to 350 deg.
Place parchment paper on pan
Trim the stems off the portabella mushrooms
Crack pepper on mushrooms
Cut thin (1/16 - 1/8") slices of your favorite blue cheese and place on mushrooms
Cook in oven until cheese is melted (around 15 minutes)
Is necessary, pour off excess liquid trapped in mushroom caps
Mom & Dad are coming over for dinner, so I’m making lasagna. It’s one of my favorite comfort meals, BUT it’s 90°here today. I’m going to crank the AC later to lower the house temp for a couple hours and imagine it’s late fall
Tried something new tonight in the IP, Chicken Marbella. The sauce was outstanding. Will definitely make again, but will only use four chicken thighs; if you make eight, you will want to double the sauce recipe to ensure more than a dollop per thigh.
Also, not sure the IP adds much to this recipe other than shortening the cook time by a few minutes (given the elapsed time to come to pressure, cook, and release). I think it would be just as easy to make this in a dutch oven on the stove simmering all for 45 minutes at step 3.
If I were making this for myself, I’d omit the apricots and sugar as I don’t eat sweet with meat. However, once cooked, they were mild and did not add too much sweetness.
I like that IP is a push button and go away appliance. Agree that the time might be not very different but IP doesn’t require keeping an eye on the pot at all. Plus, on a hot day I can take it outside and not heat up the house.
I’m definitely going to try your recipe. I wonder how subbing quince for apricots would work here…
I don’t think making this particular recipe in a dutch oven would require any oversight during the simmer process. At least, I wouldn’t check on it once I put the lid on. That’s why I don’t see much benefit of the IP for this particular recipe. And, with a DO, you avoid the potential for that annoying “burn” message if you happen to miss scraping up a bit of the browning.
Also, as you can tell, this one’s definitely not a dump-and-go recipe. It’s labor intensive, but the flavor is worth it.
(But, I do agree in general with the ease of the IP. That’s why I have one and use it frequently )
I made a big pot of modified* Uzbek rice pilaf today before the weather got warm again. This is one thing I always make stovetop and not in IP. We sat on the deck and relaxed but I had to run back to the kitchen a few times to make sure the water wasn’t boiling off too fast or the simmering wasn’t too slow.
*I am not a fan of pilaf rice and use Nikko Nikko rice. I like the taste better.
Made instant pot Tomato Basil Soup with tomatoes and herbs from the garden. Didn’t call for heavy cream but I added 1/2 cup after using the immersion blender. So good!
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