Sunday, October 7, 2012

Shakshouka

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Eastside Road, October 6, 2012—
EVEN ON A BUSY DAY, sandwiched between a three-hour memorial observance an hour's drive north of here and a concert an hour's drive south, my personal chef manages to come up with a triumphal dinner. No one knows better than I how lucky I am to have her, and how sorry I am that from time to time — very rarely, in fact — she makes it clear that she sometimes finds this public record a little embarrassing. She has, lord knows, no reason for embarrassment. She's an inspiration, and not only to me.

Today she turned to her clipping file for this recipe from Sunset magazine. Shakshouka, sometimes spelled with C's in place of S's, is an eastern Mediterranean or north African dish involving lots of olive oil, tomatoes, peppers, garlic, seasoned with cumin, coriander seed, and paprika that have been ground together in the mortar, stewed on top of the stove, and served with eggs that have been poached in (and above) the resulting mixture at the last minute. The result is absolutely delicious and hereby promoted to the Hundred Plates. (I see I haven't updated that list in some time. One of these days.)
Cheap Pinot grigio

1 comment:

George Mattingly said...

No cause for embarrassment: say that again & again! This blog is a daily habit for me. Sometimes I try to recreate recipes found here (and usually succeed — because the techniques are seldom intricate) but what I really value here is the attitude toward food: fresh, clear, un-fussy flavors and ingredients. About that one need never feel embarrassed!