The other day our lovely neighbor lady surprised us with some tasty Shakshuka. Not that she just showed up carrying a steaming pot with the dish already prepared. No. Her style of surprising us with food is even better. She'd say something like: "I want to make Shakshuka for all of us, who wants to help?" Of course I wanted to!
At first we chopped down onions, garlic, tomatoes, and a red pepper. This is pretty much how most Hungarian dishes start, as well as many Mexican ones. Shakshuka, however, is actually from the Middle East, Arabia, Turkey, North Africa, even the Balklans. So Chili peppers are hardly used, but instead cumin, black pepper, a bit of brown sugar, cilantro leaves (since we're in Mexico!), and Hungarian paprika (ha, there we go!). Fry up the whole thing with plenty of olive oil, and you have a dish that's already pretty tasty. But we're just getting started here...
When the dish is nice and hot, and starting to simmer down into perfect deliciousness, you add the most important ingredients: the eggs! Just like the Hungarian lecsó, it's the eggs that tie all the flavors together. But unlike lecsó, the once you break them right into the dish, you don't stir them around. As a result, their consistency is less like scrambled eggs, and more similar to poached eggs. This is why you don't let them boil too hard, but take the pot off the stove as soon as they're perfect.
If all these culinary delights were not enough, you can toast up some bread - we used French baguettes - and let the juices of the Shakshuka soak into the crunchy buns. YUM! Perfect for taking a big bite, and getting your face smeared with Shakshuka... Which is why I decided to use a fork and a knife instead. But honestly, what a wonderful dish for a Sunday evening!
