🔗 Share this article

Let me explain: the best baked eggs don’t ever hit the oven. When testing these recipes, discovering that covering the pan creates a steamy environment that gently cooks the eggs, yielding tender perfectly poached egg with firm whites and flowing center. The intense, dry heat in conventional ovens acts stronger than steam, and has a tendency making dishes dry and harden the yolk. Here are two sauce options to get started, encouraging customization. The first features an easy turmeric coconut curry, and the second offers a merguez ragu puts a twist on classic tomato-baked eggs, or, to the likes of you and me, spicy tomato eggs.

Golden Coconut Sauce Steamed Eggs (shown above)

Preparation A quick 10 minutes
Cooking time 55 min
Yields 2

Extra virgin oil
1 onion, skinned and diced
Fine sea salt
Two garlic cloves, minced garlic
Fresh ginger root, grated ginger
Turmeric powder
Toasted cumin
Aromatic leaves
Creamy coconut
Canned chickpeas
Fresh basil, with more for garnish
Four eggs
Green chilies, thinly cut, for serving

Heat a cast-iron pan at moderate-high temperature. Add a shot of olive oil, incorporate onions seasoned with salt, fry until softened. Add the garlic, ginger, turmeric, cumin seeds and curry leaves, leave to sizzle, stirring occasionally briefly, then tip in the coconut milk including chickpea can contents. Bring to a boil, then turn down to a simmer, and leave it to tick over about 35 minutes, when sauce is rich and yellow. Add salt to taste, mix in fresh basil.

With a spoon’s back forming small wells within the sauce, break eggs into each. Sprinkle the top of each egg lightly salted, cover the skillet, simmer over low heat for two to three minutes, until the whites are set with yolks still runny. Turn off stove, top with fresh herbs plus chili slices, and serve.

Merguez Ragu with Tangy Peppers Steamed Eggs

Prep 10 min
Cook 45 min
Serves 2

Oil
Spicy lamb sausages
Harissa paste
Toasted cumin
2 garlic cloves, minced garlic
Canned tomatoes
Fine sea salt
Four eggs
Tangy peppers, roughly chopped
Fresh parsley, diced
Greek yogurt
Fresh lemon, cut into wedges, for serving

Heat a skillet at moderate temperature. Add two tablespoons of olive oil once hot, remove the skins from the sausages and break off pieces adding to pan, almost like little meatballs. Turn down the heat, then slowly brown the sausagemeat, so it renders out all that spicy, flavour-packed fat. Move sausage pieces while cooking, so they colour on all sides.

Once browned, mix in spices and garlic to the pan, turn up the heat to medium fry with mixing, briefly, until the mix smells fragrant, with garlic cooked. Add tomatoes, season with salt heat to simmer. Reduce to low heat and simmer slowly for 20 minutes. Ragu thickens, become richer and darker, while the oils split and rise to the top.

Employ utensil to create four little pockets across base, add eggs individually. Dust with salt with a little salt, cover skillet. Simmer briefly over a low heat, when eggs set with yolks runny.

Remove from heat, garnish with peppers, parsley and yogurt, and oil splash, with lemon on side.