Just what the doctor ordered

One of my favourite veggies has to be bell peppers. Being a chilli fan, I also tremendously enjoy the much milder (but somewhat similar) taste of bell peppers, and usually buy them by the kilo when I do my weekly grocery shopping. They are such a versatile veggie, you can pair them with almost any type of meat, they work wonders with eggs, and give the finishing touch to any home-made pasta sauce - not to mention that they work obviously pretty well wish fish as well.

Shahshuka - the cooked and seasoned peppers, nicely "confit" after 40mn

I was enjoying an lazy Sunday afternoon flipping through some cookbooks when my eye was caught by (yet another...) gorgeous picture in the no less gorgeous Plenty cookbook by Yotam Ottolenghi. Right there and then, I knew what dinner would be... Shakshuka!

Ottolenghi introduces the dish as a staple of a small popular restaurant in Jaffa (Israel), aptly named "Dr Shakshuka". This is such a satisfying recipe! Plenty of sweet red and yellow bell peppers,  some caramelised onions, a bunch of different spices - including one which in my opinion "makes" the dish: a very generous pinch of saffron threads. The whole veggies & spices mixture needs to "confit" on low heat for about 40mn to reach the perfect texture (Ottolenghi consistently gets his cooking times wrong, I find - here he recommends 15 minutes only, which is nowhere near enough to bring the peppers and onion to the fondant texture this dish requires).

The veggies and spices mix, after about 10mn of cooking.

Shakshuka calls for many ingredients, and for once I did not add or remove any (I resisted an urge to add garlic, as I knew this would kill the saffron), I was just more generous with the Cayenne pepper, as I enjoy my food with a "kick". Ottolenghi's recipe includes cumin seeds, olive oil, onions, red & yellow bell peppers, muscovado sugar, bay leaves, thyme sprigs, chopped parsley and coriander, tomatoes, saffron threads, Cayenne pepper, salt & black pepper. This makes for an absolutely delicious combination, where the sweetness of the peppers, tomatoes, onion and sugar is complemented by the intense floral aroma of the saffron threads, and gently spiced up by the Cayenne pepper.

Shakshuka - eggs added

Once the peppers mixture is cooked, it is transferred to a smaller pan, and a couple of eggs are broken in and cooked in the bubbling veggies. I am certainly looking forward to the leftovers, which should taste even better when further reheated.