Much of our hunting, reading and testing at the moment is inspired by the idea of optimal eating – meals that are equally delicious, easy to make, and scientifically proven to be magically life-extending. A few of the recipes published here show this inspiration – the cioppino for instance, and the blueberry chutney are both things that are so good for you they’re practically medicine. In the end the question, as Michael Pollan so smartly reminds us, is not so much about what to eat (since we’re omnivores) as how to eat.
Turmeric, cumin, garlic and cilantro lend deep flavour to this satisfying egg dish.
Fortunately, it seems we can trust our instincts. I was thrilled to read Jennifer McLagan’s book Fat, a joyous manifesto of a cookbook that affirms what every food-lover knows deep down – fat is an essential part of a healthy diet. And not just the Omega-3 and extra-virgin kinds. Butter, chicken fat, beef drippings, pork rind – it would seem they’re not such guilty pleasures after all.
Black cumin, ground turmeric, onions, and garlic.
Breakfast this morning was an excellent dish in the optimal category – a recipe from Cooking with Foods that Fight Cancer by Richard Beliveau, based on his groundbreaking research on the role of diet in cancer prevention. It’s heartwarming in the same way the Fat book is – it reveals your best kitchen friends to be immune-boosting, cancer-busting superheroes: onions, garlic, red wine, dark chocolate, mushrooms…
What are your favourite superfoods, and how do you put them to work in your cooking?
[fbshare]savoury skillet eggs
NOTES: Black cumin is a great match for the turmeric and cilantro, if you have it. Be generous with the black pepper – it dramatically boosts the anti-inflammatory properties of the turmeric.
1 tbsp. olive oil
1 onion, chopped
2 or 3 cloves of garlic, minced
1 tsp ground turmeric
1 tsp. whole cumin
1 large can of tomatoes, drained (preferably home-canned San Marzanos)
salt and pepper
4 eggs
chopped cilantro for garnish
1. Heat the oil in a large skillet and sweat the onions and garlic over low heat until they’re translucent.
2. Add the turmeric and cumin and cook for another minute.
3. Add the tomatoes, salt and pepper to taste, and simmer until the mixture thickens, from 5 to 20 minutes, depending on the water content of the tomatoes.
4. Make four nests in the mixture and carefully crack an egg into each.
5. Cook, uncovered, until the egg whites are set.
6. Garnish with cilantro and serve.
That looks amazing! Yummy!
Mmmm love this dish. The traditional name for it is shakshuka and it is served all over Israel!
Thanks, Annie, was hoping someone would make sure to mention that.
One of my alltime favorite brekkies!
Me too. It’s very simple to make and is very delicious – and good for you to boot.
I’m glad you reminded me about this – way back I used to make something similar all the time – amazing comfort food. Of course it wasn’t with the spices, which I’m so going to make maybe even tonight, but with some canned Pastene (sorry to bastardize your dish, but I’m clean out of home-canned San Marzanos – you guys are hilarious. Admirable, but hilarious).
So beautiful! And now I officially need that “Fat” cookbook.
Looks yummy! I’ll give it a try.
your photos are so gorgeous!!! i’m definitely jealous. my camera and i can only go so far together it seems. icannot wait to dig in and read about the food. we have a newly acquired puppy — might be useful it seems for my future disasters. laura
I’m definitely a whole foods, Rebecca Wood kind of girl, too. Didn’t know that about turmeric and black pepper, thanks for the food factoid.
Thanks for the comments. Very encouraging. Keep ‘em coming.
This right here is enough inspiration for me to go out and finally buy that cast-iron skillet I’ve had my eye on…
Beautiful photos!
This looks amazing! I can’t wait to try this!
What a wonderful blog you have. I am enjoying reading your recipes. This is the one though that I am going to try….wow, it looks good. Definitely NOT for my dogs (they go crazy when they smell eggs cooking).
Thank you!
Howdy. I just made this dish tonight, but a few comments on the recipe you have. The picture you show is of a single egg in a relatively small skillet, but the recipe calls for 4 eggs and a large can of san-marz.
When I cooked this in a large skillet (12″), I had to double both the turmeric and cumin seeds to get a hint of either flavor. Also, even in such a large pan, the tomatoes didn’t leave much space (even after cooking down to a thick sauce) for the eggs. After putting them in for about 7-9 minutes, I still had to cover the pan to get something that was cooked all the way through. After an extra 5 minutes covered they were still not what I would call 100% there..
The ratio of egg to tomatoes seemed spot-on though, but a skillet larger than 12″ isn’t going to fit well on most home stoves..
Thanks for giving me something new to try though.. maybe I’ll give it a try with a single batch instead of the 4 if I give it a go again.
Hey Brad,
Glad to hear you’re experimenting with this great dish. I’m about to make another variation of it this morning, with slices of avocado and pumpernickel toast.
As with any dish, the right balance of flavours will be different for every palate. I don’t like a strongly spiced dish in the morning, and the cumin I have at home is very pungent, so the dosage reflects an optimal balance for me, and not necessarily anyone else.
We used a smaller pan for the photo because we liked the look of it, but have often used these exact ratios in a twelve inch stainless steel skillet. I’m surprised your eggs were crowded, and that it took so long to cook them. But again, my skillet may be a bit deeper than yours, or my stove hotter.
It sounds like you’ve already got ideas on how to make this work optimally for your palate, in your kitchen, which is really great. That’s how good cooking become great cooking.
Thanks for writing.