Post by lagatta on Jul 10, 2010 0:52:45 GMT
I tried the search, and we don't seem to have a thread for this Maghrebi dish. It is a handy, economical thing to know how to make. It doesn't always have eggs broken into it, but that makes the dish a one-pot meal.
Gourmet Traveller's recipe looks fool-proof, though it is a bit simple: you could certainly add coriander or flatleaf parsley, and I've often seen potatoes in the vegetable mix:
gourmettraveller.com.au/chachouka.htm
This dish is in the same family as ratatouille, peperonata and many similar vegetable stews around the Mediterranean. Here are some possible variations from another recipe:
Add 1 teaspoon of cuminseed to the hot oil for about 15 seconds before you add the paprika. Add 2 to 3 teaspoons of ground coriander along with the onions.
For a little spice, sauté 1 tablespoon of harissa paste or a minced chile pepper with the onions.
Sometimes fresh shrimp or a spicy lamb sausage called merguez is added to the simmering peppers along with the eggs.
Add 1 small, diced eggplant along with the peppers.
Add 1 potato, cut in a small dice, along with the peppers.
Sprinkle the top of the cooked dish with chopped parsley or cilantro.
Add a few olives and capers and eliminate the eggs. Chill and serve garnished with hard-boiled eggs or tuna.
Here is a variation with beaten eggs. I've had it, but I like it less than the eggs cooked individually in their little wells. If you can find tiny (peewee) eggs, they make this dish precious. Remember, this is a vegetable stew. Eggs are optional.
www.independent.co.uk/life-style/food-and-drink/recipes/chachouka-merguez-545297.html The writer calls merguez beef sausages: where I live they contain at least some lamb, sometimes mixed with beef or veal. There are also poultry merguez here, originally for people who have to avoid excess cholesterol.
This Kosher site claims the origin of the work chachouka is Hebrew, though who knows, as the 3-letter roots of Semitic languages are often the same in Hebrew and Arabic. It is certainly very popular in Maghrebi Jewish communities (among the Sephardic branch) and a Moroccan-Jewish friend made it for me in Paris, but I've also had it made by friends of Arabo-Muslim-Maghrebi backgrounds. The basic recipes is certainly both kosher and halal, and vegetarian (without merguez, obviously) good to know if you are vegetarian or are entertaining vegetarian guests. And meat-eaters like it too.
And it's cheap!
www.angelfire.com/pa2/passover/recipes-pesach/chakchouka-recipe-shakshouka-sephardic.html I love the addition of the preserved lemon! Though that contradicts the admonition in the recipe: "Fresh vegetables are always used for this dish, never canned vegetables".
Obviously fresh are preferable, like duh, and most people have access to onions, though if you are craving this while cabin-bound at -40 (which is the same C and F), you could certainly rustle up something with jarred grilled red sweet peppers, decent tinned tomatoes and such.
Gourmet Traveller's recipe looks fool-proof, though it is a bit simple: you could certainly add coriander or flatleaf parsley, and I've often seen potatoes in the vegetable mix:
gourmettraveller.com.au/chachouka.htm
This dish is in the same family as ratatouille, peperonata and many similar vegetable stews around the Mediterranean. Here are some possible variations from another recipe:
Add 1 teaspoon of cuminseed to the hot oil for about 15 seconds before you add the paprika. Add 2 to 3 teaspoons of ground coriander along with the onions.
For a little spice, sauté 1 tablespoon of harissa paste or a minced chile pepper with the onions.
Sometimes fresh shrimp or a spicy lamb sausage called merguez is added to the simmering peppers along with the eggs.
Add 1 small, diced eggplant along with the peppers.
Add 1 potato, cut in a small dice, along with the peppers.
Sprinkle the top of the cooked dish with chopped parsley or cilantro.
Add a few olives and capers and eliminate the eggs. Chill and serve garnished with hard-boiled eggs or tuna.
Here is a variation with beaten eggs. I've had it, but I like it less than the eggs cooked individually in their little wells. If you can find tiny (peewee) eggs, they make this dish precious. Remember, this is a vegetable stew. Eggs are optional.
www.independent.co.uk/life-style/food-and-drink/recipes/chachouka-merguez-545297.html The writer calls merguez beef sausages: where I live they contain at least some lamb, sometimes mixed with beef or veal. There are also poultry merguez here, originally for people who have to avoid excess cholesterol.
This Kosher site claims the origin of the work chachouka is Hebrew, though who knows, as the 3-letter roots of Semitic languages are often the same in Hebrew and Arabic. It is certainly very popular in Maghrebi Jewish communities (among the Sephardic branch) and a Moroccan-Jewish friend made it for me in Paris, but I've also had it made by friends of Arabo-Muslim-Maghrebi backgrounds. The basic recipes is certainly both kosher and halal, and vegetarian (without merguez, obviously) good to know if you are vegetarian or are entertaining vegetarian guests. And meat-eaters like it too.
And it's cheap!
www.angelfire.com/pa2/passover/recipes-pesach/chakchouka-recipe-shakshouka-sephardic.html I love the addition of the preserved lemon! Though that contradicts the admonition in the recipe: "Fresh vegetables are always used for this dish, never canned vegetables".
Obviously fresh are preferable, like duh, and most people have access to onions, though if you are craving this while cabin-bound at -40 (which is the same C and F), you could certainly rustle up something with jarred grilled red sweet peppers, decent tinned tomatoes and such.
