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So, hear me out: the most delicious egg dishes don’t ever hit the oven. Through culinary experiments, I found that simply adding a lid generates steam for cooking the egg tops, resulting in perfectly cooked delicately prepared egg featuring set whites and flowing center. The harsh, arid temperature in conventional ovens acts stronger compared to steaming, typically causing making dishes dry resulting in firm yolks. I’ve given you two sauces as inspiration, but get creative. One is a super-simple coconut turmeric blend, while the merguez ragu reimagines traditional spicy eggs, or simply put, spicy tomato eggs.

Golden Coconut Sauce Steamed Eggs (shown above)

Preparation 10 minutes
Cook Just under an hour
Yields 2

Olive oil
One medium onion, peeled and finely chopped
Sea salt
2 garlic cloves, peeled and finely chopped
10g fresh ginger, minced ginger
1 tbsp ground turmeric
½ tbsp cumin seeds
Curry leaves
Coconut milk
Canned chickpeas
A few basil leaves, and additional for topping
Four eggs
Green chilies, thinly cut, to serve

Set a 25cm heavy cast-iron pot over medium-high flame. Drizzle olive oil, add the chopped onion and a pinch of salt, fry until softened. Add the garlic, ginger, turmeric, cumin seeds and curry leaves, allow to cook, stirring occasionally briefly, add coconut milk and the chickpeas and their tin liquid. Let it bubble, reduce 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.

Use the back of a spoon making four indentations across the base, then crack an egg into each. Sprinkle the top of each egg with a little salt, then cover the pan with a lid, gently heat for a few minutes, when whites are cooked and yolks warmed. Take off the heat, top with fresh herbs plus chili slices, ready to enjoy.

Spicy Sausage Sauce with Tangy Peppers Baked Eggs

Preparation Quick prep
Cook 45 minutes
Yields Two

Oil
Spicy lamb sausages
Spicy paste
Cumin seeds
Garlic cloves, minced garlic
400g good-quality tinned tomatoes
Fine sea salt
Four eggs
Pickled peppers, roughly chopped
Chopped herbs, finely chopped
Greek yogurt
1 lemon, sliced into wedges, to serve

Heat a skillet at moderate temperature. Pour in oil and, once it’s warm, take off sausage casings and break off pieces into the skillet, almost like little meatballs. Lower temperature, brown the meat slowly, extracting spicy fats. Move sausage pieces during cooking, for even browning.

When golden, incorporate harissa, cumin, and garlic into the skillet, adjust to moderate flame fry with mixing, briefly, until aromatic, with garlic cooked. Add tomatoes, salt to taste heat to simmer. Lower to gentle simmer and simmer slowly about 20 minutes. Ragu thickens, thicken and deepen in colour, while the oils split and rise to the top.

Use the back of a spoon to create four little pockets in the sauce, add eggs individually. Season eggs lightly salted, cover skillet. Cook for two to three minutes gently, until whites firm and the yolks just warm.

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