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So, hear me out: the most delicious egg dishes don’t ever hit the oven. Through culinary experiments, realizing that using a cover creates a steamy environment for cooking the egg tops, yielding tender delicately prepared egg featuring set whites and flowing center. The harsh, arid temperature in conventional ovens proves harsher versus moist heat, typically causing to dehydrate ingredients and harden the yolk. I’ve given you two sauces as inspiration, encouraging customization. The first features an easy coconut turmeric blend, and the second offers a merguez ragu is a riff on eggs in purgatory, essentially, eggs cooked in zesty tomato base.

Turmeric Coconut Curry Steamed Eggs (pictured above)

Preparation 10 min
Cook 55 minutes
Yields Two servings

Olive oil
1 onion, peeled and finely chopped
Sea salt
Two garlic cloves, crushed and chopped
Fresh ginger root, minced ginger
1 tbsp ground turmeric
Toasted cumin
Curry leaves
200ml coconut milk
Chickpeas
A few basil leaves, plus extra to serve
Fresh eggs
Fresh chilies, thinly cut, as garnish

Use a heavy skillet over medium-high flame. Pour in some 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, reduce to a simmer, let it simmer for 30-35 minutes, until thickened and deep yellow in colour. Add salt to taste, then stir in the basil leaves.

With a spoon’s back forming small wells within the sauce, break eggs into each. Sprinkle the top of each egg with a little salt, place a lid on the pan, and cook on a low heat briefly, until egg whites firm and the yolks just warm. Take off the heat, finish with a few extra basil leaves and sliced chilies, then serve immediately.

Spicy Sausage Sauce and Pickled Peppers Steamed Eggs

Preparation 10 min
Cooking time 45 minutes
Serves 2

Olive oil
Merguez sausages
Spicy paste
1 tsp cumin seeds
Garlic cloves, minced garlic
Tomato base
Seasoning
Fresh eggs
Tangy peppers, diced
Chopped herbs, minced
Creamy yogurt
1 lemon, wedge-cut, for serving

Heat a skillet on a medium heat. Drizzle olive oil when heated, remove the skins from the sausages and break off pieces of the meat into the pan, almost like little meatballs. Turn down the heat, cook until golden, releasing flavorful oils. Move sausage pieces during cooking, to brown evenly.

Once browned, add the harissa, cumin seeds and sliced garlic into the skillet, adjust to moderate flame fry with mixing, briefly, when fragrant, and garlic softens. Tip in the tomatoes, add seasoning let it bubble. Lower to gentle simmer and simmer slowly for twenty minutes. Sauce will thicken, 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 with a little salt, then cover the pan with a lid. Cook for two to three minutes over a low heat, until whites firm with yolks runny.

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