21 January 2018

Sun., Jan. 21, 2018

Cap Monastir Marina
Monastir, Tunisia

Tunisians have a love affair with eggs.  The smallest number to buy in a cardboard carton is 15 and they go up in 5's from there.  Alternatively, you can buy them singly from a big pile and carry them home in plastic bags.  They often have a hint of feather or muck on them.  Eggs are an ingredient in many of the "fast" street foods.  Omelettes, a chapati incredibly spicy sandwich, soup, bricks and ...




This is a chicken store.  Meat on the inside, heaps of eggs on the sidewalk - bags or trays. 
Strangely, it was via our daughter in Canada through her travels in Israel where she had loved a popular Israeli brunch item adapted from a typical Tunisian egg dish that we discovered shakshuka or Tunisian baked eggs.  We had sampled them for lunch, homemade by a Berber woman, in the troglodyte home in the Sahara without knowing what we were eating.   
Our lunch on tour.  The dish in left upper corner is shakshuka.
My variation for dinner.  Delish!
Try this recipe, if you're interested - it's spicy

2 T olive oil
2 T harissa
5 very ripe tomatoes (Tomatoes in Tunisia are fantastic with a rich, fresh taste.  If you can only get the hothouse variety, canned tomatoes would probably be better)
1 chopped red pepper (I only had green pepper)
1-2 cloves garlic minced
1 tsp cumin
4 free range eggs
thick yoghurt

You can really add anything you want to the sauce.  I parboiled and then fried some cubed potatoes.  Spinach would be good.  Some kind of bean or chick pea would too.

Heat the oil.  Add the harissa and garlic for a few seconds.  Soften the peppers and tomatoes.  Cook until sauce pretty thick and a well keeps it's shape.  Make four wells.  Crack the eggs into the wells.  Cover for a few minutes checking the yolk.  You want a yolk that runs - at least I do.  Serve with a dollop of yoghurt.


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