Shakshuka aka "Pretty Much Eggs in Purgatory"

I have most of a real sewing post ready but the shirt itself isn't finished so that will wait until things from the holiday settle. So here is a meal that fits well with the winter weather-  shakshuka....

Chop your parsley smaller, this one of those DH-is-out-of-town-and-I'm-lazy jobs.

You can find a hundred and one recipes for it on the internet, ours is based on Smitten Kitchen's with a little input from some Hebrew class classmates (Yes, I took Hebrew for four semesters as my foreign language. Yes, I was crazy.) I know depending on what country you want it to be from you can add meat, or omit the eggs and play with the seasoning but because I'm incredibly lazy*, I'm sticking with this one.

The alternate name came from when we lived in Texas- for those in homegroup not fond of out-of-the-ordinary food names. I never had Eggs in Purgatory growing up but everyone else was familiar with the name. Maybe it's because so few denominations in my hometown even talked about the concept of purgatory and anything related to something so... whatever, would be sort of taboo to talk about. Taboo, now that's an interesting topic. One of my last undergrad classes spent a lot of time talking about the concept of taboo in society. I had difficulty in the class only because there was definite viewpoint that most were coming from that I just didn't match, but that happened a lot in that department. Maybe that's one of the reason I've moved away from that field. I know one is because I didn't want to take proseminars in grad school. I thought grad school was the time to take classes you actually want, not more of unnecessary "stuff". Maybe one day I will take the time and do some independent a my research in the division of the sacred and the profane in the mainstream we focused more on outliers.
Oh well. Done with that. Moving on.
Eggs, spicy (ish) tomato sauce, goat cheese, pitas. Yum.
Recipe after the jump...

 The new kitchen (at 5+ months is it really new?) has a gas stove. That was an unofficial requirement in our home hunt. So excited to have appliances that are younger than me, I don't even care that their contractor models, they've had maybe 3 main users in their liftetime. So excited. Seriously. Also, cast iron pan is such a win. But you don't need one for this recipe, any large skillet will do.

Shakshuka:

1/4-1/3 C cooking oil (olive or some other sort)

3 Anaheim or poblano chiles, chopped

1 small-ish yellow onion, chopped

3-5 cloves worth of minced garlic (we use the stuff in the jar)

1 t cumin

1 T paprika (regular red)

28 oz peeled whole tomatoes

1/2 C water

6-12 eggs

Feta or chevre cheese

Flat-lead parsley, chopped

Heat the oil in a large, heavy pan. Add chiles and onion and cook till translucent, stirring occasionally for 6 minutes or so. Add seasonings and garlic, stirring a little bit more frequently until fragrant (2-3 minutes). In a separate bowl, squish the tomatoes with liquid. Add these to the pan with water. Simmer until thickened, about 15 minutes. Stir occasionally to make sure it doesn't stick. Once thickened, crack eggs over sauce. Cover pan and let the eggs cook thoroughly. Baste with sauce occasionally. This will take 7-10 minutes.

Serve topped with cheese and parsley.

Other Thoughts:

-          We’ve used store bought pitas, naan, and homemade pitas (haven’t found a winning recipe yet though). They all work but I recommend a pretty generous estimate for each person.

-          Leftovers (if you have any) make great pasta sauce

-          I’ve used large soup pots to make this instead of a large pan, it works for larger numbers but not strictly traditional from what I can tell. Any large skillet would work.

* Only in certain instances. Most supervisors I've had will say I'm very industrious at work.