- Hey, I'm John Kanell. And today on Preppy Kitchen. We're making Shakshuka. So let's get started. First off, we have a little
bit of chopping to do so grab one big onion or
one and a half small ones and just get that skin off
and give it a good dice. Shakshuka is a delicious, cozy dish that you can have for breakfast, you can have it for lunch or dinner. This comes from North Africa
and the name Shakshuka, which I love saying, roughly translates to
like mixed it up or mixed. It's because you have all
these delicious ingredients is mixed together in a pan. And it is like the easiest
hearty meal you can make anytime. Shakshuka has thousands of
variations all over the world. Like, I think almost
everybody loves this dish. And, they've made it their
own with different spices different peppers, different additions. And, you can make this at home with so many different ingredients. You don't have to use
what I'm showing you here. You could add your favorite things. And, if there's something that you think that really needs to be in Shakshuka, let me know in the comments. For example, I love a little
bit more spice in this dish but because I have the
kids and Brian at home we're sticking with a bell pepper today. You can use like any peppers that you love and make it as spicy as you want. I'm getting four cloves of garlic, a smash, then we're gonna mince them up. This releases that
papery skin, and it also gives all those oils a chance
to get out. Extra flavor. When we went over the ingredients I didn't show you any bread, but like, this is the dish that you want to have, like some nice crusty,
like bread or pita with. Just like, soak up all
that tomatoey goodness. I'm almost done with my prep. I want to talk about the
pan for just a second. Get a large one out. Could be stainless. Oh, it could be cast iron. Either one will work. If you're using cast iron, just make sure it's well seasoned. And, most of you are gonna make this and enjoy it right away. You don't wanna let the acidic tomatoes sit in cast iron for too long. It'll like, start messing with your season and also leak some stuff out. With that being said for the pans, it's time to get our oil nice and hot. Pan over medium heat. About three tablespoons
of olive oil or so. Little extra olive oil never hurt anybody. All right. While that's
getting nice and hot I wanna see that oil
shimmering in the light. That's how you know it's ready. We're gonna chop up our bell pepper. And like I said earlier,
if you like things spicy, go ahead and like, you can
add into your jalapeno, like whatever you want. My four-year-old boys are
not that into the spice. So, they're good sports
and they'll give it a try but they'll think it's too
hot for me, it's too spicy. I was like, okay. Thank you for trying. Get those ribs out. We do not want the seeds. It's always a good idea
to cut skin-side up. If you do it the opposite way, I swear, unless your knife is very sharp or freshly sharpened, it's
gonna stick together. So. Skin side up. My oil is dancing in the pan. It's time to add our onions in. You want your onions to be nice and translucent. So just keep mixing them up occasionally. Not burnt, not charred, just mellow and delicious. I'm also gonna add the bell pepper in right now. This will intensify the flavor as it cooks and really soften it up. I like the textures in
this to be really soft and we have it with that crisp bread. Oh, it's so good. This can cook for about 10 to 12 minutes or until everything is nice and soft. The onions are translucent. Maybe just starting to take on some color. You can stir this occasionally. It's not a constant
hovering over situation. So go ahead, have a cup of coffee and just stir once in a while. While this is cooking, I'm just gonna open up my can of tomatoes. Today, I'm using whole peeled tomatoes but you could definitely
use crushed tomatoes, the fire roasted, really
like, almost anything works. One thing I will do
with the whole tomatoes is pour off just a
little bit of the liquid. I don't need that much. Your Shakshuka has to
have a certain consistency that's a bit thicker. It shouldn't be like
very watery because like, what are you gonna do with that? Like, watery tomato juice? You want full flavors. A lot of the liquids
in to get reduced off. If you wanna make your
own version of this, go ahead and raid the fridge, see what veggies you have available. Like, just give them a smaller chop and put them in with the bell pepper so they're nice and tender. I swear almost anything will work. And it's really up to you. Like, what do you wanna add to this. Make it your own dish. This is just like a
template for you to follow but you can go in any number variations. Right now, you can see my onions are starting to become translucent. They're taking on a little bit of color and we're almost there. I do want them to be just a bit more so. So take a look here and
see once it's at this stage you're getting close. Now, it's time for spices. One teaspoon of Paprika. A teaspoon Chili powder. Two teaspoons of Ground Cumin. Let's mix this up right now. It smells so good. I'm also gonna add the garlic in. Now, it's time for the garlic
and some serious stirring, so it doesn't burn. It's gonna be over heat
for about two minutes with just the garlic
and the spices in there. And just like I said about the vegetables, this is the same deal for the spices. You can add any of the
spices that you love in here. It'll just bring more flavor. So some other spices you could enjoy here, like Ras El Hanout, like the list goes on. Let me know in the comments,
what you would add. I'm adding my tomatoes now and you see, their whole tomatoes. So we're just gonna use our
wooden spoon to break it up. But they're gonna also
break down with the heat. Now, I can add some more
of my tomato juice in here. I just wanted to have control. Sometimes you open up a can of tomatoes and it's a lot of liquid in there. So it's better just to add it in as you want for your consistency. Tomatoes are broken up. Hope they get back together. And this isn't gonna come to a boil. Right now, just the edge is bubbling, but the center is not close. So leave it over medium heat. Once it comes to a boil, then
we're gonna reduce to a simmer until we get like a thicker
or just delicious consistency. Once we get to the right consistency, you'll see why we actually
need that consistency in order to cook the eggs properly. This can't just smell good. It has to taste good. So I'm gonna add in half a teaspoon of salt and
half a teaspoon of pepper. I'm using Kosher salt which has like larger
grains than fine table salt. So, if you see in my palm, there are like big
pieces of salt over here. If you're using table salt,
I would add in a quarter and then up it to taste. Freshly cracked black pepper. I'm reducing it to a simmer and this can just bubble away for like 15 to 20 minutes or
until it's noticeably thicker. The cook time really helps the flavors melt and make delicious things happen. My mixture's really reduced. It smells amazing. And right now, I actually want to give it a quick taste just to see if
the salt and pepper is right. Oh my gosh. It's really good. Okay. Good handful of your
Cilantro, Parsley, whatever. And I'm saving a little bit for the top. Now, it's time for the eggs. This dish is so delicious
because it has like our veggies but it has protein from the eggs. That's really one of the
reasons you can enjoy it any time of the day and
it's just like delicious. I have my wooden spoon. I have a little bowl, you
could use ceramic in too. I'm gonna crack an egg into the bowl. Now, create a well, it's like a little
depression in the sauce, with the back of your spoon, and slide your egg in there. You don't want your egg to go all over the place. It should be pretty contained. And as you go along, you
can kind of just make a little wall to hold it
in and cover it a bit. It'll help it cook. Repeat that process
for the remaining eggs. If you wanted to add like
less eggs, that's fine too. If you wanna add more, you might be able to fit in one more egg. My eggs are baking already but here's the deal, you
want a soft, runny yolk. My favorite thing. And a firm egg white or almost firm. So go ahead and cover it up. This will take about 10 to 12 minutes but everyone's burners
are a bit different. So go ahead and give it
a check after 10 minutes and then we'll baby it from there. So this is a very important note. I'm actually on propane here at the house and it is hot. If you're using electric, oh my gosh, you're gonna take a little bit longer. Gas, less time. Propane, it's done. So, these eggs are actually perfect after just like four minutes or so. It's really fast. You can see here, the whites are set. And the yolks, I'm not
gonna burst them yet but the yolks are still nice and runny. So, much less time. It's all ready to go. We're gonna take this off heat. So I'm finishing this off with a sprinkle of Cilantro. You could use Parsley. And a little bit of Feta, just crumbled over gives
you some creaminess and extra flavor. Scoop it up, plate it and
get that crusty bread ready. Oh my gosh. Let's take a bite. Whether you're having this for
breakfast, lunch or dinner, this might just be the perfect meal. I hope you get a chance
to make this recipe. And if you like this video,
check out my breakfast playlist.
