Recipes

Berber breakfast eggs

Posted by Fiona Beckett (Google+) on March 21 2021 at 08:17

It's easy to get into a rut with egg recipes so why not try this delicious Moroccan egg dish from Nargisse Benkabbou's Casablanca: my Moroccan Food which gives a modern twist to traditional Moroccan cuisine.

Nargisse writes: "In my parents’ home, eggs are something we used to enjoy almost religiously. They were allowed only for breakfast and never on weekdays. Nevertheless, my brothers and I used to quietly sneak into the kitchen in the afternoon to experiment with highly questionable egg recipes. And by recipes, I mean something that contained way too much butter and ketchup.

In my opinion, eggs are much more than a cheap way to have our daily serving of protein; they are delicious, especially when cooked the right way.

This Berber recipe is one of the many ways my mum used to prepare eggs for us at the weekend."

Berber breakfast eggs

Serves 4 [although I think two could demolish it without too many problems FB]

2 tablespoons olive oil

3 tomatoes, grated

1 green pepper (150g), cored, deseeded and chopped

1 garlic clove, crushed

2 tablespoons chopped flat leaf parsley

½ teaspoon paprika

½ teaspoon ground cumin

½ teaspoon ground turmeric

pinch of cayenne pepper

½ teaspoon salt

2 tablespoons water

4 eggs

To garnish

½ red onion, finely chopped

handful of chopped spinach

Warm up a frying pan over a medium heat. Add the tomatoes, pepper, garlic, parsley, spices and salt, give it a good stir, then add the water. Cover the pan and leave to cook for 20 minutes, stirringoccasionally. If it looks like there is not enough liquid in the pan at any point during the cooking process, add a couple more tablespoons of water.

Break the eggs straight into the sauce, re-cover the pan and cook for about 5 minutes until the whites are set but the yolks are still runny. Garnish with the chopped red onion and spinach and serve immediately with khobz [a simple Moroccan bread for which she also gives a recipe in the book]

What to drink: I personally wouldn't drink wine with this though if you fancy it, a glass of dry southern French rosé would work. A glass of freshly squeezed orange juice would be nicer though

From Casablanca: My Moroccan Food by Nargisse Benkabbou, published by Mitchell Beazley at £20. Photograph © Matt Russell

Nargisse was nominated an Observer Rising Star in Food 2018 and blogs at mymoroccanfood.com

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