On the morning of Madame's 40th she was leafing through one of her presents, Yasmin Khan's beautiful Ripe Figs (ISBN 978156609724), when she saw a simple dish of eggs fried with sliced, spicy sausage. This sent her on a trip down memory lane to childhood leftovers, and set me thinking about lunch. Fast forward a few hours and a vaguely shakshuka-like thing took shape from what presented itself in the fridge. Although it's definitely a mixture, it doesn't quite clear the bar for shakshuka because the tomatoes are absent, the eggs are more fried than poached in sauce - and it has a chunk of pork in there. Still, the flavours are similar and it smacks you in the chops, so "smackshuka" it is.
Serves 2
A length of chorizo (this was about 50g but you know best how much you want), diced
Half a brown onion, thinly sliced
Three eggs
A tablespoon or two of hot sauce (like this kimchi one from Aye Pickled)
A gherkin, roughly chopped
A small slice of feta
A tablespoon of sour cream
A good pinch of aonori and another of paprika
A dribble of white wine vinegar
Oil for frying (I used rapeseed)
Heat the oil in a frying pan and cook the onion and chorizo till the onion is soft and golden and the chorizo releasing its oil. Add the hot sauce and stir fry for 30 seconds, then tip in the gherkin, closely followed by the eggs - you want the yolks to break a bit - and tip around to coat the pan. When the eggs are just set, crumble over the feta and the seaweed and cook for a couple of minutes until the cheese begins to soften - plus a couple more if you like your eggs crispy underneath - then drizzle on a little vinegar. Top with dollops of sour cream and sprinkle with paprika. Serve with crusty bread.
Aonori sprinkle is dead easy to make if you can get to a clean beach - just snip some (cardinal rule of foraging, only what you need) off the rocks, take it home, wash it and dry it in a low oven. Crumble and there's instant seaweed tastiness, that'll keep in a wee jar for a month or two: always awesome with eggs.
