Shakshouka | Have Breakfast for Lunch. Have some Shakshouka

According to the video I watched for this recipe, this dish is a traditional South African cuisine. When I tried to search the web for more information about this delectable food, this article shakshouka is an Israeli dish that originated from Northeast African culture. Wikipedia on the other hand says:

Tomato-based stews were common throughout the Ottoman Empire in Egypt, Syria, the Balkans and the Maghreb.

Shakshouka or chakchouka or shakshuka means all-mixed. And as I was cooking this earlier, it literally is a mixture of different spices. There have been variations to this traditional tomato stew. The one I cooked for example has mushrooms in it. Some add feta cheese towards the end of the cooking process.

Here are the ingredients I used that was based on the video I mentioned earlier.

Ingredients

White onions, cubed
Mushrooms
Red bell peppers, cubed
Green bell peppers, cubed
Green chillis (as a replacement for jalapeño)
Crushed tomatoes
Cumin
Paprika
Turmerik
Cayenne pepper
Black pepper
Salt
Eggs
Olive oil
1/4 cup water

Procedure

1. Heat pan then drizzle some olive oil.
2. Cook onions then add the mushrooms after a few minutes. Cook the mushroom until they turn brown. This may take some 5-10 minutes. Add some salt while you're mixing this.
3. Add the bell peppers as well as the green chilli.
4. Add in all the spices - Cumin, Paprika, Turmerik, Cayenne pepper and freshly ground black pepper. Mix them alltogether until you are sure every surface of every ingredient is covered with the spices. At this point, you can smell the aroma of the mixture.
5. Pour in the crushed tomatoes. You would want to cook this very slowly, so lower the fire. Add some water. Add some salt again at this point. Take your time with this step, let the ingredients simmer for 15-20 minutes, stirring occasionally.
6. Once the mixture is already cooked, you can go ahead and prepare it for the poached eggs. And by prepare, it meant you need to make spaces for the eggs to lay on. Using a spoon, make some depressions above the stew. Typically 5 depressions would do. I did six. To make sure you lessen the chances of having your eggyolk broken, don't crack the eggs directly kn the shakshouka. Crack it in a bowl first then slowly pour the egg on to the depressions you made on the shakshouka.
7. Cover the pan until you see the eggs are already poached perfectly. Or almost perfectly. You might want to remove the pan from the heat when you see the eggs are almost cooked.

And there you have it! Shakshouka goes best with toast or garlic bread. It's really filling and you can taste the revolution of spices inside your mouth.

Enjoy!