Donal's Festival Kitchen airs Friday, 28 March, 2025 at 8pm on RTÉ One.
Ingredients
Hatice Özkavak brings the vibrant flavors of her Turkish heritage to Dublin's Tang Cafe, where she crafts delicious dishes inspired by Middle Eastern and Mediterranean cuisine, including her much-loved Shakshuka.
Shakshuka
Serves: 2
Time: 25 minutes
Base
- 2 long red peppers (eg Ramiro) deseeded and sliced into thin strips
- 2 garlic cloves, minced
- 1 tbsp cumin seeds
- 1 heaped tbsp rose harissa paste
- ½ tsp freshly ground black pepper
- 1 x 400g tin cherry tomatoes
- 1 tsp fine sea salt
- Olive Oil
To serve:
- 2 eggs per person
- Feta cheese, crumbled, 1 tbsp per person.
- A few spring onions/scallions, finely sliced
- 2 red chillies, finely sliced
Method
- For the Shakshuka, starting on a low heat, add a good glug of olive oil to a nice heavy wide bottomed pot. Add the peppers and cook gently to soften the peppers without developing colour, approx. 5-8 minutes.
- Add the minced garlic and ground cumin and cook for a further 3 minutes taking care not to brown the garlic.
- Add the harissa paste and black pepper and stir through. Finally add the tinned tomatoes.
- Increase heat to medium high to reduce the tomatoes into a sauce-like consistency. The time all depends on the brand and type of tomatoes so keep cooking until you get a nice thickened sauce, but about 15 minutes should be good to create a nice sauce.
- To cook the Shakshuka, make a few wells in the sauce and crack the eggs in. Cover with a lid and cook on the hob, at a low simmer, for 6 - 7 minutes, or until the eggs are done to your liking.
- To serve, remove the lid from the shakshuka and top with the sliced spring onions and red chilli. Crumble over the feta and serve with some toasted bread.
