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Consider this: the best baked eggs never require an oven. Through culinary experiments, realizing that using a cover produces a humid atmosphere that gently cooks the eggs, delivering a gently cooked delicately prepared egg with a tender white and a warm, runny yolk. Direct oven heat from baking is much more aggressive versus moist heat, often leading to dry everything out and harden the yolk. Here are two sauce options as inspiration, though feel free to experiment. Option one involves a straightforward golden coconut sauce, while the merguez ragu is a riff on traditional spicy eggs, or simply put, eggs baked in spicy tomato sauce.

Turmeric Coconut Curry Baked Eggs (shown above)

Preparation 10 minutes
Cooking time Just under an hour
Yields Two servings

Olive oil
One medium onion, trimmed and minced
Salt
2 garlic cloves, crushed and chopped
10g fresh ginger, grated ginger
1 tbsp ground turmeric
Cumin seeds
Curry leaves
200ml coconut milk
400g tin chickpeas
Basil leaves, with more for garnish
Four eggs
2 green finger chillies, thinly cut, as garnish

Set a 25cm heavy cast-iron pot on a medium-high heat. Pour in some oil, incorporate onions and a pinch of salt, sauté for several minutes. Incorporate aromatics and spices, leave to sizzle, occasionally stirring for a few minutes, add coconut milk and the chickpeas and their tin liquid. Heat until boiling, then turn down to a simmer, let it simmer for 30-35 minutes, when sauce is rich and yellow. Add salt to taste, incorporate basil.

Use the back of a spoon making four indentations in the sauce, then crack an egg into each. Dust each egg with salt, place a lid on the pan, simmer over low heat for a few minutes, until egg whites firm and yolks warmed. Remove from heat, garnish with more basil and thinly sliced finger chillies, and serve.

Spicy Sausage Sauce and Pickled Peppers Baked Eggs

Prep 10 min
Cook 45 min
Yields Two

Oil
2 merguez-style lamb sausages
Harissa paste
Toasted cumin
Garlic cloves, minced garlic
400g good-quality tinned tomatoes
Fine sea salt
Fresh eggs
1 handful pickled peppers, diced
1 small handful fresh flat-leaf parsley, finely chopped
Creamy yogurt
Fresh lemon, sliced into wedges, as garnish

Set a 25cm heavy cast-iron pot over medium flame. Pour in oil and, once it’s warm, remove the skins from the sausages and pinch small amounts into the skillet, resembling tiny meatballs. Turn down the heat, brown the meat slowly, extracting spicy fats. Roll the merguez pieces around the pan while cooking, to brown evenly.

After browning, add the harissa, cumin seeds and sliced garlic into the skillet, turn up the heat to medium and cook, stirring, for several minutes, when fragrant, and garlic softens. Add tomatoes, add seasoning heat to simmer. Reduce to low heat and simmer slowly for twenty minutes. Ragu thickens, thicken and deepen in colour, as oils separate.

With a spoon forming wells across base, add eggs individually. Sprinkle the top of each egg with salt, cover skillet. Simmer briefly gently, until whites firm with yolks runny.

Turn off stove, finish with chopped pickled peppers, parsley, a blob of yoghurt, plus oil drizzle, and serve with lemon wedges.