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Let me explain: the best baked eggs don’t ever hit the oven. During recipe development, realizing that using a cover generates steam that gently cooks the eggs, delivering a gently cooked perfectly poached egg with a tender white and a warm, runny yolk. Direct oven heat in conventional ovens proves harsher than steam, and has a tendency to dry everything out resulting in firm yolks. Presenting two flavorful bases as inspiration, though feel free to experiment. Option one involves a straightforward coconut turmeric blend, whereas the spicy sausage sauce 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
Cook 55 minutes
Yields 2

Extra virgin oil
1 onion, peeled and finely chopped
Salt
2 garlic cloves, peeled and finely chopped
10g fresh ginger, grated ginger
Golden spice
Toasted cumin
6-8 curry leaves
Creamy coconut
400g tin chickpeas
A few basil leaves, plus extra to serve
Fresh eggs
Fresh chilies, finely sliced, to serve

Heat a cast-iron pan over medium-high flame. Drizzle olive oil, add the chopped onion with some salt, fry until softened. Incorporate aromatics and spices, leave to sizzle, occasionally stirring for three to four minutes, then tip in the coconut milk and the chickpeas and their tin liquid. Heat until boiling, then turn down to a simmer, and leave it to tick over about 35 minutes, when sauce is rich and yellow. Add salt to taste, mix in fresh basil.

With a spoon’s back making four indentations across the base, then crack an egg into each. Dust each egg with salt, then cover the pan with a lid, gently heat for two to three minutes, until egg whites firm with yolks still runny. Turn off stove, finish with a few extra basil leaves and thinly sliced finger chillies, ready to enjoy.

Spicy Sausage Sauce and Pickled Peppers Steamed Eggs

Preparation Quick prep
Cooking time 45 minutes
Serves 2

Olive oil
Spicy lamb sausages
Harissa paste
Toasted cumin
2 garlic cloves, minced garlic
Tomato base
Salt
4 eggs
Pickled peppers, diced
Chopped herbs, diced
3 tbsp thick Greek yoghurt
Fresh lemon, sliced into wedges, for serving

Use a heavy pan at moderate temperature. Pour in oil once hot, take off sausage casings and break off pieces of the meat into the pan, almost like little meatballs. Reduce heat, brown the meat slowly, releasing flavorful oils. Move sausage pieces as they cook, so they colour on all sides.

When golden, incorporate harissa, cumin, and garlic to the pan, turn up the heat to medium and cook, stirring, for several minutes, until aromatic, and the garlic has lost its raw edge. Pour in tomato contents, salt to taste let it bubble. Reduce to low heat and leave to blip away for twenty minutes. Ragu thickens, thicken and deepen in colour, with oils separating and surfacing.

Use the back of a spoon to create four little pockets in the sauce, add eggs individually. Season eggs lightly salted, then cover the pan with a lid. Heat for minutes gently, when eggs set and the yolks just warm.

Take off the heat, top with pickled peppers, parsley and yogurt, and oil splash, with lemon on side.