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Consider this: the most delicious egg dishes never require an oven. When testing these recipes, discovering that covering the pan produces a humid atmosphere for cooking the egg tops, resulting in perfectly cooked perfectly poached egg with a tender white plus liquid yolk. The harsh, arid temperature from baking proves harsher than steam, and has a tendency making dishes dry and harden the yolk. Here are two sauce options to get started, encouraging customization. Option one involves a straightforward golden coconut sauce, and the second offers a merguez ragu reimagines classic tomato-baked eggs, or, to the likes of you and me, eggs cooked in zesty tomato base.

Turmeric Coconut Curry Baked Eggs (featured)

Preparation 10 min
Cooking time Just under an hour
Serves 2

Extra virgin oil
One medium onion, peeled and finely chopped
Salt
Two garlic cloves, crushed and chopped
Fresh ginger root, minced ginger
1 tbsp ground turmeric
Cumin seeds
Aromatic leaves
Coconut milk
400g tin chickpeas
Fresh basil, and additional for topping
4 eggs
2 green finger chillies, finely sliced, to serve

Heat a cast-iron pan over medium-high flame. Pour in some oil, toss in the onion seasoned with salt, fry until softened. Incorporate aromatics and spices, let them sizzle, mixing now and then for a few minutes, then tip in the coconut milk including chickpea can contents. Bring to a boil, lower heat to gentle cook, let it simmer about 35 minutes, when sauce is rich and yellow. Season with salt, then stir in the basil leaves.

Employ a utensil making four indentations in the sauce, break eggs into each. Dust each egg lightly salted, then cover the pan with a lid, gently heat for a few minutes, until egg whites firm and the yolks just warm. Take off the heat, top with fresh herbs and sliced chilies, and serve.

Merguez Ragu and Pickled Peppers Steamed Eggs

Prep 10 min
Cooking time Under an hour
Serves Two

Olive oil
2 merguez-style lamb sausages
1 tbsp harissa
Cumin seeds
Garlic cloves, sliced thin
Canned tomatoes
Seasoning
4 eggs
Pickled peppers, roughly chopped
Chopped herbs, diced
Creamy yogurt
Fresh lemon, sliced into wedges, to serve

Use a heavy pan over medium flame. Add two tablespoons of olive oil once hot, remove the skins from the sausages forming small bits adding to pan, resembling tiny meatballs. Lower temperature, cook until golden, extracting spicy fats. Move sausage pieces as they cook, so they colour on all sides.

Once browned, incorporate harissa, cumin, and garlic into the skillet, adjust to moderate flame and cook, stirring, for several minutes, until the mix smells fragrant, and the garlic has lost its raw edge. Tip in the tomatoes, add seasoning let it bubble. Turn down the heat to low and leave to blip away about 20 minutes. Sauce will thicken, become richer and darker, while the oils split and rise to the top.

Use the back of a spoon forming wells within sauce, add eggs individually. Season eggs with a little salt, then cover the pan with a lid. Simmer briefly on low flame, until the whites are set and yolks warmed.

Remove from heat, top with pickled peppers, herbs, yogurt dollop, plus oil drizzle, accompanied by lemon.