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So, hear me out: the most delicious egg dishes never require an oven. During recipe development, realizing that using a cover creates a steamy environment to cook the top of the eggs, yielding tender perfectly poached egg with a tender white and flowing center. The intense, dry heat of the oven acts stronger than steam, often leading to dehydrate ingredients resulting in firm yolks. Presenting two flavorful bases as inspiration, but get creative. One is a super-simple golden coconut sauce, and the second offers a merguez ragu reimagines classic tomato-baked eggs, essentially, eggs cooked in zesty tomato base.

Turmeric Coconut Curry Steamed Eggs (shown above)

Preparation 10 min
Cooking time 55 minutes
Serves Two servings

Olive oil
1 onion, peeled and finely chopped
Salt
Two garlic cloves, crushed and chopped
Fresh ginger root, grated ginger
1 tbsp ground turmeric
Cumin seeds
6-8 curry leaves
Coconut milk
400g tin chickpeas
Fresh basil, with more for garnish
4 eggs
Fresh chilies, thinly cut, to serve

Heat a cast-iron pan at moderate-high temperature. Drizzle olive oil, toss in the onion seasoned with salt, fry until softened. Mix in garlic, ginger, and spices, leave to sizzle, occasionally stirring briefly, 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 for half an hour, until thickened and deep yellow in colour. Season with salt, incorporate basil.

Employ a utensil making four indentations within the sauce, add eggs individually. Season eggs with salt, cover the skillet, and cook on a low heat briefly, until the whites are set and the yolks just warm. Turn off stove, top with fresh herbs plus chili slices, ready to enjoy.

Merguez Ragu with Tangy Peppers Steamed Eggs

Prep 10 min
Cooking time Under an hour
Yields Two portions

Oil
2 merguez-style lamb sausages
Harissa paste
Toasted cumin
2 garlic cloves, peeled and thinly sliced
400g good-quality tinned tomatoes
Salt
Fresh eggs
1 handful pickled peppers, coarsely cut
1 small handful fresh flat-leaf parsley, diced
Creamy yogurt
Fresh lemon, sliced into wedges, for serving

Set a 25cm heavy cast-iron pot on a medium heat. Drizzle olive oil and, once it’s warm, remove the skins from the sausages and break off pieces adding to pan, resembling tiny meatballs. Lower temperature, cook until golden, so it renders out all that spicy, flavour-packed fat. Move sausage pieces as they cook, so they colour on all sides.

After browning, incorporate harissa, cumin, and garlic to the pan, turn up the heat to medium sauté while stirring, for several minutes, until aromatic, and garlic softens. Pour in tomato contents, add seasoning let it bubble. Turn down the heat to low and leave to blip away for 20 minutes. Sauce will thicken, thicken and deepen in colour, with oils separating and surfacing.

Employ utensil making indentations in the sauce, then crack an egg into each. Season eggs with salt, then cover the pan with a lid. Cook for two to three minutes over a low heat, until the whites are set with yolks runny.

Turn off stove, garnish with peppers, parsley and yogurt, and a drizzle of oil, accompanied by lemon.