Algeria- Chakachouka

In an attempt to try and make something from every country in the world, I started off with this simple dish that seems to marry my taste of peppers and eggs. Looking around the net, I've discovered that like a lot of popular dishes this dish doesn't have just an Algerian heritage, but it's a common shared heritage in North African itself. My favorite part of the whole recipe was definitely the potatoes.. boy, did they taste delicious!

Of course, there were a few ammendments made as usual with the recipe. Below is the ammended recipe, to what was available/could be substituted.


Grocery List

4 big ripe tomatoes

4 eggs

1 large yellow capsicum

1 large red capsicum

1 large green capsicum

1 large boiled potato chopped

2 medium onions, chopped

2 green chillies

1 head garlic, all cloves crushed and cut

1 tsp red chilli powder 

1 tablespoon cumin

bay leaf

1 teaspoon salt (to taste)

1 -4 tablespoon olive oil

To Prepare

• Cut the tomatoes into large pieces. Deseed and dice all the peppers.
•  Add the onion and garlic, and before it is brown, add the cumin. When the cumin is blended, add the chilli powder to the oil to colour it, for about 30 seconds. Be aware that if not stirred, the powder can burn.
• Add the tomatoes, peppers and potatoes. Add salt. Blend the ingredients with a long spoon. Add 1 - 3 bay leaves.
• As soon as the vegetables are cooked, and the consistency is a bit thickened, add the eggs. The eggs will be poached in the pot. Space the eggs to give them room. Put the lid of the pot on. Wait for the white to set, as much as 15 minutes, depending on how high your heat is. The yolk should be runny.
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• When you serve this, dish up an amount of the vegetable part into a wide soup dish, then carefully center an egg into this. Repeat for four people. Have french bread cut and ready to dip into the chakchouka. I served mine with steamed rice :)