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Let me explain: the most delicious egg dishes don’t ever hit the oven. When testing these recipes, I found that simply adding a lid generates steam that gently cooks the eggs, resulting in perfectly cooked perfectly poached egg with firm whites plus liquid yolk. The harsh, arid temperature of the oven proves harsher versus moist heat, often leading to dehydrate ingredients resulting in firm yolks. I’ve given you two sauces as a jumping-off point, but get creative. One is a super-simple turmeric coconut curry, and the second offers a merguez ragu is a riff on eggs in purgatory, essentially, eggs baked in spicy tomato sauce.

Turmeric Coconut Curry Baked Eggs (shown above)

Preparation A quick 10 minutes
Cook Just under an hour
Serves Two people

Olive oil
1 onion, peeled and finely chopped
Sea salt
2 garlic cloves, peeled and finely chopped
10g fresh ginger, grated ginger
Turmeric powder
½ tbsp cumin seeds
Aromatic leaves
Coconut milk
Canned chickpeas
Basil leaves, plus extra to serve
Fresh eggs
2 green finger chillies, julienned, for serving

Heat a cast-iron pan over medium-high flame. Add a shot of olive oil, add the chopped onion seasoned with salt, sauté for several minutes. Mix in garlic, ginger, and spices, leave to sizzle, occasionally stirring briefly, add coconut milk along with chickpeas and liquid. Let it bubble, lower heat to gentle cook, allow to cook slowly for half an hour, until thickened and deep yellow in colour. Season with salt, mix in fresh basil.

Employ a utensil forming small wells in the sauce, add eggs individually. Sprinkle the top of each egg with salt, cover the skillet, simmer over low heat for two to three minutes, until egg whites firm with yolks still runny. Take off the heat, garnish with more basil and sliced chilies, ready to enjoy.

Merguez Ragu and Pickled Peppers Steamed Eggs

Preparation 10 min
Cook Under an hour
Yields 2

Oil
Spicy lamb sausages
Spicy paste
Cumin seeds
Garlic cloves, minced garlic
400g good-quality tinned tomatoes
Seasoning
Fresh eggs
1 handful pickled peppers, diced
1 small handful fresh flat-leaf parsley, finely chopped
3 tbsp thick Greek yoghurt
Fresh lemon, sliced into wedges, for serving

Heat a skillet at moderate temperature. Drizzle olive oil once hot, remove the skins from the sausages and break off pieces of the meat into the pan, almost like little meatballs. Lower temperature, brown the meat slowly, releasing flavorful oils. Move sausage pieces as they cook, for even browning.

Once browned, add the harissa, cumin seeds and sliced garlic into the skillet, adjust to moderate flame fry with mixing, briefly, until aromatic, and garlic softens. Pour in tomato contents, salt to taste heat to simmer. Turn down the heat to low and simmer slowly for twenty minutes. Sauce will thicken, become richer and darker, with oils separating and surfacing.

Use the back of a spoon making indentations in the sauce, add eggs individually. Dust with salt with salt, then cover the pan with a lid. Cook for two to three minutes gently, until the whites are set with yolks runny.

Turn off stove, finish with chopped pickled peppers, parsley and yogurt, and a drizzle of oil, with lemon on side.