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Let me explain: the most delicious egg dishes never require an oven. Through culinary experiments, realizing that using a cover creates a steamy environment for cooking the egg tops, resulting in perfectly cooked soft-cooked egg with a tender white and a warm, runny yolk. The intense, dry heat from baking proves harsher versus moist heat, and has a tendency to dehydrate ingredients and overcook the yolk. Here are two sauce options as a jumping-off point, though feel free to experiment. Option one involves a straightforward turmeric coconut curry, and the second offers a merguez ragu puts a twist on classic tomato-baked eggs, essentially, spicy tomato eggs.

Golden Coconut Sauce Baked Eggs (shown above)

Prep 10 minutes
Cooking time Just under an hour
Serves Two servings

Olive oil
1 onion, skinned and diced
Fine sea salt
Two garlic cloves, crushed and chopped
10g fresh ginger, minced ginger
Turmeric powder
Cumin seeds
6-8 curry leaves
Creamy coconut
Canned chickpeas
A few basil leaves, plus extra to serve
4 eggs
2 green finger chillies, finely sliced, as garnish

Heat a cast-iron pan at moderate-high temperature. Add a shot of olive oil, add the chopped onion with some salt, sauté for several minutes. Add the garlic, ginger, turmeric, cumin seeds and curry leaves, leave to sizzle, mixing now and then for a few minutes, pour in creamy liquid along with chickpeas and liquid. Let it bubble, reduce to a simmer, allow to cook slowly about 35 minutes, until thickened and deep yellow in colour. Add salt to taste, mix in fresh basil.

Employ a utensil to create four little pockets within the sauce, add eggs individually. Season eggs with salt, place a lid on the pan, simmer over low heat for a few minutes, when whites are cooked with yolks still runny. Turn off stove, finish with a few extra basil leaves and sliced chilies, and serve.

Merguez Ragu and Pickled Peppers Steamed Eggs

Preparation 10 minutes
Cooking time 45 minutes
Yields Two

Olive oil
Merguez sausages
Harissa paste
Cumin seeds
2 garlic cloves, peeled and thinly sliced
Tomato base
Fine sea salt
Fresh eggs
Pickled peppers, roughly chopped
1 small handful fresh flat-leaf parsley, minced
3 tbsp thick Greek yoghurt
Fresh lemon, sliced into wedges, as garnish

Heat a skillet on a medium heat. Add two tablespoons of olive oil once hot, remove the skins from the sausages forming small bits into the skillet, resembling tiny meatballs. Lower temperature, then slowly brown the sausagemeat, so it renders out all that spicy, flavour-packed fat. Roll the merguez pieces around the pan while cooking, so they colour on all sides.

When golden, mix in spices and garlic to the pot, increase to medium heat fry with mixing, briefly, until aromatic, and the garlic has lost its raw edge. Tip in the tomatoes, season with salt let it bubble. Reduce to low heat and simmer slowly for twenty minutes. Sauce will thicken, intensify in color, with oils separating and surfacing.

Use the back of a spoon to create four little pockets across base, add eggs individually. Sprinkle the top of each egg lightly salted, place lid on pan. Cook for two to three minutes on low flame, when eggs set and the yolks just warm.

Remove from heat, garnish with peppers, herbs, yogurt dollop, and a drizzle of oil, accompanied by lemon.