Shakshuka - N. African/Israeli brunch stew..?

When I was in Israel earlier this year, I heard about a dish called "Shakshuka" - described in my guide as a... "Messy delicacy consisting of scrambled or poached eggs cooked with green and red peppers in spicy tomato sauce, usually served in an iron pan with thick slices of white bread... usually enjoyed for weekend breakfasts and you'll find it on the menu of Sephardic blue-collar eateries".

Needless to say, I was intrigued. I eventually found my Shakshuka fix at a fabulous place called Gili's, which (if you're familiar with Tel Aviv), is on the old Tel Aviv port. There we enjoyed a spectactular brunch which included coffee, mimosas, an incredible bread basket, as well as your breakfast entree for NIS 56, which translates into about $10 - fantastic deal!

Anyways, back to the dish - it was phenomenal. Spicy without making you cry. Thick without sticking to your ribs. And with a beautiful poached egg and the bread basket from heaven - it was to die for.

Unfortunatley, I haven't heard of any places in the 606 that serve this incredible, unique dish. Then again, I haven't been looking especially hard, and have hardly any contacts in the Chicago middle eastern community. Anybody heard of it, and know a local joint??

As is true with many dishes in this region, versions of this dish are fairly widespread. I'm guessing that Arabs must have carried it west as they swept across North Africa, because in the Maghreb (or Magrib), an area that comprises essentially the Atlas Massif and coastal plain of Morocco, Algeria, and Tunisia, there is a dish called chakchouka that sounds virtually identical to the dish you describe (and it's not a stretch to think shakshuka morphed into chakchouka as it moved west).

I don't know a restaurant that serves it, but I make it often. Here's my recipe.

Chakchouka

4 large onions, sliced
3 Tbs. olive oil
3 large sweet green pepper, cut in strips
4 large tomatoes, coarsely chopped
1/4 tsp. cayenne
1/2 tsp. cumin
1 Tbs. vinegar
1-1/2 tsp. salt
6 eggs

Sauté onions in oil in a large frying pan until golden brown. Add pepper strips and cook for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add tomato, spices, vinegar, and salt and blend well with onions and pepper. Simmer until the vegetables are quite soft, about 30 minutes.

Make six indentations (the back of a ladle may make this easier) in the vegetables. Carefully break an egg into each indentation. Cover the frying pan and cook over low heat until eggs are well set, about 10 minutes. Serves 6.

sounds like an easy and tasty recipe!

I also received a PM telling me that Hashalom serves it as well... anyone tried it??

jonjonjon wrote:I also received a PM telling me that Hashalom serves it as well... anyone tried it??

I wonder why that wouldn't be posted to LTHForum in general.

Enjoy,
Gary

Cynthia wrote:As is true with many dishes in this region, versions of this dish are fairly widespread. I'm guessing that Arabs must have carried it west as they swept across North Africa, because in the Maghreb (or Magrib), an area that comprises essentially the Atlas Massif and coastal plain of Morocco, Algeria, and Tunisia, there is a dish called chakchouka that sounds virtually identical to the dish you describe (and it's not a stretch to think shakshuka morphed into chakchouka as it moved west).

It's exceedingly unlikely the Arabs brought this dish westward, since their expansion in that direction predated the arrival in Europe and thereafter the Maghreb of such American exotica as tomatoes and peppers by many centuries; in addition, those American imports were surely known first in the Maghreb, before being introduced to the Eastern Mediterranean. I know of a scholarly treatment of this very subject which includes an etymology for the the name shakshooka; that study is due to appear shortly (early September) in:
Authenticity in the Kitchen: Proceedings of the Oxford Symposium on Food and Cookery 2005. Richard Hosking (ed.).

The relevant article is the one entitled "Western Mediterranean Vegetable Stews and the Integration of Culinary Exotica."

The difference between the forms of the name of this dish with «ch-» and «sh-» simply reflect the rendering of the Arabic into different orthographic systems, in the first case the French, in the second the English. The «ou» spelling is similarly a reflection of French spelling practice, where the high back rounded vowel is so rendered. Thus, «chakchouka» and shakshooka (usual Eng. spelling) are to be pronounced in roughly the same fashion, as approximations of the Maghrebian Arabic.

The dish surely arrived in Israel with the immigration of many Jews from North Africa and especially from Tunisia. Neither the dish itself nor the name are native to the Levant (though roughly similar dishes are made in various parts of the Mediterranean region). The paths of diffusion of the dish are discussed at some length in the aforementioned paper on Western Mediterranean vegetable stews.



***

The dish can be ordered at a Tunisian place recently written up by howlop:
http://lthforum.com/bb/viewtopic.php?p=82328#82328

Antonius

So Spanish baked eggs were not a gift of the Conquista? Astrolabes and horchata yes, tortillas and gazpacho, no. There are some obvious clues...

If I've learned anything from this thread, it is that this dish summarizes the history of the middle east over the last few hundred years! Think of that while sopping up the delicious african stew with your crusty french bread

JeffB wrote:So Spanish baked eggs were not a gift of the Conquista? Astrolabes and horchata yes, tortillas and gazpacho, no. There are some obvious clues...

Jeff,

You're being cryptic. What obvious clues regarding what?

It's fashionable these days to attribute everything to the Arabs; I'm quite happy to do so but only when the evidence is there. In the case at hand, I think the cited paper treats the issue and the relevant evidence with considerable care. In any event, the movement isn't westward but eastward.



A

Antonius wrote:
It's exceedingly unlikely the Arabs brought this dish westward, since their expansion in that direction predated the arrival in Europe and thereafter the Maghreb of such American exotica as tomatoes and peppers by many centuries;

The difference between the forms of the name of this dish with «ch-» and «sh-» simply reflect the rendering of the Arabic into different orthographic systems, in the first case the French, in the second the English. The «ou» spelling is similarly a reflection of French spelling practice, where the high back rounded vowel is so rendered. Thus, «chakchouka» and shakshooka (usual Eng. spelling) are to be pronounced in roughly the same fashion, as approximations of the Maghrebian Arabic.

The dish surely arrived in Israel with the immigration of many Jews from North Africa and especially from Tunisia. Neither the dish itself nor the name are native to the Levant (though roughly similar dishes are made in various parts of the Mediterranean region). The paths of diffusion of the dish are discussed at some length in the aforementioned paper on Western Mediterranean vegetable stews.

Antonius

Well, while I realize that peppers and tomatoes predated the westward expansion of Arabs across North Africa, I was thinking it might be like polenta, which was made before the Age of Discovery, it just wasn't made with maize. But having just been in Morocco and learning of the history of the Jews in the region, many of whom left Morocco after Israel became a state once again, it makes sense that they carried it the opposite direction. I was just hypothesizing, based on jonjonjon's comment that the dish he saught was Israeli, and my knowledge of this other dish from the Mahgreb.

And yes, that ch vs. sh was something that amused me fairly often in Morocco -- especially in chiche kabob.

Antonius wrote:The dish can be ordered at a Tunisian place recently written up by howlop:
http://lthforum.com/bb/viewtopic.php?p=82328#82328
Antonius

Small note for those who want to get some of this vegetable stew at Carthage Cafe: as howlop points out in his post, it isn't on the regular menu but must be ordered in advance...like a number of other Tunisian/ North African specialties, including tagines and even couscous (my guess is that the chef doesn't want to "hold" large quantities of this pasta, but he does a pretty good job of making the stuff for special orders, very light and fluffy).

Equally incidentally, Misty Tosh has a review of some African places in this week's TimeOut Chicago. Couscous, the Maghreb place, was not previously known to me.

Hammond

A--

As you suggest, I was joking about the tendency to credit everything that exists across the Mediterranean to Arab influence. (This point has been discussed before here.) The tendency's pervasiveness is demonstrated by the fact that many, or most, might now assume that a dish known from the Levant to Spain is essentially Arab, even if it is based on potatoes or tomatoes (tortillas and eggs in salsa. eg). Before doing the legwork that you did, I would have, in my simple way, thought the dishes more likely to have originated with a people that had early and significant contact with the New World. Of course, one doesn't know until one does the hard work you did.

"Shakshuka" is the spelling I'm familiar with for the Israeli version of this dish, as in the name of this great Chicago band. (Note the recipe on their web site.)

JeffB wrote:A--

As you suggest, I was joking about the tendency to credit everything that exists across the Mediterranean to Arab influence. (This point has been discussed before here.) The tendency's pervasiveness is demonstrated by the fact that many, or most, might now assume that a dish known from the Levant to Spain is essentially Arab, even if it is based on potatoes or tomatoes (tortillas and eggs in salsa. eg). Before doing the legwork that you did, I would have, in my simple way, thought the dishes more likely to have originated with a people that had early and significant contact with the New World. Of course, one doesn't know until one does the hard work you did.

These things go in cycles... for a time, the tendency was not to pay any attention to the influence of the Arabs, now the reaction to that is to credit them with everything... I've never understood that style of thinking in research... But yeah, I'm sure there are a lot of the fans of Al Andalus that claim not only that tortillas are an old invention of the Andalusian Arabs but that Christian Spain originally learned to eat eggs from the Arabs as well. In the end, people like simple and preferably striking (or even shocking) explanations for how things came about; whether they bear any relation to reality or not is secondary.

The horchata topic is an interesting case (which came up here once before). It seems to me a nice case of interaction, give-and-take (which is more common than popular thinking is inclined to accept). And as for gazpacho, I think it was invented by the Visigoths...



Long live King Roderic!

A

Cynthia wrote:And yes, that ch vs. sh was something that amused me fairly often in Morocco -- especially in chiche kabob.

And this linguistic/orthographic amusement can also be enjoyed in other formerly French territories, such as Chicago and Michigan...

Talking about shakshuka brings me to a warm and fuzzy place from childhood. My maternal grandmother, Memee, a Jewish woman (which, by deduction would make her a Sephardic or Spanish Jew) was born and raised in Tunis, would often times make it for our family as well as many other classic dishes indigenous to Tunisia such as brikh, mahkut (Tunisian tortilla de patata), hasbana, boulettes, merguez, and makhmuma (sp.), etc. Hopefully, I can convince my mother to do a brief post describing these Tunisian treasures since her expertise in this area is obviously far superior to mine.

Growing up, my mother would sometimes make Shakshuka for me for breakfast. It was always an early morning treat instead of my usual eggs and toast.
Even today, very few things warm my heart more than to have trix whip me up some incredible shakshuka along with a fabulous Fox & Obel baguette.
Although trix makes a slight variation on a theme, I remember with eat bite my loving memory of Memee.

PIGMON wrote:many other classic dishes indigenous to Tunisia such as brikh, mahkut (Tunisian tortilla de patata), hasbana, boulettes, merguez, and makhmuma (sp.), etc. Hopefully, I can convince my mother to do a brief post describing these Tunisian treasures since her expertise in this area is obviously far superior to mine.

I tried the merguez sausage (described on the menu as "hot dogs," but this error was quickly corrected by the server), and was surprised by the relative lack of heat (which could be due to a capsaicin tolerance built up over a lifetime of living in chili-prone Chicago). My understanding was that this sausage contained harissa, which it may have, but I had a hard time detecting heat. Still, a tasty weiner, just not very spicy...at least as prepared at Carthage Cafe.

Hammond

David Hammond wrote:I tried the merguez sausage (described on the menu as "hot dogs," but this error was quickly corrected by the server), and was surprised by the relative lack of heat (which could be due to a capsaicin tolerance built up over a lifetime of living in chili-prone Chicago). My understanding was that this sausage contained harissa, which it may have, but I had a hard time detecting heat. Still, a tasty weiner, just not very spicy...at least as prepared at Carthage Cafe.

David,
Often times, Tunisian merguez isn't overly spicy at all. Just a hint of heat.

PIGMON wrote:

David Hammond wrote:I tried the merguez sausage (described on the menu as "hot dogs," but this error was quickly corrected by the server), and was surprised by the relative lack of heat (which could be due to a capsaicin tolerance built up over a lifetime of living in chili-prone Chicago). My understanding was that this sausage contained harissa, which it may have, but I had a hard time detecting heat. Still, a tasty weiner, just not very spicy...at least as prepared at Carthage Cafe.

David,
Often times, Tunisian merguez isn't overly spicy at all. Just a hint of heat.

Funny thing, I was talking to this nice Tunisian lady the other day, and she told me that the dishes at Carthage Cafe were much milder and less spicy than she had recalled having as a girl.

I must plead some ignorance here as I honestly don't know this cuisine well enough to determine if CC's offering is milder than usual or, as usual, mild. With harissa at hand, of course, one pump up the heat at will.

Hammond

I haven't been to Tunisia, so I have absolutely no first-hand knowledge of the spicing tendencies with merguez there, but I've had a lot of merguez in Belgium and France (with sizeable Maghrebian populations, though not especially Tunisian anywhere where I've been), as well as here, and the level of piquancy varies a lot, but all in all I think they tend to have just a little kick. The ones I've been getting from City Noor and, more recently, Sahar II have also been on the just a little spicy side, though, of course, those butcher shops are not Marghrebi but rather Palestinian (n.b. Sahar calls their version not 'merguez' but rather 'Maghrebi', which makes perfect sense from their Levantine perspective).

Pigmon: That would be great if your mother would share some of her knowledge of Tunisian/Sephardic cooking with us.

Antonius

Howlop and I are so pleased at the response and interest shown for Tunisian cooking which is a fresh, simple light cooking incorporating fresh vegetables herbs and spices such as caraway, coriander, cumin and "harissa"

We'll start with Pigmon's childhood memory of Chakchouka. There are four different seasonal versions. The basic consists of fresh tomatoes, peppers, onion, garlic, potato, oil, merguez, eggs, salt and pepper. Add other fresh vegetables depending on the season.

Marmouma - tomato, green or red pepper, garlic, oil, salt and pepper

Slata mechouia - grilled vegetables of tomato, pepper, garlic, oil, fresh lemon, salt and pepper.

Slata jida - summer side dish of minced tomato, cucumber red fresh pepper, green onions, flat parsley, fresh lemon, oil, salt and pepper.

Brikh or Braika - An appetizer with various fillings. The most popular are the potato filling and fresh egg placed inside a fila type dough deep fried and drained then squeezed fresh lemon.

There are various tagines, couscous which could be found at the Carthage Cafe. I was pleased with what we had one night. With a dash more of this and more of that, I would be happy to say it is as authentic as could be.

I confirmed all my recipes with a book Pigmon bought for me in N.Y.

De mere en fille
"La Cuisine Juive Tunisienne."
By Andree Zana Murat
I have not been able to locate an English version - it's only available in French.

Coco

i love me some shakshouka. i get it at tel aviv pizza on 6349 N. California (bring the maalox). Next door to that is taboun, an israeli place, which probably has shakshouka for their sunday yemenite brunch. but shakshouka's pretty easy to make at home, esp. this time of year when red peppers and tomatoes are plentiful and cheap.

Coco wrote:Howlop and I are so pleased at the response and interest shown for Tunisian cooking which is a fresh, simple light cooking incorporating fresh vegetables herbs and spices such as caraway, coriander, cumin and "harissa"...

Coco,

Many thanks for writing in with those notes and the book reference!

Antonius

Rachel B. wrote:i love me some shakshouka. i get it at tel aviv pizza on 6349 N. California (bring the maalox). Next door to that is taboun, an israeli place, which probably has shakshouka for their sunday yemenite brunch. but shakshouka's pretty easy to make at home, esp. this time of year when red peppers and tomatoes are plentiful and cheap.

Tel Aviv Pizza?! Taboun?! More Israeli places than Hashalom in the city?! Do tell us more!!

Anyone know the derivation of the tagine? They have been mentioned in relation to Tunisian cooking, and I saw them all over Morocco, where it appears to be viewed as the quintessential Moroccan approach to cooking. Clay cooking vessels and ovens are pretty widespread, but where did this particular one evolve. Anyone know?

I believe that I may be trying this recipe this weekend!

I would be remiss if I didn't mention that Jim Vykopal gave me some xerox copies from a Tunisian cookbook in French by Mohamed Kouki, including a colour copy of the very handsome cover of the book. Among the recipes are several chakchoukas:

- with tomatoes and peppers
- 'de Nabeul' (with lots of dried garlic and caraway)
- with onions
- with eggplants
- with purslane
- with potatoes
They're all very nice as recipes and also helpful in my research and I'm very grateful to Jim.

Merci bien!

Antonius

The shakshouka at Hashalom is a solid shakshouka. I've also made it at home and well, it's eggs and peppers in tomato sauce. But I like it. Also, when we ate at Taboun, it was during some holiday (maybe purim? no, come to think of it, it may have been around Hannukah) and they had a special of latkes that were good. The grilled meat at Taboun is $$ but looks to be good.

What wonderful memories this brings up ... I ate my first shookshooka in Jaffa, just north of Tel Aviv several years ago, brought by my Israeli cousin. Incredible!

I'd love to give it a go in my kitchen soon (especially as the spring approaches). Any pointers by more experienced cooks?

Shakshuka is one of my favorite dishes. I first encountered it in a small hole-in-the-wall Israeli restaurant in NYC (The Hummus Place) where at your option they served it with Halloumi cheese melted into the dish. Absolutely delicious - the contrast of the tomatoes and the spices with the salty semi-melted cheese - spectacular. I've since learned to make shakshuka at home. It's not that difficult it turns out. Yesterday, I searched on this forum for a good place to buy Halloumi cheese and came upon a thread about a Wisconsin cheese Brun-uusto, a version of Juustoleipa. I decided to try it out in the Shakshuka that I made today and it was great! Also salty with the right amount of chewyness. A great alternative to Halloumi and practical at about $1/lb less. If you're making shakshuka, I recommend that you try it with either one of the cheeses. You'd throw small cubes of cheese in at the same time you would the egg, almost at the end so it doesn't melt too much. Happy cooking!

Sorry to comment on such an old post, but with the weather so snowy, I was craving chakchouka (shakshuka?). I recently returned to Chicago after a year hiatus in NYC, where you saw it everywhere, but I have never seen it in Chicago. Given how old this thread is, I thought I would see if anyone has seen it recently in Chicago?