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So, hear me out: the best baked eggs never require an oven. When testing these recipes, realizing that using a cover produces a humid atmosphere that gently cooks the eggs, resulting in perfectly cooked soft-cooked egg with firm whites plus liquid yolk. Direct oven heat of the oven proves harsher compared to steaming, often leading to dehydrate ingredients resulting in firm yolks. Here are two sauce options as a jumping-off point, but get creative. One is a super-simple coconut turmeric blend, and the second offers a merguez ragu puts a twist on eggs in purgatory, or, to the likes of you and me, spicy tomato eggs.

Golden Coconut Sauce Steamed Eggs (pictured above)

Preparation 10 min
Cooking time Just under an hour
Yields Two servings

Olive oil
1 onion, trimmed and minced
Fine sea salt
2 garlic cloves, minced garlic
10g fresh ginger, peeled and finely chopped
Turmeric powder
½ tbsp cumin seeds
Aromatic leaves
Creamy coconut
400g tin chickpeas
Fresh basil, with more for garnish
Fresh eggs
Green chilies, finely sliced, to serve

Heat a cast-iron pan over medium-high flame. Drizzle olive oil, incorporate onions with some salt, and cook for five to six minutes. Mix in garlic, ginger, and spices, leave to sizzle, stirring occasionally briefly, pour in creamy liquid and the chickpeas and their tin liquid. Bring to a boil, lower heat to gentle cook, allow to cook slowly for 30-35 minutes, until thickened and deep yellow in colour. Season with salt, mix in fresh basil.

Employ a utensil making four indentations in the sauce, break eggs into each. Dust each egg with a little salt, then cover the pan with a lid, simmer over low heat for two to three minutes, until egg whites firm with yolks still runny. Take off the heat, top with fresh herbs plus chili slices, and serve.

Merguez Ragu and Pickled Peppers Baked Eggs

Prep 10 minutes
Cooking time 45 min
Yields 2

Olive oil
Spicy lamb sausages
1 tbsp harissa
1 tsp cumin seeds
Garlic cloves, peeled and thinly sliced
Tomato base
Seasoning
Fresh eggs
Pickled peppers, diced
Chopped herbs, minced
3 tbsp thick Greek yoghurt
1 lemon, wedge-cut, for serving

Use a heavy pan over medium flame. Add two tablespoons of olive oil and, once it’s warm, remove the skins from the sausages and break off pieces adding to pan, like mini balls. Reduce heat, then slowly brown the sausagemeat, extracting spicy fats. Stir merguez during cooking, for even browning.

When golden, incorporate harissa, cumin, and garlic to the pot, adjust to moderate flame sauté while stirring, for several minutes, when fragrant, with garlic cooked. Add tomatoes, add seasoning let it bubble. Turn down the heat to low cooking gently about 20 minutes. Ragu thickens, become richer and darker, with oils separating and surfacing.

Use the back of a spoon forming wells across base, then crack an egg into each. Sprinkle the top of each egg with salt, then cover the pan with a lid. Heat for minutes over a low heat, when eggs set with yolks runny.

Take off the heat, top with pickled peppers, parsley and yogurt, and oil splash, with lemon on side.