Let the games begin!

For my first country, I chose a dish rather than a country to determine my path. I had often seen Shakshuka on brunch menus in a variety of forms. Shortly before I started this project in January, I bought a new cookbook, “Eating Out Loud” by Eden Grinshpan. In addition to boasting a number of exciting recipes from the Middle East, this cookbook include a variety of recipes for this dish and I felt it was time to give its most classic interpretation a shot. I chose to make her classic Shakshuka with Garlicky Tahini as I am always pro garlic and I have started to use Tahini more often in my cooking so I already had most of the ingredients on hand.

Now that I knew what I wanted to make, I had to nail down the country and I’ll admit that I wasn’t expecting to run into this quite so early in the process. This dish has its origins in North Africa but is also very common in the Middle East and a home staple in Grinshpan’s home. A bit of research had me settle on Tunisia as an appropriate location of origin. Regardless of where this dish came to creation, it is a wonderfully flavorful and relatively easy option for a weekend breakfast for 2-4 people and ready in under an hour.

As luck would have it, her recipe is available online: https://www.domino.com/content/eden-grinshpan-shakshuka-recipe/

Now let’s have some fun with categories and I’ll leave the door open for suggestions on other ways to rate my efforts. I also recognize that I’ve been at it for a while and my definition of beginner, immediate, or advanced may have a different starting point, but I’ll try to factor all of that in. For level of overall effort, I’ll try to factor in not only time or complexity of method, but also accessibility of ingredients.

Level of Overall Effort (Scale of 1-5): 2

Skill Level: Beginner/Intermediate

Would make again? Yes

Additional notes: One thing I really liked about this cookbook is that it has a section devoted to the various spreads, dips, marinades commonly found in Middle Eastern cooking. That being said, I sometimes find just picking up a good tahini or hummus or harissa from the grocery store is an appropriate way to cut some corners to getting this on your breakfast table.