I first made these baked eggs with cumin and saffron when I lived in Shanghai a few years ago. I had recently become obsessed with cumin, after eating at many Muslim Chinese restaurants in Shanghai and Beijing that specialized in cumin lamb dishes. Of course, at home, I wanted to use cumin as much as possible, and worked the spice into this breakfast dish.
So here’s a short, revised recipe, since I recently made this again and it was every bit as good as I remembered. The process is a piece of cake. You just sauté some shallots or onions in a pan, add the tomatoes, cumin, salt, and pepper, then transfer the mixture to ramekins. Then you crack an egg into each ramekin and sprinkle a bit of saffron on top. It looks really nice coming out of the oven with specks of bright red from the saffron and the egg still bubbling on top.
It’s a great, fragrant comfort food dish and perfect for a leisurely weekend brunch. Or even an easy weeknight meal, if you have some rice or noodles to go along with it.
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 large shallot or ½ medium onion, finely chopped
- 2 large or 3 medium tomatoes, cubed
- 1 teaspoon ground cumin
- Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
- 2 eggs
- 1 pinch saffron (6 to 8 threads)
- Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F. Toast cumin in a dry, medium- to large-sized skillet. Add the olive oil, and cook the onions over medium heat until soft, about 3 minutes. Add the tomatoes and sprinkle in the cumin. Cook, stirring, until the tomatoes have softened, about 5 minutes. Salt and pepper to taste
- Divide the tomato mixture into 2 medium ramekins. Top each ramekin with 1 eggs. Crumble the saffron threads with your fingers and sprinkle them over the eggs. Bake in the oven for about 2o to 25 minutes, until whites and yolk are set (a few minutes less if you prefer your egg yolks slightly runny). Remove from the oven and sprinkle a tiny bit more salt and pepper on top. Cool for 3 minutes or so before serving.
I love the sound of these baked eggs. Never thought of using saffron in eggs before!
Amazing how that looks soooo yummy.
Totally hear you on the cooking in other people’s kitchens. I rarely cook as well away from home as I do when I’m in my own familiar surroundings and I don’t even have to look to see where the cinnamon is.
baked eggs are amazing. although i think steamed eggs have an even better flavour.
nothing like being in your own kitchen with your own cooking materials and ingredients to set you right.
;)
x
This looks beyond amazing. I just bought some saffron threads so I should really try this!
This looks like a great idea especially if you have some company over. And I love tomatoes :)
Ok, this combines some of my favorite things – eggs and saffron. Absolutely love this idea. My mind is churning with different ways to make this dish! Thank you.
What a wonderful dish. If I had my restaurant right now I would definitely serve this dish with fresh fruit. Just wonderful!
This does sound like comfort food – delicious comfort food!!
After making these it seems that the temperature should be around 350 rather than 300. It took a while to get the eggs just right at that temperature.
Tienes un blog con recetas muy buenas!
Estos huevos están muy apetecibles!
Un saludo
I just made this last night and loved it! So simple and delicious. I served it with cellophane noodles tossed with a little bit of soy sauce, rice vinegar and hoisin sauce.
By the way, there is no instruction on when to sprinkle the saffron although in the write-up you mention it — it’s not in the method section. :-)
Thanks so much for a wonderful recipe!!
Avid cook in NY – Thanks for pointing that out! I added it to the directions. And I’m glad you enjoyed the recipe; it sounds delicious served over cellophane noodles!
I very often make something similar, also adding green chilly and a bit of garlic by steaming in a pressure cooker it’s easier and does not involve heating up the oven and wasting electricity which is so expensive in India
I just made this for breakfast and it’s so easy and tasty. Thanks for the recipe, Diana!