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So, hear me out: the most delicious egg dishes are made without baking. Through culinary experiments, realizing that using a cover generates steam for cooking the egg tops, yielding tender delicately prepared egg with a tender white plus liquid yolk. The harsh, arid temperature in conventional ovens is much more aggressive versus moist heat, and has a tendency to dry everything out and overcook the yolk. Here are two sauce options to get started, but get creative. The first features an easy turmeric coconut curry, while the merguez ragu is a riff on traditional spicy eggs, or simply put, spicy tomato eggs.

Turmeric Coconut Curry Steamed Eggs (featured)

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

Extra virgin oil
1 onion, skinned and diced
Salt
Two garlic cloves, minced garlic
10g fresh ginger, grated ginger
Turmeric powder
Cumin seeds
6-8 curry leaves
Coconut milk
400g tin chickpeas
Basil leaves, plus extra to serve
Fresh eggs
Green chilies, finely sliced, for serving

Set a 25cm heavy cast-iron pot at moderate-high temperature. Add a shot of olive oil, toss in the onion with some salt, and cook for five to six minutes. Add the garlic, ginger, turmeric, cumin seeds and curry leaves, leave to sizzle, occasionally stirring for a few minutes, add coconut milk including chickpea can contents. Heat until boiling, reduce to a simmer, let it simmer for half an hour, when sauce is rich and yellow. Season with salt, mix in fresh basil.

Use the back of a spoon to create four little pockets across the base, then crack an egg into each. Season eggs lightly salted, cover the skillet, gently heat for a few minutes, until egg whites firm and the yolks just warm. Turn off stove, garnish with more basil plus chili slices, and serve.

Merguez Ragu with Tangy Peppers Baked Eggs

Prep 10 minutes
Cooking time 45 minutes
Yields Two portions

Olive oil
Merguez sausages
Spicy paste
Cumin seeds
Garlic cloves, peeled and thinly sliced
400g good-quality tinned tomatoes
Seasoning
Four eggs
Tangy peppers, roughly chopped
Chopped herbs, minced
Greek yogurt
Fresh lemon, sliced into wedges, as garnish

Set a 25cm heavy cast-iron pot over medium flame. Drizzle olive oil once hot, take off sausage casings forming small bits into the skillet, resembling tiny meatballs. Reduce heat, then slowly brown the sausagemeat, extracting spicy fats. Move sausage pieces while cooking, to brown evenly.

Once browned, incorporate harissa, cumin, and garlic to the pan, turn up the heat to medium sauté while stirring, for three to four minutes, until the mix smells fragrant, with garlic cooked. Pour in tomato contents, add seasoning and bring to a simmer. Turn down the heat to low and leave to blip away about 20 minutes. The ragu will reduce, thicken and deepen in colour, with oils separating and surfacing.

Use the back of a spoon making indentations within sauce, add eggs individually. Sprinkle the top of each egg with salt, cover skillet. Cook for two to three minutes on low flame, until whites firm with yolks runny.

Turn off stove, garnish with peppers, herbs, yogurt dollop, and oil splash, with lemon on side.