A culinary delight made in prison

It’s often the simplest dishes that warm our hearts, fill our tummies with happiness and transport us back to our childhood. WORK wants to tell the story of these special dishes. In this instalment, we’ll be looking at the story of “Shakshuka”.

Shakshuka is a dish that can be eaten at any time of day – for breakfast or, like in Israel, lunch or dinner. Shakshuka is a type of Israeli national dish but it’s also very popular throughout North Africa and the Middle East. The name of the dish comes from the Berber language and means “mixture”. And the mixture is, indeed, the most important part of the dish. Essentially, what gets gourmets all starry-eyed here is nothing more complicated than poached eggs in a spicy tomato sauce. From its birthplace in Jaffa, Israel, shakshuka has gone on to conquer the world. Nowadays, you can find the rustic comfort food in cafés and restaurants everywhere

So where does the legend around the dish come from?

Apparently the person responsible is Yosef Binyamin (“Bino”) Gabso. Born to Libyan parents in Jaffa, Israel, today many people know him as “Dr Shakshuka”. Even though anyone can make a shakshuka with just a handful of ingredients, the business-minded Gabso has elevated the dish to cult status. His father ran a restaurant and earned extra income as an illegal money changer. Bino helped out in both businesses and every time that an exchange went well, his father would cook him shakshuka. Until one day, he was caught and sentenced to 15 months in jail. He quickly became popular among his fellow inmates by cooking his father’s shakshuka for them. Because they all found it so delicious, they gave him the nickname “Dr Shakshuka”, and a legend was born.

The holy pan

Bino Gabso said himself that his shakshuka is so good because he always used the same pan. The dish is so sacred to him that if someone else gets involved in the preparation, he throws the food that he’s preparing in the bin. Like other cooks, he uses fresh green chillies and garlic and then adds some spice with aniseed-flavoured Merguez sausages (there is also a vegetarian version). He adds tomatoes, salt and shatta, a Palestinian chilli sauce. The eggs are then put on top of this aromatic sauce and the egg whites mixed in after a minute, so they cook while the yolk stays runny. And that’s it. The best way to eat shakshuka isn’t with cutlery but with flatbread that you dip straight into the pan. It’s a feel-good dish perfect for any time of day.

And here is more from our Comfort Food series:

Tarte Tatin

Risotto Milanese

Photo: © Brent Hofacker/Alamy Stock Foto