Ojja
Eggs broken into a fierce harissa and tomato sauce with merguez and left barely set. Fifteen minutes, one pan, and the sauce should be thick before the eggs go anywhere near it.
Photograph credit: Ojja in a saucepan by Phillyfoodie · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia · this resized copy is shared under the same licence
Making Ojja
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Fry the merguez in the oil in a wide frying pan over medium heat for 6 minutes, turning, until browned and rendering red fat. Lift out and slice thickly.
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Cook the onion and peppers in the merguez fat for 6 minutes, then add the garlic and cook 1 minute.
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Stir in the tomato purée and harissa and fry 2 minutes until the oil runs red.
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Add the tomatoes, caraway, ground coriander and salt, and simmer 8 minutes.
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Cook it down until it is genuinely thick — a spoon drawn through should briefly show the pan base. Return the sliced merguez.
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Make six wells and break an egg into each. Cover and cook 4 to 5 minutes, until the whites are just set and the yolks still liquid.
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Scatter with parsley, finish with oil, and take the whole pan to the table with bread (optional).
Related guide: Ingredient substitutions.
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Tips for Making Ojja
- Reduce the sauce properly before the eggs go in.
- Keep the merguez fat. It is half the seasoning.
- Whites just set, yolks running. Thirty seconds too long ruins it.
Common Substitutions & Variations
- An eighth of a teaspoon of garlic powder per clove is the stand-in usually given when you are out of fresh garlic; it will not brown the same way, and it burns easily, so add it with the liquid.
Serving Suggestions
- Khobz tabouna
- Slata tounsia
- Harissa
Keeping and Reheating
Best immediately. The sauce alone keeps 3 days refrigerated; add fresh eggs when reheating.
Nutrition per Serving
Per serving, calculated from the ingredient list with USDA FoodData Central figures (SR Legacy). A calculation, not a laboratory analysis: brands, cuts and how you measure change the real numbers. Garnishes, greasing and other items with no amount are not counted. How the figures are worked out.
Gluten-free when served without the bread.
Your notes on this recipe
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Compiled by Turab
Checked by script for timings, diet labels and nutrition arithmetic. How the recipes are checked. Found a mistake? Tell us.
First published ; last changed .
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