Chachouka

Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall's been a real inspiration to me, in terms of individual recipes and the way I look at ethical food as a whole, so I was saddened to hear of the fire at River Cottage yesterday. Thankfully it was only material damage, and it sounds like the team will have it up and running again in no time.  By chance I was planning a Hugh recipe anyway, so here's my tribute to his recent campaign to get us to eat less meat - a delicious hot and spicy pepper stew.

The original recipe can be found here, but I've adjusted it slightly for quantities and available ingredients.

Start by heating some olive oil in a pan and gently frying a pinch of cumin seeds.  If you have an oven proof pan, use that one.  Chuck in one sliced onion and sweat over a low heat for about 10 minutes until soft.

That gives you enough time to chop your peppers.  Hugh specifies Ramiro peppers, but the closest Waitrose had was a handy bag of three Romano peppers so I used them.  He also specifies a Poblano chilli.  I don't know what sort of chilli pepper I used, it was just the one they had in the greengrocer.  I chopped the sweet peppers into nice even matchsticks - the shape lends itself to this, but you'll want your knife to be good and sharp.  Add a peeled and finely chopped clove of garlic at this point, too.

After about 10 minutes, chop the tomatoes up into chunks and add them too.  There are only three tomatoes pictured, but I added another later as I felt the stew needed a bit more liquid.  Add a generous teaspoonful of smoked paprika and a pinch of saffron.  Saffron's an expensive ingredient, so leave it out if you want!  Stir it all up and let it cook for another ten minutes or so, until the tomatoes are releasing their juice.

Break two eggs into the top of the stew.  I had some duck eggs given to me by a friend who keeps ducks, but good quality chicken eggs are fine if you can't find duck eggs.  Season with salt and pepper.

At this point, the original recipe says to transfer the whole lot into the oven and bake for 10-12 minutes at 180C so that's what I did.  Unfortunately this resulted in hard yolks, where I'd have really preferred a runny yolk to break into the stew.  With the benefit of hindsight, I'd have put the lid on the pan and let them poach for four minutes.

Serve with nice crusty bread.

Financial verdict

There's nothing in this but peppers, tomatoes and eggs - a couple of quid all round.  You could even substitute tinned tomatoes for fresh, if you need an end-of-the-month store cupboard special, but I think it's nicer with fresh.  Delicious and filling too, it certainly doesn't feel like an economy dish.  I bought the bread rolls at the end of the day when they'd been reduced to 15p each, too.

The skinny

Gently cook cumin seeds in olive oil

Slice up an onion, add to the pan and sweat over a low heat until soft

Chop sweet peppers into matchsticks and add them

Finely chop a clove of garlic and add that too

Season with salt and pepper and add smoked paprika and saffron

Cook for another ten minutes

Chop tomatoes into chunks and add them

Cook for another ten minutes

Break one egg per person into the top of the pan, put the lid on, and poach - four minutes for soft yolks, if they're big duck eggs

WeightWatchers ProPoints

2 for the chachouka, plus 4 for the bread - 6 in total.  You could do without the bread, this was really filling!