Omega Sector Shakshuka

Harlequin authors are sharing their favorite recipes this week. Head on over to Twitter with the hashtag #sweetandspicyholiday to find some great ideas and maybe fine a new author to read! My contribution is Omega Sector Shakshuka! 

‬Shakshuka is a Northern African/Middle Eastern dish of eggs poached in a sauce of tomatoes, onions, and peppers, often spiced with cumin. It is a common breakfast food, but can be served as any meal.

Prep Time: 10 minutes


Cook Time: 25 minutes

Total Time: 35 minutes

Servings: 5-6 (but it’s so easy to make more or less)

Ingredients:

1 tablespoons olive oil

5-6 eggs

½ medium brown or white onion, peeled and diced

2 clove garlic, minced

1 medium green and/or red bell pepper, chopped

4 cups ripe diced tomatoes, or 2 cans (14 oz. each) diced tomatoes (undrained)

2 tablespoons tomato paste

2 teaspoon cumin

2 teaspoon paprika

Chili flakes (sprinkled for spicy flavor)

Pinch of cayenne pepper (to taste)

Pinch of sugar (to taste)

Salt and pepper (to taste)

Chopped parsley (optional)

Besides being totally delish, another great thing about this recipe is its flexibility. Use whatever you want/have on hand in your base: mushrooms, eggplant, spinach, jalapenos, parsley, green chilies… (I once diced potatoes and put them in)

Directions:


1. Heat oil in deep, large pan on medium. Add onion and sauté until softened (3-5 minutes). Add garlic until fragrant (1-2 more minutes), then add peppers (5-7 more minutes).

2. Add tomatoes and tomato paste to pan, stir till blended. Add spices and sugar, stir well, and allow mixture to simmer over medium heat for 5-7 minutes till it starts to reduce. At this point, you can taste the mixture and spice it according to your preferences. Add salt and pepper to taste, more sugar for a sweeter sauce, or more cayenne pepper for a spicier shakshuka

3. Once sufficiently thick, crack in the eggs one by one on top of mixture (as if you were frying them), making sure to space them out evenly. Cover the pan and allow the mixture to simmer and condense for 10-15 minutes, depending on how cooked you prefer your eggs.

4. Once the eggs are cooked, garnish with chopped parsley, and the shakshuka is ready to be served with pita or challah bread!

 

Derek Waterman, the hero in my December Intrigue SPECIAL FORCES SAVIOR did multiple tours in the Middle East during his time in the Army. Shakshuka would undoubtedly been something he became acquainted with there. Quick, easy, made up of whatever is on hand -- the perfect recipe for a solider who wanted to fix his own meal.

Our family of six (including four teenagers!) loves it too. Introduced to us by an Israeli neighbor, this has become a weekly staple in our house, a breakfast food we love to have for dinner!




Be sure to order your copy of SPECIAL FORCES SAVIOR -- Book 1 in the critically acclaimed Omega Sector: Critical Response series. Available Dec 15th.

Book 2 - FULLY COMMITTED is available mid-January. 

Details/excerpts/buy links  HERE.

Excerpt from SPECIAL FORCES SAVIOR.

© 2016 - All rights reserved.

"Did I misread what I saw? Was it all in my imagination?”

Lie to her. That was all he needed to do. One tiny lie, let her down easy, and avert this crisis. Moments passed. It was his tactical advantage and he knew he should take it.

But looking into her precious brown eyes, her sweet face, he couldn’t. “No. You didn’t imagine it.”

She took a step closer. He took a step back.

“Why, Derek?” Her question barely more than a whisper. “Why have you stayed away from me all this time? You’ve had to know I wanted to be with you.”

“Molly, our worlds don’t mix. I’m not the right person for you.”

“Don’t you think I should be the judge of that?”

A Stanger in a Deutschland: Reflections at Six-Months

Did I mention I'm publishing SIX books in 2016, and am currently in the midst of writing them all? Thus: poor, neglected blog.

Since we've been here in Germany almost seven months, I wanted to take a moment to reflect on how things are going.

Overall, I honestly can say, with Tony the Tiger-like enthusiasm: they're GRRRRRRREAT!

The travel, man, the travel. In case you live under a rock and haven't seen all my social media blasts, all this happened:

Dubrovnik, Croatia

Istanbul, Turkey

Olympia, Greece

Venice, Italy

So yeah, all those places happened since we've been here, plus: Paris, Amsterdam, London, Austria, and Switzerland. Not to mention, I saw a Shakespeare play (Merchant of Venice) performed outdoors at a real, live CASTLE one evening. It was definitely a quintessential "Hey, we live in Europe" moment.

Y'all, we live in EUROPE.

When people told us we should take advantage of travel and opportunities while we were here, we took them at their word. 

Of course, it hasn't all been easy. Kevin's job is significantly harder, or at least the learning curve has been. The hours are longer. The traffic is THE PITS. But he's surviving.

I've pretty much given up on learning German because Mark Twain had it right...

Okay, I haven't given up, but IT'S SO HARD. (Es tut mir leid. Mein Deutsch ist nicht sehr gut. Still, people. Still nicht sehr gut.)

Another difficulty has been the weather: it's been one of the hottest summers anyone can remember. Everyone says we'll be glad to think of this nice warm weather when winter rolls around again and it's so cold.

But right now, it's been in the upper-90s multiple days in a row. AND THERE IS NO AIR CONDITIONING. So basically this:

But except for sleeping with ice packs, the good far outweighs the bad, for sure. We continue to love the adventure, even when we can't watch America Ninja Warrior because it's not on Hulu. 

We play, we fight, we eat, we live. Sometimes it's boring, sometimes it's exciting, sometimes some old German guy is yelling at you outside your car because you accidentally blocked the bike lane while waiting for a red-light to turn. To which you just shrug. 

Basically, this place has just become home.  And what a beautiful place home is:

Sherlocked - The Event (in Which I Meet Benedict Cumberbatch!!!)

As I’ve announced, I recent signed a new 6-book contract with Harlequin Intrigue. While, I’m thrilled about that, writing six books in 13 months is not leaving me much left over time to write on my blog, or to keep people as updated about our life in Germany as I'd  like to.

Quite a few people have asked why I haven’t posted much about our new house yet. There's a reason; A VERY EXCITING REASON. I can’t officially announce anything right now, but let’s just suffice it to say that we have been contacted about the possibility of telling the story of how we came to choose the house we are in –and not, say, two other houses that we hunted considered-- in a much more public medium, that does not involve my blog.

I can’t help you more than that, people. You either watch HGTV or you don’t.

I’ll keep you posted.

But the other thing I wanted to post about was what me and Kiddo #1 did last week: attended the SHERLOCKED CONVENTION in London (April 24-26).

It was a rather smallish convention (compared to some of the Cons in the States) centered around BBC's Sherlock, but neither my daughter or I had ever been to one, so we had a great time.

AND WE GOT TO MEET BENEDICT CUMBERBATCH. Only maybe for a 15 seconds, but it was still worth it. I’m sure he remembers me.

(Actually, I felt kind of bad for the guy. Taking formal pictures with as many people as he did can’t be easy. He was very stiff. British. Found out later he had a head-cold, so that may have had something to do with it.)

But whatever! I GOT TO MEET BENEDICT CUMBERBATCH, PEOPLE. 

Kiddo #1 was a little disappointed by her brief interaction with BC, but Andrew Scott (Moriarty) and Rupert Graves (Lestrade) more than made up for it with her. They were friendly, genuine, talkative and fun.

 Not as fun as SOME actors are known to be with their fans at Cons….

But still pretty fun.  

But, “British reserve” was the order of the day. It was brought up multiple times throughout the talks, a reminder of sorts that this Con would not be like those sordid and unseemly American ones.

We should all behave in proper British manner… because Sherlock would expect us to. Ahem, there may or may not now be restraining orders out against me from multiple actors from the show.

Yes, Janie has trouble remembering not to hug the celebrities.

When I told Lars Mikkelsen he scared me so much I almost didn't want a picture, he offered 

to pretend flick my face, as he does as the villain on Season 3. :) Super fun guy

The talks at Sherlocked were plentiful and mostly interesting. A lot of Q&A sessions, and some more formal topics: the women of Sherlock, cosplay, design of the show, etc. Producers Steven Moffat and Mark Gatiss (who also plays Mycroft) spoke about the general direction of the show, but never gave any secrets about future episodes away. 

And, of course, Benedict Cumberbatch brought the house (made up mostly of women) down:

The displays/memorabilia were rather lacking… a small costume  section (15-20 costumes from through-out the three seasons), and a few photo ops (the actual 221b door used on the set, a double decker bus with Sherlock/Moriarty’s pictures), Mycroft’s office.

But really, apart from the talks and standing in line to either get pictures or autographs, there wasn’t much to do. Having said that, we made lots of friends, all just as excited as us to be there.

Would I go again? No. There wasn’t enough to it to justify returning. Plus, now that Bendict has the restraining order out against me…

But I had a great time, fan-girling with my girl for a weekend. That definitely made it worthwhile.