Roasted Eggs

This traditional North African dish calls for roasting fresh eggs for 5 hours in a 100°C/212°F oven. The whites turn brown with a nutty flavor. 

Some people can be very particular about their '3 minute egg'. How about 300 minutes? In Morocco, eggs are traditionally left for hours 
in embers or roasted in sand in bakers' ovens. I tried it last weekend using instructions from Mrs Wolfert's extraordinary The Mediterranean 
Kitchen. The results were very pleasing! 

I warmly recommend you try, it is both an intriguing experiment and a delicious starter. 

Soak fresh eggs in lukewarm water for a few minutes and heat your oven to 105°C/220°F. Lay the eggs directly on the grate and bake for 5 hours. 
That's exactly 300 minutes. 

I just replaced my 18-year-old oven with a digital model that lets you type in the exact temperature and time but I think you could do it with 
an old oven on the lowest setting, or use an oven proof dish filled with water to cap the temperature around 100°C/212°F. 

Some egg white will make its way through the shell and create brown pimples on your eggs (photo). 

Remove the eggs from the oven and leave them for 5 minutes in a cold water bowl. 

Remove the shell. The egg white has turned brown. 

A rather unusual contrast! 

The egg whites shrink a little during the long baking, making your eggs are conveniently flat on the bottom. You can easily stand them upright on a dish. 

No runny yolks here, but the whites acquire a delicious nutty flavor. A whole new world for egg lovers! 

You can serve these eggs whole or cut in half with the traditional Sephardic sauce made by crushing together a garlic clove, a few salted 
anchovies filets, lemon juice, pepper and then emulsifying with olive oil in a mixer as on the picture above. A very memorable starter!

This is one of the many excellent recipes in The Slow Mediterranean Kitchen: Recipes for the Passionate Cook by Paula Wolfert, a real 
must-buy and winner of the Best Cookbook of the Year Beard award.