Sunday, October 19, 2008

Egg Curry

This used to be somehow a special dish I was growing up. Ma wouldn't make it ofte, since eggs=high cholesterol, and therefore, on I would find this on the table only on some cold winter afternoons, when she was short of time, but wanted a curry.

Replicating ma's flavors is always hard, but I came close, and here is what I used, to feed 3 hungry adults:
  • 5 hard boiled eggs; cooled, shelled and cut in half (lengthwise)
  • 2 medium tomatoes; crushed or minced fine
  • 1 medium red onion; diced
  • 1/2 tsp garlic paste
  • 1 small green chili- minced fine
  • 1/2 tsp turmeric powder (my mom believes it prevents arthritis- and you can never plan too early on preventing it!)
  • 1/2 tsp coriander powder
  • 1/2 tsp whole black peppers
  • 1 tsp garam masala
  • 1 tsp olive oil
  • salt to taste
Optional:
  • 1 tsp flax seed meal (this has no bearing on the dish- I add this to most curries/stews since it is known to reduce cholesterol- and well, with a 5 egg curry, I guess I do need all the help possible anyways, right? :))

Method:
  • Throw in the onions in the pan (medium heat), and shower on the olive oil, to avoid burning. Once the onions brown slightly (about a minute or so), add the tomatoes and garlic paste, stir.
  • In another 2 minutes, add all the remaining ingredients, except the eggs.
  • Stir, and let sit for about 2 minutes.
  • Once the mixture in the pan is a golden brown, and has almost exuded all moisture, add one large glasses of water.
  • Stir again, and let come to boil, after which you can reduce to a simmer, but since this was going to be a quick curry, I didn't bother simmering much. (The longer you simmer, the more complex the flavors get- many times you DON'T want that).
  • At this point, the curry sauce will be pretty chunky- if that bothers you, you can always use a immersion blender and blend to desired smoothness- if you do that, the sauce turns creamy almost instantly, and also becomes a lighter shade of red.
  • While the curry cooks, add 2 tsps of olive oil to a non stick pan and lightly browned the halved eggs.
  • Add the eggs into the sauce and bring to a boil, then let simmer until ready to eat, about 5 minutes, or longer, if you have the time.
  • Serve on white rice.

2 comments:

TNL said...

hmmm....this reminds me, I haven't had this in years! I've gotta try for the kiddos.

trupti

Shweta Mehrotra Gahlawat said...

Such an old favorite, na? I'm glad its winter now- can make this every month now :)