Simple Egg Curry

I’ve been playing around trying to figure out my go-to egg curry recipe for a while now. I know the idea of either a hard boiled or a soft boiled (my preference) egg in curry sauce is not everyone’s cup of tea, but for me when we the chef’s special curry at our local curry house (chunks of tandoori chicken in a lamb mince sauce with a whole boiled egg hidden somewhere in the middle) the egg is always my favourite part, even to the point where the kitchen have started giving me an extra one!

I made Indian egg curries and I made Sri Lankan egg curries, but kept on moving onto the next recipe. But that was until I tried Karan Gokani’s recipe in Indian 101^ad, a fantastic cookbook I was given for Christmas and which is worth buying just for the recipe for masala beans on toast (permanently bookmarked with a penguin sticky tab) which has quickly become one of my go-to weekend brunch recipes. The curry was rich, saucy, used medium-boiled eggs instead of hard so their yolk could be cracked into the rice this curry is begging for on the side, and topped with a generous drizzle of red chilli oil. It was almost how I wanted it.

But, I made a few changes: the fennel seeds in it were a bit overwhelming, so I replaced them with a spoonful of madras curry powder. That sounds like a pretty wild swap on the face of it, but once I tell you I also switched the simple chilli oil drizzle for a much more flavourful and welcome extra step (as far as effort vs. flavour impact is concerned) of topping the curry with the tadka drizzle that came with the aforementioned masala beans recipe (which are flavoured with that madras curry powder) it makes a little more sense.

The result is a saucy boiled egg curry that is bright, saucy and bold, delicious over steamed white rice, possibly with a roti on the side (as you can tell from the pictures, I’ve been practicing my technique with the recipe in Karan Gokani’s recipe in his other excellent cookbook Hoppers: The Cookbook from the Cult London Restaurant: Recipes, Memories and Inspiration from Sri Lankan Homes, Streets and Beyond^ad!)

Don’t let the relatively long list of ingredients put you off trying this, I know I’ve called it a ‘simple’ egg curry recipe, and that is because it is: most of the work generated by that long list is dipping a measuring spoon into spices.

Fresh Curry Leaves

Fresh curry leaves really make the difference in this recipe, both to the curry and the tadka drizzle. Find them in specialist stores or in the Sainsbury’s herb section, and freeze what you don’t use. Then use the frozen curry leaves as you would fresh in future recipes including my Sri Lankan Chicken Curry and Sri Lankan Yellow Rice.

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Egg Curry

• Author: Rachel Phipps
• Prep Time: 10 minutes
• Cook Time: 45 minutes
• Total Time: 55 minutes
• Yield: Serves 2
• Category: Dinner
• Cuisine: Indian
• Diet: Vegetarian

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Description

This easy, saucy egg curry is the perfect vegetarian curry to serve with rice and roti. Don’t let the long ingredient list put you off – after chopping some onion, garlic, ginger and tomatoes all you have to do is spoon some spices from the jar!

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Ingredients

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For the Egg Curry

• 4 large eggs
• 2 tbsp coconut oil
• 1/2 tsp black mustard seeds
• 4 green cardamom pods, lightly crushed to reveal the seeds
• 2 large garlic cloves, minced
• 1 tsp fresh grated ginger
• 1 green chilli, split in half lengthways
• 1 large onion, finely chopped
• sea salt, to taste
• 12 fresh curry leaves
• 1 tbsp ground coriander
• 1 tsp chilli powder
• 1 tsp madras curry powder
• 1/2 tsp turmeric
• 2 cooking tomatoes (approx. 200g)
• 150ml coconut milk

For the Tadka Drizzle

• 1 tbsp light olive oil
• 1 tsp cumin seeds
• 8 fresh curry leaves
• 1/2 tsp chilli powder

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Instructions

1. Cook the eggs in a pan of boiling water for 6 minutes. Plunge them into a bowl of ice water to stop them cooking, and set aside.
2. In a large frying pan with high sides, melt the coconut oil over a medium heat. Add the mustard seeds and cardamom pods, and cook for a couple of minutes until the mustard seeds start to fizzle and pop.
3. Stir in the garlic, ginger, split green chilli, chopped onion, and generous pinch of salt. Cook on medium for 6-8 minutes until the onion is soft and the garlic and ginger have turned aromatic.
4. Add the curry leaves and once they have turned glossy in the pan, stir in the ground spices. Cook for 1-2 minutes so the spices toast before stirring in the tomatoes. Cook for a further 6-8 minutes until the tomatoes have broken down into a thick sauce.
5. Stir in 250ml of water, and simmer for a couple of minutes into a sauce. Then add the coconut milk and simmer for a further 6-8 minutes until you have a thickened (but still generous) sauce. 
6. Carefully peel the eggs and add them to the sauce to warm through.
7. To make the tadka drizzle, warm the oil in a small saucepan or frying pan over a medium-high heat. Add the cumin seeds and curry leaves, and them moment they sizzle pull them off the heat. Stir in the chilli powder.
8. Serve the curry with rice and roti, with the tadka drizzled over the top.

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Notes

The sauce can be made ahead and gently warmed through before adding the eggs.

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