Dear Readers,
This is a humble attempt at writing Food Memoirs and some, mostly dramatized for the effect. Since my Cookbook project is on hold for a while, I couldn't give up the wish to write something on the lines of a food memoir. I tend to take advantage of my poetic license and twist an incident to suit the story.
"In the trail of a spice!"- typically symbolizes the eternal trail after something in life. In pursuit of something that always seems to elude one. And without spice, there is no zing in life. In essence "In the trail of a spice!" is the characters' journey through their life, trying to find their own meaning in this walk of life.
These are reflections of the everyday drama of ordinary people leading an extraordinary life. They are here to share their passion, laughs, the highs and lows that life takes them through.
It's about Maya and Dev and their three children and their extended family, their memories of childhood with its laughter, the joy, the sorrow, and their memories of pet dogs.
Disclaimer: This is purely a work of fiction, based scantly on real incidents. After all our everyday life is always full of inspiration for a work of art.
Dev said he was fine with some eggs tossed around with spices. Maya remembered the Egg Burji, from her childhood. A simpler dish you can't really get, with just onions, eggs, and some spices and you have the most tantalizing dish ready! It's funny she has never made that in years. In the early years of marriage, when she first started cooking, it was one of the dishes she offered to cook for him. He refused, saying he got an aversion to it. So it was never made at home, which is a crime because her kids will never have the same memories as she has of that dish.
So she was not making Anday ki Burji, but rather Anday Ki Sukhi Subji or what she christens as Dry Egg Masala. After all, a dish needs to have a name right!
She interrupted him in between to remind him that she was meeting her school friends the next day for lunch. She was excited about the meet. A couple of them whom she is going to meet after 18 years, while she met a couple of them a year ago. Even as she was telling him, she remembered the time she finally met them last year. They were no longer in their mid-30s. It felt they were back in their early teens, remembering the hungamma they had, the masti, fun-filled life they led. It felt strange to suddenly see their kids coming to interrupt their talks.
With all these thoughts running around in her mind, she was concentrating on the task at hand. She has to make chapatis and the subji and a wandering mind is not really suitable for that.
Anday Ki Sukhi Subji | Dry Egg Masala
2 no Eggs
3/4 cup Onions chopped
1/2 tsp Ginger Garlic paste
1 cup Tomatoes chopped
A Pinch Turmeric
Salt to taste
1 tsp Red Chilli Powder
1 tsp Coriander Powder
1/4 tsp Garam Masala
Coriander leaves handful
Boil the eggs in water for 10 mins. Allow it to cool down, peel the skin, and keep it ready.
Heat a nonstick pan with oil, add chopped onion, saute till it turns slightly browned.
Increase the flame of the pan to high, keep sauteing. Add half a tsp of ginger garlic paste and mix well.
Keep stirring so that the onions are nicely coated with the ginger garlic paste. Keep cooking on high, stirring every other min. Onions will have to have that slightly burnt look.
Next, add finely chopped tomatoes. Add to the sizzling pan along with turmeric and salt. Toss everything together and let it cook. Let it turn mushy.
Add chili powder, coriander powder, mix everything. This takes about 5 mins. At this stage, simmer the flame and cover it with a lid.
Sprinkle some water and continued stirring. Check the pan to see if the spices are blended well into the onions and tomatoes.
When the subji is all done, so increased the flame to high. Keep stirring to make sure all the moisture gets evaporated. Finally, add garam masala.
Quickly chopped the eggs horizontally into four pieces, added them to the pan.
Toss everything together gently, making sure that the yellow is not completely mixed up. Garnish with coriander leaves.
Serve with chapatis
Step by Step picture Recipe
With the expertise she has in getting quick meals done in the morning, she took the eggs and put them in a pan to boil. Covered with a lid to make sure the water starts boiling quickly. This takes about 10 mins to get the little over hard-boiled eggs.
On the second burner was the nonstick pan for the subji, she added a tsp of oil, then she quickly added one big onion that was roughly chopped, julienne is perfectly fine. They give the curry a distinct classy look. Simmer for couple mins. Next, comes the atta for making the dough for the rotis. Take a cup of atta in a bowl. Add salt.
While it's getting done, take two medium-sized tomatoes, chop them roughly again. Add to the sizzling pan along with turmeric and salt. Toss everything together and let it cook. Let it turn mushy.
Add chili powder, coriander powder, mix everything. This takes about 5 mins. At this stage, she simmered the flame and covered it with a lid.
She knew that the masala might get burnt at this stage when cooking on high flame, so she sprinkled some water and continued stirring.
She greased the tawa with oil, and on it went the rolled out rotis.
At this point, she checked on the subji, the spices must have all blended so well into the onions and tomatoes.
She saw that the eggs are done, so she peeled and kept them ready.
Having an eye on the tawa, she saw the roti puffing up. Flipped it to the other side and oiled it again. Roll out the other chapati and keep it ready. Simmer the tawa again.
She saw that the subji is all done, so increased the flame to high. She kept stirring to make sure all the moisture gets evaporated. As a final touch, she added garam masala.
She thought now comes the fun part, Dev was looking at her as she quickly chopped the eggs horizontally into four pieces, added them to the pan.
She gently tossed everything together, making sure that the yellow is not completely mixed up. But she knew doing this part of the yellow tends to get mixed up with the masala and that gives this a different taste altogether!
Ok, there can't be a subji complete without fresh coriander leaves added. so in those went in. She has them all cleaned and stocked anyway. Then she turned to have the second roti also cooked. It was well at the time by the time she took out his plate and had this served.
She told him that this is a dry dish with the masala all clinging to the egg, but the burst of flavours that happen because of the slightly burnt onions, spicy masala makes up all.
He was really impressed with the taste and had the kids sit with him on the floor. Nothing beats the togetherness that comes with sitting down with the kids, feeding them small bites in between meals. He declared he wanted this to a regular for dinner going forward!
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To be continued...
Recipe
Anday Ki Sukhi Subji | Dry Egg Masala
Ingredients
- 2 no Eggs
- 3/4 cup Onions chopped
- 1/2 tsp Ginger Garlic paste
- 1 cup Tomatoes chopped
- A Pinch Turmeric
- Salt to taste
- 1 tsp Red Chilli Powder
- 1 tsp Coriander Powder
- 1/4 tsp Garam Masala
- Coriander leaves handful
Instructions
- Boil the eggs in water for 10 mins. Allow it to cool down, peel the skin and keep it ready.
- Heat a nonstick pan with oil, add chopped onion, saute till it turns slightly browned.
- Increase the flame of the pan to high, keep sauteing. Add half a tsp of ginger garlic paste and mix well.
- Keep stirring so that the onions are nicely coated with the ginger garlic paste. Keep cooking on high, stirring every other min. Onions will have to have that slightly burnt look.
- Next, add finely chopped tomatoes. Add to the sizzling pan along with turmeric and salt. Toss everything together and let it cook. Let it turn mushy.
- Add chilli powder, coriander powder, mix everything. This takes about 5 mins. At this stage, simmer the flame and cover it with lid.
- Sprinkle some water and continued stirring. Check the pan to see if the spices are blended well into the onions and tomatoes.
- When the subji is all done, so increased the flame to high. Keep stirring to make sure all the moisture gets evaporated. Finally, add garam masala.
- Quickly chopped the eggs horizontally into four pieces, added them to the pan.
- Toss everything together gently, making sure that the yellow is not completely mixed up. Garnish with coriander leaves.
- Serve with chapatis
Vimitha Anand says
Thats a very simple and yummy recipe
notyet100 says
Will be waiting for the second part 🙂
jayasree says
Good start Valli...Now will the cookbook project turn into a fiction laced with recipes ?
Hamaree Rasoi says
Wonderfully prepared egg curry. Loved the look of it.
Deepa
Hamaree Rasoi
Gayathri Ramdas Sreekanth says
Wow, really an innovative idea ! It's real impressive that you multi-task so beautifully with office work, house work, managing children and BLOG ! Stupendous...!!
divya says
Absolutely gorgeous & mouthwatering
Shabitha Karthikeyan says
Yummy egg recipe !!! Looks so homey..
anishathefoodie says
Wow Srivalli I loved your story. It resembles my life minus the kids and minus the talent of making round chappathis :-). Anyways great going, I cant wait to read the continuation. Keep it up
Anisha Kuruvilla
soujanya says
yum recipe....liked it..
good start dear...
Ramya says
love this post...yummy and interesting
My cooking experiments says
I simply loved the idea of blending literary skills in to cooking!!! It was an awesome read.
Pavithra R says
What i usually do is - i add a spoon full of "Aachis Egg curry masala" to the mixture, this brings in the garam masala flavor to the recipe.
As explained by you, it is really a good idea to cut the boiled eggs instead of just leaving them as a whole(which is exactly what i have been doing).Will cut the eggs hereafter.
Thanks for the recipe & the lovely photos.