How to make egg curry

Looking in my fridge the other day I found a few eggs that were right on the edge of their sell by date. Not wanting to waste one of nature’s perfectly packaged foods I had to think of a way to use them up…as I also had a little time on my hands I didn’t just want to do something boring like an omelette or scrambled eggs, so I though why not whip up a simple tasty egg curry! Everyone loves eggs and everyone loves curry so it’s a surprise and a shame that egg curry isn’t on every Indian restaurant menu. But don’t you worry as this recipe is so straight forward it will become a regular in your household and for that you will be thanked. It’s a great winter warmed too and fantastic value, so let’s get cooking!

Egg Curry

Serves 2

• 4 x Eggs
• 2 x Large tomatoes (or ½ a tin)
• 1 x Small red or white onion (or ½ a large)
• 1 x Handful of frozen or canned spinach
• 1 x Small fresh green chilli
• 1 x Inch of fresh ginger
• 1 x Large clove of garlic
• 1 x Tsp Whole cumin seeds
• 1 x Tsp Mustard seeds
• 1 x Tsp Turmeric
• 1-2 x Tsp Good curry powder
• 1 x Tsp Ground cumin
• ½ x Tsp Good garam masala
• 4 x Tbsp vegetable oil
• 3 x Curry leaves (optional)
• ½ x Tsp Chilli powder (optional)
• Salt to taste

First off we need to hard boil those eggs. 10 minutes in boiling water should do it, then remove them from the heat, set aside and let the eggs get completely cold. Once cold shell the eggs.

To make the curry sauce

Finely grate the ginger and garlic and dice the onion, for this recipe I used red onion as I feel it does give a wonderful extra depth of oniony flavour to this dish. Add the oil to a frying pan on a medium heat and throw in your ginger and garlic. When they are sizzling (about 1 minute) add the whole cumin seeds and stir for a minute more. Now add your onions, chopped fresh chilli, mustard seeds and curry leaves (if you have them) to the pan and cook through for about 3-4 minutes letting the onions take on some colour. While the onions are cooking finely chop your tomatoes and set aside. Once the onions are just starting to brown add your chopped tomatoes and cook down for around 5-10 minutes stirring occasionally (TIP: Smash those tomatoes up with your spoon as they are cooking so they break down into a richer sauce). Add a splash of water if you need to loosen the sauce and stop the tomatoes burning or drying out.

The base of your sauce should now be ready for the rest of your dry spices, so add the turmeric, curry powder, ground cumin and garam masala. Stir in well and simmer for a couple of minutes before adding salt to taste. At this point if the sauce isn’t as spicy as you like it add chilli powder to taste as well. Time to add your spinach so turn down the heat and add to the pan. Why aren’t I using fresh I hear you ask, well with canned or frozen what you see is what you get as it doesn’t shrink anymore so it makes it far easier to judge compared to fresh. A panful of fresh spinach can shrivel up to nothing in front of your eyes. Let the spinach cook through a little to meld with the sauce. Slice you eggs in half lengthways, place in the pan and let them gently warm up in the sauce. (TIP: Try not to move the eggs around in the sauce too much as the yolks will start to fall apart and we want our eggs looking whole and wholesome!) Serve immediately with your favourite Indian accompaniment, instead of rice I served mine with a toasted and heavily buttered naan bread and I was in eggy heaven :) I really hope you enjoy making, sharing and eating this wonderful dish, and a big thanks goes out to my partner Sarupa Shah for conspiring with me to make this. Please remember to share how you got on with this recipe in the comments below as I would love to know how you got on. Michael Robinson