Egg Curry

Today my cousin tied the knot in Haifa, Israel with a lovely girl he met there who is from Tobago.  They were both working there and fell in love and decided to get married.  Of course not everyone from their families could attend the marriage, so the bride and the groom arranged for the whole wedding to be broadcast live.  All their family and friends who so very much would have loved to share in their happiness and joy, but could not be physically present in Haifa watched them live as they took the scared vows.  All this was possible because of technology.  Technology – the thing that we curse sometimes and yet the thing we cannot live without now and which, like in the case of the example above, was such a nice blessing.  

I remember when I was married and lived in Yemen, the technology was not as developed as it is now and I had to wait for weeks to receive news via letters from my family in India.  But now, I am two times further from them in distance, but I know exactly what my mom has cooked, whether my dad has gone for a walk or not, whether my niece troubled my sister to go to school…instant messaging.  I am not missing out on anything that happens 4000 kilometers away from me in a small town in India.  And I thank technology everyday for that. 

Preparation Time: 30 minutes

Serves 4

Ingredients:

4 hard boiled eggs

2 medium sized red onions, chopped

2 medium sized tomatoes, chopped

1 cup coconut, grated

4 cloves

8 black peppers

6 cardamoms

1” piece cinnamon

2 bay leaves

1 red chili, dried

½ tsp turmeric

1 tablespoon poppy seeds

Salt to taste

A pinch of asafetida

½ cup water

4 tablespoons sunflower oil

Method:

1. Heat 1 tablespoon oil in a pan and add the pepper, cloves, cinnamon, cardamom, bay leaves, poppy seeds and red chilli and fry for a minute and keep aside.  
2. In another pan, heat 1 tablespoon of oil and add the chopped onions and fry till brown.  
3. Now add the grated coconut to the onions and fry for a couple of minutes.  Take off fire and let cool.  
4. Grind this onion-coconut mixture to a fine paste along with the spices that were fried previously.  Keep aside.   
5. Heat the remaining oil in a vessel.  
6. When hot, add the asafetida and tomatoes and let it cook till the tomatoes are soft.  
7. Add the turmeric and the ground paste and stir for 2 minutes.  
8. Now add ½ cup water and cook covered on low flame for 20 minutes.  
9. Halve the eggs and add to this curry and let it simmer for another 5 minutes.  
10. Serve with plain boiled rice.