It feels really great to say that I cook for pleasure. Cooking gives me that inner joy, which we naturally seek everyday in everything, but find in rarest of things and rarest of activities. There is some mysterious satisfaction when I am in the kitchen, in the midst of ingredients and spices who are continuously pushing me to create something. The sound of splattering oil feels music to my ears, the aroma of spices is no less than healing of soul, and the colour of ingredients and food is a blessing to my eyes.
But I agree. All these make sense when you have enough time at your disposal, and you have the liberty to choose your dish as per your mood. But, how many times do you have the freedom to cook anything with unlimited time on your hand? Frankly speaking, very rarely! And if I have to admit, I don’t remember, when was the last time (or probably the first time :D) I had experienced this Utopia situation.
Hence it is quite true, acknowledging the reality and keeping the interest going at the same time is a difficult task. But, at the same time, when some days it turns out that the stars are in our favour, and we actually succeed in creating something good beyond our satisfaction level, while fighting with the real constraints like paucity of time and ingredients, the joy becomes double. If you ask, probably these precious few good days motivate us to move forward everyday, fighting the chaos of realities and failures.
Similarly, my ‘Egg Curry In Almond & Cheese Sauce’ is a dish I successfully created on a weeknight, when I was trying to prepare something different from our regular ‘Spicy Egg Curry’ or ‘Dimer Dhokar Dalna’(which anyways needs more time than regular dishes), with very limited time and available ingredients. The dish ‘Egg Curry In Almond & Cheese Sauce’ is soul satisfying and kids friendly, and is sure to surprise your taste buds, who are otherwise accustomed to spicy curry when it comes to eggs.
So, follow the recipe below and surprise your tastebuds with ‘Egg Curry In Almond & Cheese Sauce’.
Recipe: Egg Curry In Almond & Cheese Sauce
Preparation Time (Boiling Eggs): Around 10 minutes Preparation Time: Around 12 minutes Cooking Time: 1 hour 16 minutes (includes frying eggs separately) Equipment Used: Pressure Cooker, Knife, Peeler, Cutting Board, Grinder, Wok or Deep bottomed pan, Flat Non-stick pan, 2 spatulas, Bowls Yield: Serves 6
Ingredients:
- 6 eggs
- ½ cup almond
- 1 garlic or around 20 cloves of garlic
- 1 onion
- 1 tomato
- 2 carrots
- 2 tablespoon dairy whitener
- Water for grinding and preparing sauce
- 5 tablespoon refined oil
- 1/3 cup grated cheese
- 2 & ½ teaspoon salt
- 1 tablespoon butter
- Pepper, Oregano & Thymes to sprinkle
Method:
- Put the eggs for boiling
- Soak the almond
- Peel garlic cloves, slice the onion and dice the tomato
- Wash, peel and cut the carrots into chunks
- Grind the almond with half of the peeled garlic cloves and dairy whitener to a smooth paste
- Chop the leftover garlic cloves
- Heat a wok
- Heat refined oil once the wok is hot
- As the oil turns hot and light smoke comes out, sauté the chopped garlic in hot oil
- Fry the sliced onion till they turn translucent after the garlic pieces are sautéed
- Add the rest of the vegetables (diced tomato and carrot chunks) into the wok, followed by almond garlic dairy whitener paste, grated cheese and ½ teaspoon salt
- Mix the ingredients with a spatula and cover the wok. Let the vegetables cook on low flame. Switch off the flame or remove the wok from fire as soon as the vegetables are cooked
- In the meantime peel the boiled eggs and slice the eggs into half
- Heat another pan with a flat bottom and heat butter once the pan is hot
- Place the boiled eggs in the pan and fry them till both the sides are little crisp. Switch off the flame once done
- Now place the wok again on fire
- Add water into the wok as per the consistency you desire
- Cook till bubbles form and place the fried eggs in the curry
- Taste and adjust salt. I have added 2 teaspoon salt
- Switch off the flame and sprinkle oregano, pepper and thymes
Boil the eggs.
Soak almonds.
Peel garlic cloves.
Slice an onion.
Dice a tomato.
Cut carrots into chunks.
Grind the almond with half of the peeled garlic cloves and dairy whitener to a smooth paste.
Chop the leftover garlic cloves.
Heat oil once the wok is hot.
Sauté the chopped garlic in hot oil.
Fry the sliced onion.
Add the rest of the vegetables, followed by almond garlic dairy whitener paste, grated cheese and ½ teaspoon salt.
Mix and cover the wok and let the vegetables cook on low flame. remove the wok from fire as soon as the vegetables are cooked.
Peel the boiled eggs and slice the eggs into half.
Heat butter in flat bottomed pan.
Place the boiled eggs in the pan and fry them till both the sides are little crisp.
Now place the wok again on fire.
Add water as per the consistency you desire.
Place the fried eggs as bubbles form in the curry.
Taste and adjust salt.
Switch off the flame and sprinkle oregano, pepper and thymes.
Tips:
- You can alter the choice of vegetables as per your taste
- You can use regular milk instead of dairy whitener
- If you are using non-stick pan, heat the pan on low flame. Also, reduce the flame to minimum while heating butter, as butter tends to emit smoke quite fast
- Add water little by little while grinding almond, garlic and dairy whitener, till you arrive at a smooth paste
- As cheese has a tendency to get stuck at the bottom of the pan and turns brown, while cooking it is advisable to use a spatula and scrape the sauce time to time from the bottom of the pan. Also, add little water, if the sauce gets stuck to the pan and starts turning brown before the vegetables are cooked
- While frying eggs, flip the eggs only once after the bottom side turns brown and fry the other side till that side turns crisp and brown
