Anda Curry with Aloo (Egg and Potato Curry)

Dish for Monday night, August 30, 2010: Ripa's Anda Curry with Aloo, Baltimore, MD

This is a gravy dish. Serve with rice or roti/toasted pita. Plain Yogurt is also a good complement for most Indian savory dishes if you like to mitigate spiciness. The recipe was given to me by a friend who happens to be from the Bengal region of India (eastern coast). The sugar at the end is common in a lot of dishes of North India, particularly in Gujarat, where it is most common to combine savory and sweet flavors in dishes. In fact, Gujaratis are known for using an ingredient called "Gor," also known as "jaggery," which is basically a raw, molasses-type sugar in many of their main dishes. I think it's concentrated juice of sugar cane where molasses has not yet been extracted.

Regarding the recipe, I think it's a great dish if you want the essence of egg in a curry, but not the full flavor. The addition of the potato really neutralized the egg flavor. Also, I used only 1 potato, but it gave the gravy an excellent consistency. When I first started cooking Indian food, I would often make the mistake of adding water to tomato-based gravy dishes at the end before slow cooking, and this would make the final product a little too watery. I always like to make sure gravy is thick and no water is visible. If it appears watery, I usually slow cook it for additional time with a lid on the pan, until the water boils off. Now, I rarely add water at the end, mostly because tomatoes have so much water already in them, that you don't even need to add additional water once the tomatoes start melting in the pan during slow cooking. The addition of boiled potato to this dish however, really made the gravy thick. I think the egg yolk also contributed to that actually, because when you slice the hard-boiled eggs and stir them into the pot, the egg yolks incorporate with the masala, and you really only see the whites. When my husband makes his egg curry (which I'll definitely post, because it's awesome!), it is without potato, and you taste yolk a lot more prominently. I chose the recipe because I was intrigued by the egg-potato combo and I just really like the flavor of boiled potato.

The other key ingredient in egg curry is CUMIN. Roasted cumin is absolutely delicious when used generously in this dish. First, it's highly aromatic, but the flavor also goes very well with tomato-based curries. Note how the recipe calls for 1 tbsp. of cumin seeds as well as 1 tbsp of cumin powder. In addition to that, I added 1 tsp. of fried cumin seeds at the end for an extra kick, as part of the "tadka," which is basically what we do at the end of the cooking process to infuse additional flavored oil and spice to the dish. In a separate pan, just add oil and fry 1 tsp. of cumin only. Once fried, pour it along with the hot oil over the pan containing the egg and potato dish. It adds awesome extra flavor. Hot oil with freshly fried spices over a prepared dish where the main spices are already incorporated is superb! But of course, tadka is best when done just before serving.

I also hand chopped fresh garlic, onion, and ginger. I did not make anything into a paste, just chopped everything finely and fried. I just did that because it's my preference; I like the crunch of the garlic/ginger/onions, and I have found that ginger/garlic/onion pastes leave the masala (or base) without much texture. I pureed 2 fresh tomatoes in the blender. Surprisingly, I also found that the dish got very dry toward the end, but it made sense because the yolk and potato probably absorbed most of the liquid. So, I splashed low sodium chicken broth in it several times, which thinned the gravy and increased the volume. I found also that it required a lot of salt, so that kept going in as well. Finally, because I kept adding the broth, I also found that it was not spicy enough, so I added an extra 1/4 tsp. of red chili powder as well as a chopped up green chili at the end. We ate it with plain yogurt and carrot pickle.

Ingredients:
6 large eggs
1 potato
salt to taste
oil for frying (the recipe prefers mustard or vegetable oil, I often use olive because it's healthier, though olive oil is not traditional to Indian cooking)
1-2 cinnamon sticks
1 large onion
2 vine ripe tomatoes or 1 16oz. can of tomato puree
2 tbsp ginger
2-3 tbsp. garlic (according to taste)
1 tbsp cumin seeds ("jeera")
1/2 tsp. red chili powder
2 whole dry red chilis (I tear them up into the pan)
3-4 broken up dry bay leaves
1-2 tsp of garam masala
1 tbsp of cumin powder
1 tbsp of coriander powder
1/4 tsp turmeric powder
1/4 tsp red chili powder
1 tsp sugar

1. Boil eggs and potato until eggs are cooked and potato is fork tender. Add some salt while boiling. Make some holes in the potato with a fork for salt absorption. The original recipe called for a pressure cooker, but the times vary on those, so if you're more comfortable boiling, just boil in a regular pot. The pressure cooker took me about 30 minutes to get everything boiled.
2. Make onion tomato paste in blender (alternate: use tomato puree (canned) and
finely chopped onions)
3. Fry cumin, dry red chilli (powder as well as whole chilli), bay leaves, in oil. (you may
use mustard/vegetable oil) You may add cinnamon sticks if available. Add ginger
garlic paste and onions thereafter. If you are not using a paste let the onions turn
golden brown and follow the steps below.
4. Add garam masala (1-2 tsp), coriander and cumin powders (1-2 tbsp each). Let the masala
turn brown. Add tomato sauce and allow these things to cook well. Stir and fry well till deep brown.
5. Peel off potatoes and eggs till the masala cooks. Add a little bit of turmeric and red
chilli powder. You may also add a little mustard oil to marinate.
6. After the masala is cooked add the potatoes and eggs. Add some water depending
on how thick or thin you want the gravy to be . Add salt to taste. Allow it too cook for a
little while. You may add a about 1-2 tsp of sugar.
7. Allow it to cook for a little while and its ready !!