A Rassedar Anda Curry

Anda (egg) curry is one of the simplest go to recipes towards the end of week when groceries run low before your impending grocery run. It requires just the barest of most common ingredients in indian cooking without need for “special” vegetables or “meats” and using up the last 2 or 4 eggs remaining in your refrigerator.

The one we make is different than many we have seen which have the consistency of a sauce or a korma. Nothing wrong with that, except we find this a welcome break from the sauce like curries which invariably adorn the paneer’s and chickens. The curry we make is more rassedar that is translated as juicy but really means its a bit more flowing than usual curries. Think of something flowy like Sambhar (of-course without the lentils though). It is not watery though as it has slightly more body from the ground ingredients that get cooked and the oil. This kind of curry goes well with chapatis but even better with flatbreads like bhakris which can soak up the juiciness.

The importance of cloves

This rassa/curry is fresh and bright tasting making very little use of whole spices. However it does rely on one special spice to complement its fresh and bright flavorings. Its cloves. They bring the sweet, bitter flavors to the rassa with a special warmth in aroma and on the palate that one associates with cloves. We literally let the cloves which are very woody, smoke and pop a bit in the oil and this also brings a smoky flavor to our rassa.

We begin by frying the dry spices of peppers, cardamom pod and cloves on oil till the cloves pop and become fat. We follow it up with sautéing the onions and green chilies. When they are cooked through we follow with chopped garlic and ginger and tomato’s.

To use Fresh Coconut or dried or coconut milk

For this rassedar curry we should immediately rule out coconut milk. We think it makes it too rich and creamy. Using fresh or dried coconut and cooking it leads to some sweetness of the coconut infusing in the rassa anyways. Fresher coconut will lead to a sweeter more fresher curry. Using dried coconut allows to add an earthy balance to other bright flavors from the ginger and tomato. Hence we use a finely ground coconut powder or flour that we get here. We add it to the cooked onions and tomatoes and let it sauté over the oil a bit to get slightly toasted adding a layer to the flavors. We then season with salt and grind the mixture to a fine puree. The cloves get ground up during this process releasing the warming oils and the smoky taste and is an essential step to get the unique warmth of this rassa.

We then set some oil in the pan and warm it gently with the red chili powder added. We use the sweeter Kashmiri one since we already use the green chilies. If you prefer it on the hotter side or skipped the green chilies you can add some of the hotter chili powder. We then add the paste and some water and simmer slowly without stirring with the pot covered for 20 to 30 minutes till the oil and water cooks the ingredients thoroughly getting rid of the raw flavors. The oil would start floating to the top but the rassa will go a bit flat as everything gets cooked. This then is the time to refresh the rassa with aromatics of finely chopped cilantro stems, finely chopped raw ginger and a dash of lemon for brightness to balance the flavors.

About boiling eggs

The boiled eggs that you add should not be tough and chewy. Our hint is use good quality eggs, and use old eggs. As we do this towards the end of our grocery cycle this lines up perfectly. Old eggs make great boiled eggs in our opinion. When we do our grocery runs we start the fresh eggs out with scrambles and omelettes and then switch to boiling as eggs get old. We boil our eggs with generous salt added to boiling water, and we boil for 10 to 15 minutes. Then cool them off instantly under running cold water stopping them from cooking further. All of this we find makes the eggs easier to peel as well results in tender boiled egg whites that are not chewy. We don’t cook them much further after adding to the rassa. We don’t think they infuse with flavors or anything and conversely we risk their texture changing.

Serve the anda curry with some chapatis or bhakri and a side salad of cucumbers and onions. It is customary to provide a wedge of lime so the diner can squeeze it on the rassa to season and brighten it up to their liking. This also works really well with simple steamed rice served piping hot. As you eat through it the egg yellow crumbles and melts a bit into the rassa, thickening it and making it creamier and bringing the heat down, thus rewarding you every now and then, with some special spoonfuls of rich deliciousness.

Anda Curry

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• Author: www.BreakingNaan.com
• Total Time: 1 hour
• Yield: Serves 2

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Ingredients

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• 1 or 2 onions finely chopped (approx 1 cup chopped onion)
• 2 tomato’s deseeded and finely chopped (approx 0.5 cup tomato’s)
• 1 green chili chopped
• 0.5 cup dry coconut powder/flour (sub with dessicated unsweetened coconut but texture will be different)
• 2 tsp chopped fresh garlic
• 4 tsp chopped fresh ginger (wash, peel, then cut into thin discs, then into thin strips/juliennes and then chop these into finely chopped pieces)
• 1 cardamom
• 2 cloves
• 4 black peppercorns
• 4 tsp kashmiri red chili powder (this is sweeter colorful variety, reduce to 2 tsp or less if using the hotter red chili powder)
• 2 Tbsp Oil
• salt for seasoning
• 4 tsp finely chopped cilantro stems (very few leaves)
• 2 tsp or more lime juice for seasoning
• 4 hard boiled and peeled eggs

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Instructions

1. Add 1 Tbsp oil in the pan and set on medium heat till it heats up
2. Add the cardamom, cloves, black pepper and heat them in the oil. The cloves should starts puffing up in the oil, but do not burn the spices
3. Add the onions and sweat them on medium heat till they are cooked
4. Add the garlic and half the finely chopped ginger (2 tsp), green chilies and sautee and stir briefly
5. Add the coconut powder and sautee mixing well, not letting anything stick to the pan. Add a few tea spoons of water at a time if things stick and deglaze the pan
6. then reduce the heat to low, add tomatoes and 1 tsp red chili powder and a few teaspoons of water if needed, and cover the pan with lid and cook for 10 minutes
7. after 10 mins remove the lid and season with little bit of salt and let the mixture cool a bit and then grind to a smooth paste including the whole spices (getting the cloves ground into the paste is essential, you may remove the cardamom if your blender wont handle this)
8. If needed add a tea spoon of water at a time to help blending it smoothly
9. Return the mixture to the pan and add 0.5 cups to 1 cup of water as required, it should not be too thick like a gravy but it should not be thin like water either. It is best to add little water at a time instead of adding a lot and then reducing.
10. Cook uncovered on medium heat for 15 minutes letting it simmer, keep adding little bit of water as needed.
11. Heat 1 tbsp oil in a seperate pan on very low heat and when it warms add the remaining 3 tsp (less if you are using hotter kind) of the kashmiri red chili powder. As the oil warms up gently stir and the oil with start getting color and flavor of the chili powder. (optionally you can add a few pinches of kanda lasun masala or goda masala as well) It is important to not burn the powder so keep the heat low and once the oil starts to infuse turn the heat off and keep the pan to the side as it will continue to infuse
12. In the pan with the egg curry, taste and season it with some salt and adjust the water now for final serving. Then reduce heat to low and add the infused oil on top and do not stir. You can deg-laze the oil pan with some curry and mix it back into the curry pot. Key is to not get a bubbling simmer at this point but just slowly warm the curry
13. Cook for 10 more minutes and the red colored oil on top will get deeper red, at this point season and garnish with the remaining 2 tsp chopped ginger (this late addition does not cook through and retains its ginger flavor and presents itself as a flavor enhancer in one or the other bite refreshing your palate)
14. Also add cilantro and lime juice and give a single quick stir and drop in the boiled eggs if you would like (it is okay to keep boiled eggs pristine white and add to the curry after it goes in the plate. Some people also like to fry the eggs in some spice. Our friend has also suggested to try poaching the eggs in this curry on gentle simmer for a variation)
15. Serve the curry hot in a shallow dish with chapati or rice and a side vegetable salad and provide a wedge of lime for adjusting the seasoning.

• Prep Time: 30 mins
• Cook Time: 30 mins
• Category: Entree
• Cuisine: Indian