Eggs make a solid, remarkable presence in almost every Indian kitchen. My apologies here for being specific with the Indian kitchen. The reason being the wide variety of meals it has to offer with this humble source of protein. Fried eggs- one can find a wide array of recipes from east to west, north to south. If we talk about egg curry every region has a specific blend of spices, thus giving it a distinctive taste. You can quickly whip up a side dish with egg when unexpected guests arrive at meal times or perk up a routine meal. For eggs are the most sustainable, most easily available food that one can store for a couple of days without much care. But they never seem to get their due that they deserve.
Memories of childhood back in hometown when dad would quickly finish sipping his first flush of Darjeeling tea and rush to the market to get freshly cut mutton, for kosha mangsho, a staple Sunday lunch for us. This is a kind of ritual, you will find in every Bengali house where the man of the house goes to the market almost every morning or at least alternate morning to get fresh veggies & fish or meat. But then there would be occasional Sundays when he couldn’t find the fresh fish or meat, then this dimer dalna/egg curry would come to rescue.
Hard-boiled eggs slightly fried in mustard oil to bring that chewy texture; medium size halved potatoes (yes you got it right, potatoes in egg curry, for any Bengali meal is incomplete without potatoes) fried lazily till they get that golden brown hue; a scattering of whole spices, chilies, copious amount of chopped onion, ginger garlic and tomatoes, all fried to perfection, and best of all, a fistful of fresh coriander leaves. The outcome is incredibly superb, without much fuss. We usually like this curry with rice or chapati but nowadays we often have it with red lentil dosa to make it a complete SCD meal and it tastes equally good.
I often cook this curry, but now potatoes don’t go in the gravy, for it is supposed to be SCD friendly meal, but still, we both relish it with the same gusto as we did in our childhood. Not sure about kids, for they don’t have any food memories; hopefully I’ll be able to make some for them on the way!
