My kitchen sees a lot of activity during the week, especially on Sundays when there’s something special bubbling over the fire or baking in the oven. Mostly it is the day’s lunch menu. In preparation of this day we try to keep our Saturdays simple – mostly with leftover food making its appearance on the dinner table. While we do have two days a week that are kept aside for this purpose, Saturdays are usually those when a really simple meal is eaten for lunch at least.
I have been longing to make a simple egg side dish for ages. Especially the egg roast because I have very fond memories of eating a particularly delicious egg roast side dish at a small eatery across the college premises when I was doing my M.B.A at Mangalore University, Konaje. There were two very simple households that served afternoon meals to the students to make their two ends meet. One was Gulabi akka who made some mean fried sardines that we would relish with some piping hot boiled rice and curry. She was rather poor and had just a couple of benches that would seat a few students for a meal, so most of us would throng the house of her neighbour who had a slightly bigger setup. A few more long benches and tables that were happy to cram a handful of students for lunch.
The meals were mostly vegetarian with boiled red rice, a vegetable curry, a greens or legume side dish, pickle and papad featuring on a thali accompanied by a nice steel tumbler of cool buttermilk. On days when the hard core non-vegetarian in me used to get stifled by the display of pure veg food I would order the egg roast. A beautifully browned whole hard boiled egg in an awesome thick masala served in a small steel bowl would satiate my senses. Sometimes two of us would share one egg and many a times a few of us who reached during closing time would fight over the last few eggs. Unlike Gulabiakka this family did not prepare fish, so the egg roast was a blessing for those who fainted at the sight of a pure veg meal. Those were the best meals of my life – simple, delicious and satisfying. What’s more, they were budget meals.
Since then I have tried high and low to find a recipe that would help me revive those memories. I have tried to recreate the taste in this recipe, this is the closest I could get!
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About this dish
This is dead simple recipe, nothing fancy at all. Perfect for bachelors and those who have little time on their hands to cook something decent, tasty and nutritious on a busy day. If you require more masala I suggest you increase the number of onions and adjust the spice accordingly as fried/browned onions tend to taste sweet. You may add a chopped tomato instead of lime juice – this will give you extra masala but the end result will be totally different – nothing close to what I wanted to achieve, but go ahead and get experimental!
Click the image below to save this recipe on Pinterest!
Ingredients
- 4 hard boiled eggs shelled & halved
- 1 sprig curry leaves
- 1 large onion see notes
- juice of half a lime
- 3 tablespoons oil or ghee for frying
- 1 tablespoon chopped coriander leaves for garnishing optional
For the marination
- 2 teaspoons coriander powder
- 1 teaspoon red chilly powder adjust to taste *see notes
- 1/2 teaspoon cumin powder
- 1/2 teaspoon pepper powder
- a pinch of turmeric powder
- salt to taste approx 1 level teaspoon
Instructions
- Place all ingredients mentioned under 'For the marination' in a bowl, add a little water to make a thick paste. Marinate all the hard boiled egg halves with this paste and keep aside for a 5 minutes.
- Heat oil or ghee in a wide based frying pan and toss in the curry leaves. Fry for a couple of seconds and then add the chopped onions and fry until they turn golden brown.
- Place the marinated egg halves and fry on a very slow flame for about 8-10 minutes, flipping the sides halfway through the frying time. Sprinkle a little water to help the masala to fry. Adjust seasoning if required.
- When the eggs have browned on both sides sprinkle lime juice and give it a gentle mix. Garnish with chopped coriander leaves and serve hot as a side dish with rice and dal.
Notes
- You can use 1 large onion or 2 smalls ones . Please scale accordingly if you increase the quantity
- Since I used Kashmiri chilly powder I also added pepper powder to the marinade. If you are using a spicy variety of chilly powder, you can reduce the quantity according to taste and/or skip the pepper powder. You may even use Bafat masala powder instead of red chilly powder
- You may use 1 medium sized tomato instead of lime juice - it will help you get some extra masala, however the overall taste will change. Instead add an extra onion and adjust the spices as fried/browned onions tend to taste sweetish.
Disclaimer
The nutritional values are only indicative.
Tried this recipe?Please leave a comment & rate the recipe below or share a photo on Instagram and tag me @ruchikrandhap
Recipe adapted from here
Delicious and lovely egg roas.
Deepa
Oh Shireen, I remember Gulabi Akka too. Though I would visit Ramanna's canteen, for bonda neer it was Gulabi Akka's place. We even used to sing a song for her which went Gulabi akka gulabi akka, Gulabi akka subanalla (sing in bade miya tho bade miya chote miya subanalla).
My all time favorite… 🙂
Wow you got my mouth watering Shireen……its amazing the tastes and flavours produced in small joints and tapris..not sure what they do but food is always delicious… Im sure your recipe will be equally good…..picts look really tempting!
looks very delicious and inviting..
Spill the Spices
Memories of student days brought a wonderful recipe here…..bookmarked….
Super tempting egg roast,drooling here.
Super yummy roasted eggs..
I love eggs in any form. This seems delicious. The browning of the eggs would only add to the taste.
what a beautifully written post. nostalgia and awesome food! 🙂
A lovely post that bought back some memories of my college days as well and a great recipe!
Hi Shireen, got home late on the saturday evening and with the lil 'un cranky ( she's teething) was in no mood to get a proper meal together. I saw this recipe and made it and it was absolutely brilliant !!! went down well with the hubby too and the lil'un had the boiled egg before the masala's went on it. LOVED IT and THANK YOU !! ( p.s: Added some tomatoes and a chopped capsicum/ pepper). The pepper adds a nice texture to the masala.
Hi Shireen, I read ur blog and it is fantastic. I tried this recipie,added tomatoes and coriander and we were literally licking our fingers.good job on the blog.
HI Beatle! Thanks a ton for trying the recipe and I am so glad to know that you enjoyed it. The tomatoes & coriander sounds great!! Happy cooking!
Out here 6 years later and this recipe is still
Still?
Egglicious!! Loved it.
Thank you so much for the great feedback!
I grew up in Southern Bangladesh and one of my favorites was always a red egg with whatever spicy curry we were enjoying for lunch. I make it all the time now with curry for my family here in the US. it is simply a hard boiled egg stir fried in a little oil, garlic powder, turmeric, salt and you can add red pepper if you like, but since my curry is usually pretty spicy we use the egg as a cooling system. Stir fry in the pan for just a few minutes in medium heat until the egg turns a golden reddish orange. So yummy! But now I will have to try your recipe for a bit of a change! Thanks!
That sounds wonderful! Thank you so much for sharing your beautiful recipe – will definitely give it a try and I hope you enjoy my version too!
Hi Shireen
I like your website very much and have used it a few times.
I want to bring a point to your attention.
When using your Ingredients for this recipe and trying to use your multiplier an error crops up. Check out the onions and you will see what I mean.
Thanks for sharing your passion for cooking with all of us. Our family appreciates your effort for sure’
Trevor
Hi Trevor,
Thank you so much for taking the trouble to inform me about the error. I believe the inaccuracy cropped up because while the ingredients that have been fed into the different fields meant for the purpose do get scaled up, the ingredients mentioned against the description don’t. I will remove that and put them in the notes section and update this recipe again
I am so glad that my website helps you and your family. Thanks again for appreciating my work! It is readers like you who make the effort worthwile 🙂