Eggs in a Tomato Curry

Egg curry is nothing fancy!! The same old curry with onions, tomatoes and flavoured with the forever flavourful garam masala, both in the whole and the ground avatar. My husband loves it, my family loves it, I love it....so when I run out of ingredients or ideas, egg curry is always there waiting for me with a relaxed smile on its face to save my day.

Eggs are versatile and we Bengalis just love them. Poached, fried, sunny side up, hard boiled, half boiled, steamed and in curries...we are quite crazy with eggs. Actually we prefer Duck eggs to the chicken, because of their large size and the opaque orange coloured yolk, but since they are hard to come by in the more recent times, and are more expensive than the chicken eggs, more often we try to quench our thirst with chicken eggs. The whiff of fried eggs or omelette with some onions and finely chopped hot green chillies is enough to make us salivate in a public place on broad day light. Sunny side up with a sprinkle of sea salt and freshly ground black pepper is hugely popular in the small tea stalls on the streets. And journey by the train is incomplete for us without a few buy of hard boiled eggs from the vendors. Even during Durga Puja you will find people selling omelette and boiled eggs, sitting in a corner of the street with the bare minimum essentials. So you see we just love eggs.

Baked egg in a tomato is one of my favourites as breakfast with some cheese and crispy toasts, so I was more than eager to see how it turns out in a curry as well.

Eggs in a tomato Curry

Serves 3

Ingredients:

6 ripe medium to large tomatoes (all of the same size)
6 eggs

1 large onion – finely chopped

5 fat garlic cloves – finely chopped / paste

1 inch piece of ginger root – finely chopped / paste

2 green chillies – slit

1 tsp turmeric powder

1 and ½ tsp red chilli powder

1 tsp cumin powder

1 tsp coriander powder

½ tsp garam masala powder

1 medium cinnamon stick

3 green cardamoms

3 cloves

2 bay leaves

1 tbsp mustard oil

2 tbsp white oil

A small bunch of fresh coriander leaves – finely chopped

Salt

1 tsp sugar

Method:

Take the tomatoes and cut off their heads and then with the help of a spoon scoop out the flesh of the tomatoes. Save the flesh for later use. Be careful not to poke any hole on the skin. The tomatoes should now look like a hollow cup. Keep them aside.

In a kadai heat the mustard oil and white oil and add the cinnamon stick, green cardamoms, cloves and bay leaves.

Sauté the whole spices for a minute or until the oil becomes fragrant and then add the garlic paste to the oil. Sauté the garlic until they become lightly brown and then add the chopped onions to them.

Add a sprinkle of sugar and salt and cook the onions until they become golden brown.

Add the previously saved scooped out tomato flesh to the cooked onions and cook until the tomatoes become pulpy and the oil starts to separate.

Add ginger and cook for a minute.

Finally add the turmeric powder, red chilli powder, cumin powder and coriander powder and mix and cook the spices for a minute or two or until their smell is completely faded away.

Add a little water and cook the curry until it becomes thick. Do this process two to three times more, so that the onions can become soft and mushy to give the curry a smooth texture.

When the curry becomes pulpy and smooth in texture, add 1 and ½ cup of water to them and simmer on medium flame.

In the mean time take the tomatoes and season the inside of the tomatoes with sprinkles of salt.

Now crack open an egg inside the tomatoes and keep them aside.

When the curry has reached a medium thick consistency, taste and adjust the seasonings.

Add the garam masala powder and stir to mix.

Now carefully place the tomatoes inside the curry and cover the kadai.

Cook covered for around 5-6 minutes and then switch off the flame.

Let the curry sit for around 5-6 minutes more and then open the cover.

Sprinkle some chopped coriander leaves on top of the eggs and the tomatoes and serve hot with rice / paratha / chapatti.