June 6, 2008

Assamese poached egg curry and two awards!


Blogging is such a great platform to expand the range of your culinary knowledge. All these events in the blogosphere encourage me a lot to try my hands at the multitude of unexplored areas and cuisines in the world. I should say that I had never thought of trying out a lot of the regional cuisines of even my homeland India. The RCI- North Eastern Cuisine event at Bhags Crazy curry made me do just that! I chose an Assamese poached egg curry as my entry to the event (tried to play it safe with eggs). But unfortunately, just before posting I double checked and my as luck would have it, Assamese cuisine is not included!! Anyways, back to the dish, I had no idea of how the finished curry would look like, since the cookbook didnt have a picture of the final dish. I was sceptical of how the curry would turn out but crossed my fingers and somewhat boldly ventured into a wide world where I had never gone before. I was not disppointed and the dish was not THAT different from the curries that I was used to. The differences were using fenugreek seeds as such in the egg curry, and also poaching the eggs on a bed of potatoes. This again has shown me that I need not be afraid of the recipes I am not familiar with, but should embrace it! Anyways, try out the recipe if you would like a change from the routine curries that you make. I am posting the recipe with the change in the ingredients measurement ( I only prepared 1/3 the recipe). Hope everyone likes it!

Morals of the story: Dont be afraid of unfamiliar cuisines, embrace it and experiment! Read the event details thoroughly before choosing the dish! :-)


Recipe (Serves 2):

Eggs - 2
All-purpose potatoes - 1 medium
Mustard oil - 2 tsp
Cumin seeds - 1/4 tsp
Fenugreek seeds - 1/4 tsp
Minced onions - 1/3 cup
Garlic - 1 medium clove, smashed
Ginger root - 3/4 tsp, minced
Serranos (green chillies) - 1/2 tsp
Coriander powder - 1 tsp
Turmeric powder - 1/4 tsp
Salt - to taste
Water - 1/2 cup
Cayenne pepper/ Red chilly powder - 1/4 tsp

Method:

Peel the potatoes and slice crosswise into 1/2" thick discs. Set aside in a bowl of water.

In a shallow sauce pan, heat oil over medium-high heat until just beginning to smoke.

Remove from heat and let cool for a minute.

Return to medium heat and add cumin.

Saute for 20 seconds and add fenugreek and saute for 10 seconds.

Add onions and saute for a few minutes.

Add garlic, ginger and chillies and saute until the onions are golden.

Reduce the heat to medium-low if the mixture begins to burn before the onions are golden.

Add coriander and turmeric and stir until fragrant.

Pour water and add salt and return to a gentle boil.

Drain the potatoes and layer in the pan, making sure that they are covered with liquid.

Cover and cook until the potatoes are tender.

Break the eggs carefully over the top of potatoes.

Again, cover and cook until the eggs are set.

Sprinkle cayenne/red chilly powder on top.

Serve over rice.

Source: Complete book of Indian Cooking by Suneeta Vaswani.

Tips:
  1. I used Golden Yukon potatoes.
  2. The mustard oil is heated and cooled because it has an element toxic to some people. Heating it to smoking point neutralizes this and makes it safe for cooking. (Courtesy: The original cookbook). I just used vegetable oil, and skipped the heating-cooling step.

I also have a few smiles to share! I recieved the Nice Matters award and my first "Good Chat Blog" award from EC of Simple Indian food. I really apprecaite your gesture EC, and thanks a lot for thinking about me while passing the smiles! I am so happy received these awards, one of them a first for me! Eventhough we really have not chatted a lot, I love the short but sweet comments that she leaves on my blog, and I just love taking part in the fantastic events that she comes up with! Thanks again EC! Both of them are coming back right at you!


I would like to pass on the Nice Matters awards to


Maheswari of Beyond the Usual
Cham of Spice-club
Jai and Bee of Jugalbandi
Rachel of Tangerine's kitchen
Srivalli of Cooking 4 all seasons
Suma of Suma's cuisine



I would like to pass on the Good Chat Blog award to



Ranji of Ranji's kitchen corner
Bhags of Crazy curry
Sig of Live to eat
Asha of Foodie's hope
Sukanya of Hot n'Sweet bowl

Hope you all would enjoy the awards as much as I did, passing it around! I dedicate mine to all my readers who made my blog deserve these awards!! Have a happy weekend!

PHEW!! Now, THAT was a big post! :-)


27 comments:

Suganya said...

Hi...
Poached eggs curry looks great. Nice presentation. YUM! YUM!. Congrats on ur award and thank u so much for passing one of it to me.

Unknown said...

YUMMO..looks great..Nice presentation.Never tried assamese cuisine before.Thanks a lot for the award.Much appreciated and means a lot coming from you!!

Sum Raj said...

congrats on ur award and thak u soo much for passing to me...so happy to recieve from u...ur poached egg curry looks delicious....nice presented...

bee said...

congratulations. and thank you.

Sig said...

I love the look of that poached egg curry, great plating too... Congrats on the award JZ, and thank you for thinking of me! Hugs!
-Sig

FH said...

Yummy poached egg curry, beautiful presentation!
JZ, you call this a long post? You should check out my old posts at FH, you will faint!:D
Enjoy your award and thank you for giving it to me. Hugs. See you on Monday!:)

Cham said...

Congrats and thanks once again to pass it. I love the poached egg with this curry :)

Finla said...

It looks delicious. Love the picture too.

bha said...

nice poached egg curry....thanks for introducing to an assamese delicacy.....congrats for ur awards...and thanks for mine

notyet100 said...

congrats,..looks new...the recipe...

sunita said...

The curry looks delish...congrats on the awards...

btw, I'm from Assam ;-)...have a great weekend :-)

ranji said...

hi Jz...i am really ignorant when it comes to the eastern side of india....have no clue whats cooking thr...this is very new to me and it looks really delcious and tempting...thanks for sharing:)

ranji said...

and hey congrats on ur awards...u very well deserved it..and thank u so much for pasing it onto me..i really love chatting with u:)

@the_whisk_affair said...

Thanks to each one of you who took time to let me know your thoughts and compliments!

Sukanya, you deserve it, love chatting with you!!

Maheswari, its my pleasure to pass this award on to you! Enjoy!

Suma, thanks for the compliments, and enjoy your award!

Thank bee for visiting my site and once again, its an honor that u accepted the award!

Hugs to u too Sig, you deserve it girl! I just love ur posts! it is a delight getting to know u each passing day!

Hey Asha, it was a long one for me beacuse of multiple award lnks and notifying each person and u know..!!! yeah, i checked ur older posts out and oh boy, arent they long!! A squeeze to u too!

Cham, I love passing around these awards!! :-)You deserve it!

Thanks Happycook! Bhags enjoy ur award! Thanks notyet100, try it out, its very easy!

Hey Sunita, thanks for visiting my blog! its great to know someone from assam, i am coming over to ask u some doubts! :-)

And dear ranji, its a delight chatting with u! great job on CLICK too!!

Uma said...

Egg curry looks great! Congrats on the awards! I just voted for you at Great Cooks Community! Best wishes on winning. Thanks for your lovely wishes for me!

Medhaa said...

very interesting recipe, will try soon. Thanks for sharing. Congrats on the awards

Vani said...

So true in my case too that thanks to blogging & fellow bloggers, I have tried receipes that I otherwise may not have dared to try!Curry looks yum! I haven't come across many poached egg dishes from India. And congrats on your awards!

Srivalli said...

wow..those eggs look very lovely!..congrats on the award..and thanks for thinking of me!

Rachel said...

Though not included in the event..we still got to see it....

Cogrts on the awards and thanks for passing it on the second time :DD

Anonymous said...

Congrats on ur awards.The plate is inviting.......Thanks for sharing.Have a great weekend.

delhibelle said...

such a nice and unusual dish..thanks for sharing & glad that u stuck to the recipe:)

@the_whisk_affair said...

Thanks Uma, Medhaa, Vani, Srivalli, Rachel, sireesha and Delhibelle!

Heart felt thanks for voting for me on GCC, Uma. Unfortunately I didnt win! :-)But thanks a trillion for all ur support!! :-)I really appreciate it..

Shubha Ravikoti said...

Congrats on ur award JZ... check my blog.. u have more waiting there...:P

Siri said...

poached eggs are my fav JZ. and the curry looks yummo.

Reg ur query about OS 2, a vegetarian recipe is preferred, our being a vegetarian one.

Hugs,
Siri

Sujatha said...

Assamese cuisine is very new to me.. Looks delicious.

Sangeeth said...

congrats on ur award dear.....

@the_whisk_affair said...

Thanks a lot Shubha, Siri, Sujatha and Sangeeth!!