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! :-)