Egg Bhurji/Burji (Spiced up Indian Scrambled Egg)

Egg burji often sees our breakfast table on the weekends, especially if my lunch is going to be late or we are going out shopping. This is one of the easiest recipes and  was passed down to me by my dear friend Simi Reji, my husband’s friend’s wife. Several years back, they had stayed over at our place while we were in Portsmouth; some six years or so ago when I didn’t blog and I didn’t really cook great. Wondering what to make for breakfast that day, she told me there is an easy recipe that could be made with very little ingredients and in no time. That was when I was introduced to this humble recipe and I have been making this on a regular basis ever since. They are in America now, but I remember her every time I prepare bhurji.

There are several versions of egg burji, but this is how I prepare, how we like it. This is a straight forward recipe, quite easy to make and a versatile one. You can modify the recipe to your liking and throw in cooked vegetables if you fancy. You can also add little bit of ginger along with onions.  Below given is my usual recipe that I make again and again without any modification. I sometimes opt out capsicum if it is not available and adjust the heat in the bhurji depending on the chilli I use. Reduce the chilli powder if you are going to use hot green chilli. As I use mild chilli powder, I add quite a bit of it. You can play around with the recipe; however, it will taste great.

Egg Bhurji/Burji (Spiced up Indian Scrambled Egg)

Ready in 20 minutes

Serves 3-4

Ingredients:

4-6 large eggs, lightly beaten with a tsp or two of water **

1-2 tbsp oil, coconut oil or vegetable oil

1 large onion, 130g, finely chopped

6-8 curry leaves, finely chopped

1 medium tomato, 120g, finely chopped

¼ piece of green capsicum finely chopped

1-2 green chilli

1-1  ½ tsp mild red chilli powder

½ tsp turmeric powder

a pinch of garam masala

2 tbsp chopped coriander leaves.

Preparation:

1. Heat a medium size non-stick pan to moderate heat and add oil.

2. When hot, throw in chopped onions and salt sauté until it is soft.

3. Add in the chopped curry leaves and green chilli if adding and sauté for a minute.

4. Add tomato and cook it covered until soft.

5. Add in the chopped capsicum and sauté for a minute.

6. Add in chilli powder and turmeric and cook on medium heat until the spices are cooked, for a minute or two.

7. Add the beaten egg and let it cook for 30 seconds or so until it starts cooking. Keep stirring, scrambling the egg until it is cooked to preferred consistency. Add a good pinch of garam masala on top and add coriander leaves and mix well.

Serve hot with Toasted bread.

Notes:

I add water while whisking eggs to prevent the burji going really dry. By adding water, you get burji that is slightly wet or not rubbery. But you can opt it out if you like your bhurji to be really dry.

Bull’s eye in Coconut Gravy/ Bull’s eye Curry

I love the fact that the seasons here can be clearlyly distinguished by changes in the weather and surroundings rather than looking up the calendar. It’s raining cats and dogs today here and the husband is away for a five day course. I had my mind all set up for a healthy regime; I thought I kick will start my walking routine along the beach and have some solitary time for myself. Then it comes, the rain, the wind and the cold weather that toppled up all my plans. I was stuck at home, thought I will sit and do some blogging and share a recipe that I make again and again.

This egg curry is simple by all means. It uses less ingredients and is quite a mild curry. It is also made slightly in an unusual way where raw eggs are added directly to the gravy and slowly cooked, rather than adding boiled eggs. Eggs are poached in the curry until well cooked and smothered in gravy. I normally serve it along with Nool puttu/idi appam/ string hoppers, bread, Ari dosa etc. You can also add boiled eggs instead and add potatoes and cook it before adding eggs too.

Bull’s eye in coconut Gravy/ Bull’s eye curry

Preparation time 10 minutes

Cooking time 20-30 minutes

Ingredients:

5 Eggs

2 Tbsp coconut/vegetable oil

3/4 tsp mustard seeds

2 twigs curry leaves

3-4 green chillies slit lengthwise

2 large onions sliced (2 cups)

1 tsp grated ginger

1 tsp grated garlic (optional)

½ tsp turmeric

1 large tomato

2 ½ cups thick coconut milk

¼ tsp garam masala

Preparations:

1.Place a medium saucepan on medium heat and add oil. When hot, splutter mustard seeds.

2. Add in curry leaves and green chillies and cook them for few seconds.

3. Throw in the sliced onions, cover and cook till golden.

4. Add in grated ginger and garlic, sauté until the raw smell goes off.

5. Add turmeric powder and sauté for a minute.

6. Lower the heat and pour in the coconut milk and add chopped tomato.

7. When small bubbles started appearing on the sides or the curry starts steaming, break eggs,pour gently onto 5 different spots holding the egg very close to the gravy. Do it gently so that the egg yolk doesn’t break. Cover the pan and cook for 5 minutes on low- medium heat. Do not boil and do not stir once the egg is added as it will scramble up the eggs.

8. Once the eggs are cooked, sprinkle on the garam masala and few curry leaves and gently swirl the pan. Serve with plain bread, appams, idi appams etc.

Mutta Roast/ Egg Roast (A simple Kerala Style Egg Curry)

Ramadan Mubarak to all out there. Blessed Ramadan is here and I was mentally getting prepared to fast the long days of not-so-warm England. Unlike in India or UAE where I grew up and spend my childhood, fasting days are very much longer here. Fasting starts at  (Suhoor) 3:53 am to be precise during the beginning of Ramadan and Iftar is at 8:53 pm. And mental preparation is what is needed mostly to keep me going. The thought of early Iftar we used to have back in UAE and India would make me feel  hungry I guess!! At least the weather is really good, so I shouldn’t be complaining and I take it as a positive perspective. So when it comes to the eating period, there isn’t much of a time. No sufficient time to have both snacks and the main dinner that we normally devour during Ramadan. During this Ramadan, we are thinking of breaking fast with lots of fresh fruit and then carry on to main dinner later on, so mostly no snacks this time, until I crave for something so traditional. And all craving peaks when you fast and you are really hungry.If you would like to read more on Ramadan and other great articles, please visit Islamgreatreligion.

Anyways, this is one post that I intended to post many a days back, but kept me aloof purely out of laziness. This is not a post related to Ramadan by any means, but something that I prepare regularly as a break from non-veg curries. I came across this recipe from Maria’s blog long back and have been making it ever since with slight modification with regards to spices and consistency to suit my family. I used to prepare chicken, mutton and beef exactly in same manner, but never I thought I could prepare that way with eggs too. Simple yet spicy, this scurry goes well with anything – Appam, paratta, chappaatti, poori, battura, pathiri etc etc.

Mutta Roast / Egg Roast (A Simple Kerala Egg Gravy)

Serves 3-4

Ingredients:

4-5 hardboiled eggs
3 medium size onions thinly sliced (2 1/2 cups)

1 large tomato, chopped (120g, ½ heaped cup)

1 TBSP minced ginger

1 TBSP minced garlic

2 green Chillies

2 tsp paprika

1 tsp Red chilli powder

2 tsp coriander powder

¼ tsp turmeric powder

3 Tbsp cooking oil

¼ - ¾ cup water (Add water depending on how thick or thin you like your gravy)

2 twigs curry leaves

4 tbsp coconut milk powder

½ cup hot water

Salt – as required

½ tsp Garam masala

Preparation:

1.Heat a sauce pan and add oil. When hot, Add sliced onions, slit chillies, one twig of curry leaves and salt and sauté on medium flame for about 15-20 minutes or until onion turns golden in colour.

2. Add ginger and garlic and sauté for 2 minutes, on low-medium heat.

3. Add in chopped tomatoes, cover and cook for few minutes until tomatoes turn soft and mushy.

4. Add coriander powder, paprika powder, chilli powder and turmeric powder and stir well to combine.

5. Add ½ - ¾ cup water; cover and cook for 8-10 minutes

6 Make coconut milk by mixing coconut milk powder with hot water and add it to the curry along with boiled eggs. Add another twig of curry leaf and garam masala. Cover and swirl the pan carefully.

Bring to boil, reduce the heat and cook for further 2 minutes.

Notes:

1.In the recipe you can see that I have used paprika. You can add just regular chilli powder or kashmiri chilli powder and add or decrease as per your liking. Here, I wanted colour and less heat. So I added more paprika and less chilli powder.

2. If you don't like the coconuty taste, just add water and still it would be perfect. You can avoid adding water at all at this stage, if you want your gravy to be really thick.

3. I normally add the eggs as whole by making deep slits on them to allow masala to permeate through. When you add halved eggs, the yolks seperate and get mushed up i n the gravy. It is upto your taste, how you like it to be.

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This Curry goes to 'Show Me Your Curry' event HOsted by Divya of 'Dil Se'.