Simple egg curry recipe (Dim'er jhol)

This one takes a little time, and there are a few steps to it.

The other night, I was a bit hangry, and decided to blow some steam off by reverse-engineering one of my mum's curries. It was pretty delicious, but when I later spoke to my mum, she pointed out a minor few differences in what I'd made vs. her version.

As usual, I'm making a meal for two (two big meals by my standards for just one person).

What you'll need (costs included where possible)

• 6 eggs (I get 6 Happy Eggs for £1, a real steal) cost: £1
• A large potato (about 500g, however much you want, really) cost: under £1
• Two dried chillies OR three fresh, birds eye chillies (optional) costs negligible
• A spice mix (see below) costs negligible
• Oil, water, salt, pepper, chilli powder (optional) and turmeric costs negligible
• A stock pot (optional) cost: £0.25
• A large tomato (you could just use passata/puree, but I went with the original) cost: ~£0.17
• A red onion (£0.79 per kg, I only used one of about 250g) effective cost £0.20
• Garlic £1 for three bulbs (I used one in full) effective cost: £0.33
• A stick of ginger (you'll only need a small amount) effective cost: ~£0.33
• Coriander (again, you only need a small amount) costs £0.89 per 25g

TOTAL = £3.50 (I'm being very harsh with the upper estimates. The dish should --in reality-- be well under this number)

The spice mix

I'd highly recommend keeping some turmeric handy. It's a nice little spice which is found in many dishes. It's good for you, too.
As for the main spice, I use my mum's homemade spice. I'll walk you through the best substitutes:

• Cumin powder
• Black pepper powder
• Coriander powder
• Bay leaf powder
• Red chilli powder

You only really need the cumin powder, but the more spices you have from that list, the better this'll be. Garam masala is another alternative, but it changes the curry completely. Mix your spices thoroughly with a pinch of salt before you start.

Optional: some people add an Indian five-spice mix known as "paanch phoron" right at the beginning, but I'm leaving it out. I'd imagine it's be hard to find

What to do

• Salt some water, and hard-boil the eggs.
• Skin and cut up your potato into 1" chunks. Finely dice half your onion, and slice the other half. Smash up your garlic, and cut your ginger into small sticks.
• When the eggs are boiled, peel them and carefully poke little holes into the whites (don't break through to the yolk!)
• In a bowl, place your eggs and potatoes. Drizzle a small amount of oil on top, sprinkle a quarter of your spice mix on, along with salt, pepper, and turmeric. Carefully mix the contents of the bowl.
• In a pan, add some oil and start a medium heat.
• If using dried chillies, place them into the pan now.
• When the oil is hot enough, pick out your eggs and place them into the pan. We're going to make them all nice, chunky, and golden on the outside (a bit of colour is all we really need).
• Toss in your diced onions after five minutes. Turn the eggs every two minutes onto a new side (use the edges of your pan to help you).
• Add your garlic and ginger to the pan. Add a bit of salt, and place the potatoes into the centre of the pan, with the eggs spread around the sides. Sprinkle a small amount of your spice mix and your chilli powder (if you want any) at this stage.
• On the side, put some water to warm. Crush up your tomato. Have a sip of a tasty beverage. You're doing good!
• Every 5 minutes, give your potatoes and eggs a stir. Add some of your spice mix every time you stir at this stage (no turmeric!).
• Add your tomato bits to the pan along with your sliced onions. Give them all a nice stir, and leave for five minutes.
• Drop your stock pot in, and pour the warm water into the pan if your potatoes are beginning to soften (just up to the top, not covering the food). Give it all a nice stir, cover and leave for 5 minutes or so.
• Lower the heat and carefully lift the lid to check your food. From this point on, keep it covered, stirring every five minutes until you're happy with the potatoes. Add more water, if you need to. Look below for a very important tip.
• When the potatoes are nice and mush between your fingers, you're good to go. Taste and add salt and pepper to taste.
• If using fresh green chillies, slice them and drop them in, the aim is to retain most of the scent. Cut the heat and give it a final stir.
• Right before serving, rip up some coriander and sprinkle the leaves over the food.

Tip

Jhol is the Bengali word for a soupy curry. I like this curry in a much drier form, so I let all the water dry out, leaving me with a fairly ... "chunky"(?) sauce around my potatoes and eggs. My mum does the same thing. For a more traditional "jhol", add more water, and leave it soupy.

Serve with

The four main options:

• Rice (of course, it's an Indian meal -- this is best for the soupy variant, but goes really well with the dry sort, too).
• Ruti/Roti/Chapati/Soft flour tortilla (best with the dry variant, place it in the middle and roll it up, or tear off chunks and eat the curry Indian-style by scooping mouthfuls into the chunks).
• Crusty bread (this is again best with the soupy variant, but as you'll shortly see... I really don't like the soupy variant).
• And finally sandwich-style! (just press some of the curry, sans eggs, between two slices of bread and heat in butter on a pan, you can slice the eggs in, or just have them on the side).

Side dish options:

• Traditionally (far as I know) this is preceded by a small starter of spinach and potatoes, or fried slices of bitter gourd, or even a bitter gourd and potato mash. I'd say this would go with a lot of things.
• Pickled red onions and ginger. If you haven't used all of your onion, make it yourself! In a bowl, add a good amount of malt vinegar, salt, and a pinch of sugar. Finely slice your onion and cut small sticks of ginger out. Drop the onions and ginger in and massage together. I add bits of crushed chillies as well. Lime juice is a great addition for the ginger as well. Keep this in the fridge for about 4 hours. Best to just fill up a jar full of all this stuff and keep it in the fridge forever (well, up to a year sounds about right). Strain your onions, ginger, and/or chilli, and serve on the side.

Pictures!

• Just before serving -- only had 4 eggs left :[
• Nom-time -- crusty bread and pickled red onion slices pictured. The red bits are actually the chillies I used in place of bird's eyes. Poor substitute.

If you decide to make this, have fun and play around with it!