August 25, 2008

Masala Eggs...

Where to begin?
The laziness that comes from idling away days seeps into the act of blogging too. In the last few weeks, every time I faced a delectable food made by someone, words would stream into my head to share it here, thinking how best to present it, how to photograph it, how to describe it, how to simplify the recipe... well, I didn't do anything at that time since my hands were full with a hyperactive baby and now only the memory of how much I enjoyed it remains.:)

Let me start with the simplest recipe that I encountered.

One of the first things as a bride after the wedding is to visit aunts and uncles as the demure(!!!!)spouse and politely eat whatever is placed in front of you.
No excuses of being full or just having had tea,lunch etc will ring true and rescue you.
I did my fair share of this sometimes fun, sometimes-a-chore ritual a long time ago. After our wedding, we drove down to the town/"naadu"/village for a day full of social visits. We visited a lot of my better half's relatives on his father and mother's side in that one day and ate and drank from many houses. Having to remember all the relatives that were newly introduced to me proved impossible and stressful for me. Hence I tried to remember each relative by what food I ate from there..... K's eggs, A's Unnakaay, Ammai's Neipathal...and so on. Though now I am better acquainted with the people, we still refer to each relative by their specialty foods when we want to clarify who we are talking about.:)

Some food get gulped down and some you relish. One of them that I loved and recalled easily were these Masala eggs. They are too simple to be called a delicacy and yet, they are yummy to me. They are hard boiled eggs marinated in a semi-watery paste of red chili powder, turmeric and salt and then deep fried. It could be shallow fried too. That's the recipe itself. How much of each is up to you. The exterior is crisp and spicy to counter the blandness of the eggs. Could pass off as a snack or a side dish too.



In the flurry of visits to multiple aunt/uncle houses at that time, I did manage to confuse the actual house that I ate these eggs in and for the longest time, I thought my better half's grandmother made this. So at this vacation, while I tried to get the recipe from His Grandmother, I was ribbed and set straight by his aunt K who is the actual author of this recipe. Apparently she made it in a hurry when we visited her, as an instant snack/"palaharam" with tea. :) And here I was thinking I finally know everybody!!

Later in the vacation, when we went over to her house for a dinner, we were served these masala eggs with a lot of teasing and hearty story telling. There was an array of other good food..but these...for me, they still ruled..still had the same taste and texture. Needless to say, only politeness prevented me from overeating.:)

Side Note:

The only time I have used these in a recipe is as a garnish for Egg Biryani. Mishmash makes eggs as a garnish for her Egg Biryani. She uses a different masala but when I made her egg biryani, I used this red chili-turmeric-salt as the marinade and it was great.
So try these as your next appetizer and see.

22 comments:

Mishmash ! said...

ohh...so deep frying is the malabari part...i liked that part :) Infact I think it was in Sandeepa's blog that i first noticed such a masala egg and later found the recipe for the same in ummi abdulla's book.....but i dont remember if ms. adbulla does deep or shallow frying...

Very beautiful post....:)

anudivya said...

They look great. I remember having these in a friend's place, and having tried to replicate it without any luck. Will try it sometime.

amna said...

deep fried eggs? hmmmm this will have to wait :) but great to have you back. i was on a mini break too and just got back yesterday!

Anonymous said...

ah!!!nic to hav u back blogging..
gud to read ur salkaram escapades ...
this must be the easiest/laziest recipe u hav posted ;)
urs
ki

Sands | കരിങ്കല്ല് said...

mouth is watering! :(

Shah cooks said...

Shn, well, it could be deep fried or shallow fried.. enough oil to cook the masalas on the outside.
ur egg biryani was the one which set me off on it again this year.

Divya, Sometimes the simplest recipes look too complicated if we didn't know the ingredients.:)

NAgs.. doesn't have to be deep fried.. u could shallow fry..still holding up as a vegetarian?

ki,laziest.. well yeah, this would definitely qualify as that!!

Sands, thnaks!! try them.

SAJITHA said...

This is similar to one of my fav recipes theat my muthumma makes, she does it slightly differently though.she first shallow fries the boiled eggs so that they have a nice crispy coating ,removes them then heats a tblsp of coconut oil, adds a few curry leaves, quite a bit of chilli pdr, and a pinch of garam masala and then immediately toss in the fried eggs.fry for a few moments. the spices stick on evenly and u have a a nice crispy crust.. she used to serve them with idiappam and coconut milk...still one of my fave breakfasts....i think frying the eggs first makes the spices stick on better...u have me drooling here shaheen..its the simplest thing but i am too lazy to go and make it....

Bharathy said...

Nice to see you back!..:)
Well written post!..
Love the easy tasty masala eggs!

Hmm..I am still lazing around :(

bee said...

imagine going to a strict vegetarian brahmin household and saying: "i remember you make the best beef fry. may i have the recipe?" lol.

Chandrika said...

My mom makes these masala eggs and I am a huge fan of them! Thanks for sharing...

Shah cooks said...

bee, is that something u did?

Shah cooks said...

sajitha.. thanks for taking time to write so much. i will surely try ur way and add it to my post.

Shah cooks said...

bharathy.. still madi?

chandrika, so u are familiar with this..are u back here?

Solai Chidambaram said...

Mallu girl.You returned back from Kerala with all sweet memories and a few pounds more.Egg fry looks awesome

Indian Khana said...

Ahh nice reading your writeup :)..my sis make this too..and shallow fry this...and Yes I just love this masala egg too..:)

J said...

Nice post...:) Fried masala eggs is so simple, I'd love it!

Anonymous said...

They look wonderful, S, and I loved the story :)

lubnakarim06 said...

Ramadan Mubarak to u. Came here from blogs of intrest. U have a nice blog and egg fry looks awesome.

Rachel said...

Oohh I was gulping all the sweets that they give the newly weds first.and I was one who hated sweets..so gulping it was all the way!!!

Deep fried eggs as a snack....we do a similar version with puttu

Shah cooks said...

jyo, how come no posts recently? enjoying the summer?

linda, :)) now u know a little bit about us crazy people.

rachel, gulping sweets.. ooh that's a toughie if you don't like sweets.:)

Kitchen flavors, welcome and Ramazan mubarak to you too.

syeda said...

Ramzan Mubarak! very good blog,must try out egg biryani!never tried that out

Anonymous said...

This is a great dish...it was a staple on my sister's table as my brother in law loved. Incredibly tasty. Thanks for reminding em of a yummy, easy recipe.
I didn't know they could be deep
fried.