Dim’er Dalna (Bengali egg curry)

 Best served with Bengali fried bread called “Luchi”, otherwise, white rice and raita are a really good combo as well.

Ingredients (for the egg curry) - serves 3-4 people

- 6 eggs, hard boiled and peeled.  Then if you’re a beginner, take a toothpick and prick small holes in the egg all around, I would say about 10-15 per egg.  If you’re confident with your knife skills, make slits into the eggs, 6 per egg along the length of the egg.  Do not cut too deep otherwise your egg will fall apart.

- One large red onion, thinly sliced or finely chopped up.  The choice of cut depends on the texture of the gravy.  If you want it chunky, use sliced onions, for a smoother gravy use finely chopped.  If you’re unsure of your knife skills you can make an onion paste as well.

- 1 large ripe red tomato diced, seeds and skin and all.  Again, if you want, you can make a tomato paste

-  An inch of ginger and a couple of cloves of garlic, smashed

- Yogurt

- Dry spices: cumin,

- Olive or mustard oil

Preparation

In a wok or a large pan, heat up about a table spoon of olive oil.  Now, coat the eggs in a bit of salt, pepper, and turmeric (and red chili powder, optional).  Once the oil is hot, fry the whole eggs till you get a nice sheen on all sides. Move them around.  If it sits for too long on the pan the skin will start to wrinkle and the texture gets rubbery.  So once you start seeing a golden color, you’re done.  Typically takes about 2-3 minutes.  Take the eggs out and keep aside.

In the same pan, add 2 table spoons of mustard oil (or olive oil).  Before the oil heats up too much and smokes, add the tempering ingredients: bay leaves, cardamom, cinnamon, cumin seeds, and cloves.  If you’re using olive oil, you can throw in some mustard seeds as well.

Fry for a couple of minutes till there is an aroma.  Turn the heat up. Now add the onions.  Remember if you’re using onion paste it will cook a lot faster than chopped or sliced onions.  I prefer sliced onions.  Add a bit of salt and sugar.  Fry for about 2-3 minutes.  Now add the smashed ginger and garlic and continue to fry for 1 more minute.  Remember the garlic can burn easily so you want to keep an eye on it.  Cooking it till the raw smell goes away is enough.  Now add the tomatoes.  The water from the tomatoes will prevent any burning so you don’t need to worry about that anymore.  Make a slurry of the dry spices: cumin powder, coriander powder, red chili powder, turmeric powder, salt, and a bit of hot water.  Add the slurry and fry.  You want the tomatoes to melt away and most of the water to evaporate.  This will take about 5-6 minutes, you’ll have to keep stirring.  Lower the heat and cover.

In the meantime, peel and cut up two big potatoes into 1/8ths or about 1 inch cubes.  Put them in a microwave safe bowl, add a bit of salt, and a couple of spoons of water, cover with cling wrap and microwave for 3 minutes. 

Okay back to the main attraction.  Uncover, stir, and turn the heat up to medium.  Most of the water should have gone by now.  Add 2 heaped table spoons of beaten yogurt and mix thoroughly.  Add the potatoes, graham masala, and the fenugreek.  Stir till everything is coated.  Add the eggs and gently mix.

Now there are two options.  You can keep it as a dry gravy, in which case, lower the heat, cover and let it cook for 5 minutes.

For a lighter gravy for rice, add about 200 ml of water, lower the heat, cover and let it cook for about 7 minutes.

Uncover, sprinkle in roughly chopped cilantro and a bit of ghee and you’re done!