Andhra Egg Roast

Recently, a very close friend invited me over for a casual lunch party. My friend cooks yummy Andhra dishes and her food has a great home-style flavor. The lunch table was decorated with matching table scape, silverware and linen. I was very much pleased and delighted for the time we were spending together. For lunch, she made delicious Andhra Egg Roast, the recipe for which comes from her Mom.

She informs me that this Andhra Egg Roast makes use of lots of garlic pods which are never peeled, plenty of caramelized onion bits with lots of green chillies. Another interesting thing about this dish is its supposed to be an accompaniment to a lentil based dish, the everyday Indian Dal. "The Andhra Egg Roast goes well with Dal," she added. I agreed completely with her. The heat comes from green chillies and she asked me not to add any red chilli powder as the powder affects the texture and alters the taste of the dish. I nodded and made notes and replicated the same in my kitchen.

The result was an out-of-world egg recipe that I'll be making often. I concluded that this recipe is a keeper. Use a non-stick if you are frugal about the amount of oil required to caramelize the onions. 

Andhra Egg Roast
Simple Egg Roast with caramelized onions and whole unpeeled garlic pods

Prep Time: 20 minutes
Cook Time: 30-45 minutes

Ingredients:
Hard boiled eggs (boiled, peeled and long gashes made) - 4

Onions (finely chopped) - 3, medium
Green Chillies (finely chopped) - 2
Garlic pods (unpeeled, lightly crushed) - 8-10

Coriander powder - 2 tsp
Cumin powder - 1 tsp
Turmeric powder - 1/3 tsp

Salt
Sugar
Oil

Method:

Hard boil the eggs. Cool, peel the shell, make four wide long gashes on each egg. Sprinkle salt and turmeric powder on the eggs. Give a good toss and keep aside.

In a skillet, heat some oil. Once the oil is smoking hot, add the chopped green chillies. Saute for a minute and add the onions. The idea here is to get a crispy texture for the green chillies. Caramelize the onions to a brown color. Add oil, if required. Add 1/2 teaspoon of sugar to aid the brown color of caramel. This process takes around 10-15 minutes.

Crush the garlic lightly with a pestle. Once the onions are partially brown, add the garlic pods and saute well. Lower the flame, add the spice powders, adjust salt. The onions and garlic will get an even coating of spice powders, also turning into crispy textured bits. Add the Eggs now, give a good toss. This will take another 15 minutes. 

Cook for couple of minutes and turn off flame. The dish goes well with home made Dal.