Tuesday, March 10, 2009

Andhra Scrambled Eggs with Hot Chile Oil Paste

I read Mangoes and Curry Leaves when I received it a few years ago, and it’s a beautiful, informative, well-crafted book. I also have Alford and Duguid’s equally gorgeous, newer book, Beyond the Great Wall, and it’s sitting in my to-read stack. Their books are part travel memoirs, but they are mostly in-depth looks at completely authentic regional foods. Despite having enjoyed reading Mangoes and Curry Leaves, I hadn’t cooked anything from it simply because I’m a big, big chicken. I feared failing horribly at my attempts to re-create what looks so incredible in the photos, and sub-continent cuisine is not my forte. I do wish to learn though, and there’s only one way to do that. So, what we have here today is the first item I cautiously attempted, and Kurt even more cautiously tasted. He knows when there’s a good chance we’ll have a failure on our hands, and he was rightly concerned when I announced I was going to make Andhra scrambled eggs.

The introduction to this recipe explains that these eggs are like ones author Jeffrey Alford had at a tea shop in rural Andhra Pradesh which is a day’s drive north of Chennai (Madras). To make the eggs, they were whisked in a bowl with some salt while sesame oil was heated in a large skillet. Minced garlic and ginger, chopped shallots and chiles, and turmeric were added. The chiles specified here were cayenne which I can never find in local grocery stores, although I did receive a few in a CSA pick-up last summer. I used serranos instead. Those ingredients were stir-fried in the sesame oil for a couple of minutes before chopped tomato was added. After another couple of minutes the eggs were added and stirred about to mix everything together. Once just barely set, the eggs were transferred to plates and topped with chopped cilantro leaves.

I was feeling a little cocky since this was just a simple egg dish, so I went ahead and made the hot chile oil paste from the front of the book as well. This involved chopping ginger, garlic, and dried red chiles in a food processor and then placing that in a heat-proof bowl. Minced scallions were added to that bowl. Then, vegetable oil was heated in a skillet until almost smoking, it was poured over the mixture in the bowl, and it was allowed to cool. I poured this cooled mixture into a jar with an air-tight lid, and it will last in the refrigerator for up to one month. I’m looking forward to using it as a condiment on all kinds of things like grilled chicken or fish, maybe a dollop on some soup, and maybe even use some on plain scrambled eggs. For the Andhra scrambled eggs, it was an added punch to an already very flavorful dish, but we used a little anyway.

And, the result? Satisfactory all around. Kurt was pleasantly surprised with the level of success achieved here and quite enjoyed the dish. I may have worked up enough confidence to attempt some other things. I’ll have to remember to plan ahead and allow plenty of time for tracking down some ingredients like curry leaves, but I’m looking forward to learning more and experiencing more of the food described in the book.



22 comments:

  1. This looks just fabulous. I hope you ate it for dinner, I love eggs for dinner.

    Way to go on not totally chickening out. At my house we dissuade such by imparting the following: if the food is terrible, your only punishment is having to buy a pizza.

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  2. Sounds really spicy! Eggs are good conduits for flavors like that. They can really hold up.

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  3. that sounds amazingly delicious! i just adore scrambled egg dishes - especially ones with a little heat :)

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  4. OMG! This looks totally delisioso. I'll definitely give this one a try. I love cilantro in almost everything! Great job on the pictures too. I wish I could get shots like that but I just have a run-of-the-mill digital camera, which doesn't deliver the crispness. Then again, it could just be me.

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  5. Eggs are so underrated - especially when prepared like this! What did you serve them with?

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  6. Wonderful combo of flavors. Looks and sound fabulous

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  7. This looks very lovely! I have to have a look at that cookbook myself! Sounds great! I love eggs, any eggs, so I am sure I'm gonna enjoy this one as well!

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  8. These scrambled eggs sound so wonderfully spicy and delicious! This is something my husband would really love as he loves everything extra-spicy.

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  9. Oh my! Your scramble egg is fabulous, I like spicy food and your picture make me drooling! I will add to my to-cook-list!

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  10. that hot chile oil paste is beautiful! these truly have the potential to be the finest scrambled eggs of all time. period.

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  11. Those are gorgeous! I love eggs, and these are extra-special!

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  12. Oooh, this would be divine with some nice flatbread alongside.

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  13. Scrambled eggs with a twist! Interesting! Luv this creation. Must be very delicious!

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  14. That looks so good. The hot chile oil paste sounds awesome! Thanks for sharing.

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  15. 1. I love finding new cookbooks. Thanks for the review. One of my favorites is Rick Stein's French Odyssey because it is part travel memoir part cookbook like you talk about, so I'm sure I would love those books.

    2. Those eggs look ridiculously good. I just got back from Santa Fe two weeks ago where I had huevos rancheros and have been craving the spicy egg combo ever since!

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  16. great idea, sounds spicy and flavorful!

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  17. This looks and sounds scrummy! You made such a simple scrambled egg dish so amazing.

    Head over to my blog as I have something waiting for you =)

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  18. Like so many people here, I love eggs in general and scrambled eggs in particular. This sounds like a great way to dress them up for dinner. I am just recently getting into spicy eggs.

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  19. These scrambled eggs sound really tasty!

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  20. Lots of people say they want to eat at my house, but they would be following me to your house instead. Your food and photos rock!

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  21. If u are in the US, you can try out the PATEL BROTHERS, You would get all your Indian stuff there...including vegetables too..

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