Spicy Egg Bake

My hubby D is a good cook, ummmm... actually a pretty good cook. In fact when we got married he was the better cook of the two. Over the years, fuelled by all that competition I honed up my skills and became a decent cook, he on the other hand for lack of competition and reduced kitchen time offered to him, remained at the same level. So though he could have become the Master Chef if he had worked his way up all these years, he is just a very good cook and a very decent helper around the kitchen now. He does get a chance to show his culinary brilliance for Saturday Breakfasts and when we have friends over for dinner. He whips up just one dish, which my friends "oooh" and "aaahhh" over while I sweat and prepare the rest six which they take for granted, that's what friends are for anyway.

I have nothing to complain though because he understands the difference between sauté and fry and cooks up nice meals when given a chance. Whoever said "Bong" guys can't cook, is mostly wrong. It's just that some guys cook and some don't, nothing to do with bengali and non-bengali. But it's a common refrain among bong women that bong men are too pampered and don't know their way around the Kitchen. My Dad is clueless when it comes to cooking and my Ma used to say that "Ghoti" men (i.e bengali folks who are originally from West Bengal) are incompetent cooks while "Bangal" men (i.e. bengali folks whose ancestors trace back to East Bengal) are good at cooking. My hubby being the quintessential "bangal" has lived up to the name :)

So this Spicy Egg Bake is his recipe which he learned from one of our friends. Every time this dish is prepared, he does it, not once have I prepared this, even if friends call up asking for this recipe I put him on line. It's time I thought we put it on paper and you girls (and guys) can go "wow". It’s easy, great to eat and perfect to serve for dinner when you have friends and family over.

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Spicy Egg Bake

What You Need

Eggs ~ We used 12 eggs. Brown or white doesn't matter though I like brown eggs better

For masala
Onion ~ 1 medium
Cilantro or Corriander Leaves ~ 1/2 a bunch . Choose a fresh green aromatic bunch
Green Chillies ~ 8-10
Ginger ~ 1/2"

For Sauce
Heavy Cream ~ 1/2 pint . This dish is always prepared at our home when guests are over for dinner so always heavy cream has been used. Try to use a lighter cream if you prefer, can't gurantee the taste though
Tomato paste ~ 1/2 of a 6oz can of Hunt's tomato paste
Salt

Oil

How He Did It

Make green masla for stuffing
Finely chop 1/2 onion, 5 green chillies and the 1/2 bunch of corriander in chopper or blender to make a green masala

Prepare the Eggs
Boil and shell eggs
Cut in halves length wise
Take out the egg yolks
Mix the egg yolks with the green masala nicely with hand or masher, whatever you are comfortable with, so that it is an uniform paste.

Put back the masala in each egg half in place of the yolk as shown in the above picture. You don't have to over stuff it, some of the masala should remain for latter use

For sauce
Finely chop 1/2 onion, 5 green chillies and the 1/2" of ginger in chopper or blender
Heat Oil in Kadhai/Frying Pan
Add the above onion-chilli-ginger paste and fry till golden
Add the tomato paste and cook till the oil separetes
Add the heavy cream and mix thoroughly. At this point sauce will be pinkish in colour
Bring it to a boil and add the remainder of the yolk & masala mixture (remember the one used for stuffing the eggs).
Add salt and let it simmer at medium heat until the mixture reduces to consistency of a thick sauce
To Bake
Take a baking dish.
Put 2 tbsp of sauce at the bottom
Put the eggs the green side up in a layer. A single layer is preferable. You can do 2 layers if required

Pour the sauce over the eggs in the baking dish, making sure that sauce coats all the eggs well. The sauce would be thick so they wouldn't be dunked in the sauce but uniformly coated with it
Heat Oven to 350F and bake for half an hour or till the top surface of the eggs are carmelized to a nice brown colour

Enjoy the eggs by themselves or with Pulao or Roti. You can be creative about the stuffing and change or experiment with other ingredients too.

Why Corriander Is Good For You

Though Coriander is believed to have originated in the Mediterranean area, and in southwest Europe, both the leaves and seeds of this plant are widely used in Indian cuisine
Coriander has been used as a folk medicine for the relief of anxiety and insomnia in Iranian folk medicine. Experiments in mice support its use as an anxiolytic.
Coriander essential oil showed a delay in E. Coli growth, suggesting possible agricultural anti-bacterial applications.
Coriander seeds have also been used to prepare a traditional diuretic in India . The diuretic is prepared by boiling equal amounts of coriander seeds and cumin seeds. The extract is then cooled and consumed as a diuretic . Source is from wiki
I am sending this dish over this weeks WHB started by lovely Kalyn of Kalyn's Kitchen and this week hosted by Ed of Tomato

Trivia: There is a website I Hate Cilantro which has more than 1200 members all of whom say No to Cilantro