Doi Dim -- Eggs in a Yogurt Sauce

"In the attitude of silence the soul finds the path in a clearer light, and what is elusive and deceptive resolves itself into crystal clearness. Our life is a long and arduous quest after Truth."
Mahatma Gandhi (1869 - 1948)

Today is a rare day. I don't feel like writing anything except the recipe

So enjoy the silence and Doi Dim aka Eggs in a Yogurt Sauce. This is almost like the doi maach recipe and when my Ma made this last year we all loved it.

Doi Dim ~ Eggs in a yogurt sauce

Prep:

Cook 6 eggs so that they are hard-boiled. Then peel them. Score the tip of the eggs and rub them with a little turmeric and salt

Make a paste of about 1 cup of chopped red onion. If your onion paste tends to get bitter fry the onion in a tsp of oil till soft and then make a paste.

Start Cooking:

Heat oil in a Kadhai/Frying Pan

Add the eggs and fry them till they are a nice orange-yellow color. I don't fry them too much because I don't like the skin all crinkled but I do love the gorgeous yellow color the eggs take with all that light frying with turmeric

Take the eggs out with a slotted spoon and keep aside

Season or temper the same hot oil with 2 Green Cardamom/Elaichi, 2 Clove/Laung, 1/2" or less thin stick of cinnamon, a small Bay leaf/tej patta (this is actually whole Garam Masala)

When the spice pops add the Onion paste

Fry with 1/2 tsp of sugar till the onion turns a shade of pinkish brown and you see the oil separating. Remember the onion paste should not burn but should turn a nice shade of lighter brown with tinges of pink. If you are using fried onion paste, this step will be faster. Approx. 5-6 mins.

Meanwhile in a bowl add 1/2 cup of plain thick yogurt, 1 tsp of Ginger paste, 1 tsp of Red chilli powder (adjust according to your taste), pinch of Maida/AP Flour, little Turmeric powder and beat well till the mix is smooth. Note: I feel this dish requires a little heat from the chilli so if you are not using Red chilli powder compensate with hot Indian Green Chilli

Take the Kadhai/Frying pan off the heat and add the beaten yogurt slowly. Mix with the onion paste and return to heat after 30 secs or a minute. At low heat cook the sauce for 3-4 minutes. Note: If you add the yogurt directly when the utensil is on heat the curd may curdle so you need to do this

Add 1/2 - 1 cup of water

Add salt and 4 slit green chillies(hot Indian green chilli)

At low-medium heat let the gravy simmer till it comes to a boil. Let the gravy thicken to your desired consistency

Add the eggs, raise the heat and cook for a couple more minutes

Add sufficient chopped coriander and you are done. While serving you can slice the eggs in halves or let them remain whole


Related egg dishes in my blog

Dim er Dhoka

Spicy Egg Bake

Weekly Menu -- Week of March 29th

I started the weekly menu series and promptly forgot about it. However each week when I have to think what to cook or do grocery for I feel it would be nice to have a menu to resort back to. So I am initiating this series again for my own good. This series will loosely have the dishes cooked for or during the week starting Monday and ending Thursday night and will be updated Friday evening.

I know it will not be updated every week but even once in a while will help me in future to plan a work week menu

Bengali style Mixed Vegetable -- a mixed veggie dish with pumpkin, green beans, some radish and a little potato. Simple, spiced with panchphoron and cooked in Mustard oil

Mushroom Olu -- With a box of mushroom and potatoes this was enough for two meals. Was best with the tortilla that we pack for lunch

Beans with besan -- This was from Delhibelle and brought a nice change to my regular bean sabzi. Added a little potato and was enough for two packed lunches

Masoor Dal -- you cannot go wrong with this. This time around I tempered with Kalonji and not PanchPhoron

Lightly fried bitter gourd -- simple fried bitter gourd.

Chicken -- My neighbor Aunty has just started catering in small amount. When I heard this I promptly ordered some chicken and she sent so much that it sufficed for 4 meals

Doi Dim -- Eggs in Yogurt sauce for one week night dinner

And some paneer for S, stir fried with whatever veggie.

Palak Paneer -- Paneer in a Spinach gravy

Palak Paneer

My elder daughter is a recent convert. I mean she is almost a convert from a non-vegetarian to a vegetarian. She refuses to eat most fish except salmon. She doesn't want to eat meat on two consecutive days.She eats her eggs with no enthusiasm.

In a family like ours, this creates a difficult scenario. All the more because she has gone from a "no-fuss" eater to a somewhat "finicky" eater these days. She doesn't like to have just Dal & Rice or just veggies and rice either. In our family "finicky" eaters are assuaged with an omlette on the side and will eat anything with that option. This doesn't work with S though. She eats her broccoli and carrots with a dip but when served with rice all she wants is Paneer.

Her Didun(my Mom) is party responsible for this. When she was visiting last year and Big Sis S refused to eat fish or meat, my Mom in a mode of panic that the child is not getting any protein took to feeding her Paneer. And not any store bought Paneer either. Every other day my Ma would make a little chhana or chhena(home made paneer) just for her and then she would shape them in small flat discs, fry them to a golden brown and make delicious gravy with them. This is a Bengali favorite and is called "Chhanar Dalna".The homemade paneer is super soft and soaks up the delicious slightly sweet gravy in which it sits, making it anyone's delight.

With Didun back in India, such delicacies are a luxury and though my Ma insists that I could take time out and make some "home made chhana" and chhana'r dalna for Big Sis S, I pretend not to listen and go buy Paneer instead.

Big Sis S has complied and eats this store bought paneer. She has Paneer on most week days and then she takes a Paneer Pualo for lunch almost one day every week. At school when her teacher asked her what she was having for lunch, she figured she didn't know English of Panner and so said it was chicken instead. With Paneer (Indian Cottage Cheese) and a bowl of plain yogurt as the incentive, she pretty much eats all other veggies on her plate.

Everyone has a Palak Paneer recipe and I myself have tried and tweaked several. This tweaked version of the old favorite is the the one I love most. It is nice and creamy and comes with all the goodness of green spinach and white paneer. S too eats it up without a murmur about the greenery.

Palak Paneer

Prep: Cut almost 12 oz of Paneer in small cubes. There were about 28-30 paneer cubes.

The Nanak brand of Paneer I usually buy is pretty soft by my standard and I don't fry them. If your paneer is hard sitting in the refrigerator microwave for a few seconds to make it soft or if your paneer is the tough variety, fry lightly and dunk in salted warm water

Start Cooking:

In a deep bottomed frying pan heat Oil

Add 1 clove of garlic chopped, 4 slit green chillies, 1/2 cup chopped red onion and saute

When the onion is translucent add 1 tomato coarsely chopped

Fry for a couple of minutes till tomato softens

Add 4 cups of blanched baby spinach(I used baby spinach you can also use regular spinach)

Add salt and saute til the spinach wilts and softens

Cool the above mix and make a paste in the blender. Do not add water while doing this. This is referred to as the spinach puree and used in a later step

Heat a little Oil in the pan

Add 1 tsp of Whole Cumin Seeds/Jeera

When the spice pops add 1/4 cup of chopped red onion

Fry with 1/4 tsp of sugar. Sugar helps to caramelize and the onions turn a reddish brown in color

Add the spinach puree that you made

Saute for a couple of minutes

Add 1 tsp of Ginger paste, 1 tsp of Cumin Powder/Jeera Powder, 2 tsp of Corriander Powder/Dhania Powder, 1/4 tsp of Red Chilli Powder and salt

Mix the masala and saute for some more minutes (about 3-4 minutes)

Add 1-2 tsp of Kasoori Methi and mix well

Add 1/2 cup of 2% Milk + 1 cup of water, mix well with all the masala and let it simmer

When the gravy comes to a boil add the Paneer pieces and let the gravy simmer at low heat for 10-15 minutes (approx. timing). By this time the gravy should be thick and creamy and there should not be any raw smell

I sometimes add very little sugar at this point as it suits my taste. You can also add 1/2 - 1 tbsp cream to this dish at this point which I don't

Just before taking it off the heat sprinkle 1/4 tsp of Garam masala powder and add 1/4 tsp of Ghee. Mix well and delicious creamy palak paneer is ready to serve

This goes very well with Roti or Naan and even with a Rice dish


Trivia:The ruling aristocracy in India from 1500 until the mid 19th Century was of Turkic, (Central Asian), and Persian origin, and it was they who introduced paneer to India.

In Bangladesh and eastern India, two kinds of cheese are commonly found: ponir (a hard paneer) and chhana or chhena (a soft paneer). Ponir is a salty semi-hard cheese made in villages across Bangladesh, and Orissa and West Bengal in India. Its sharp flavor and high salt content contrasts with the softer, milder chhana/chhena. (And I always thought Bong way of saying Paneer was Ponir !!!)