Kerala Style Egg curry or Mutta Curry

As mentioned in other blog posts, since the climate is quite hot, one hardly feels like cooking these days. I have quite a bit of free time in the afternoons now, as my dearest neighbour has gone to India for vacation. Otherwise most of my time would have been spent walking with her and her lovely one year old son. He has captured almost every one's heart in the apartment. Every one knows him and smiles at him. People bring their pets in front of his home just to see him squeal with joy. Every time I hear him say BAA, I run to my window to see a glimpse of him. My dearest neighbour has been my tester for many of my recipes. She herself, a wonderful cook has taught me many recipes. Unfortunately coming to think of it, all of them are in my drafts. When they were here, I would play with him as much as we can in the afternoon, then hurry to home and prepare some snack and rush thru pics and then hurry back again to his home for evening walks. Well, now that they are on vacation and I have sufficient time for cooking some delicacy, I still laze around, lying on bed, watching some movie or listening some songs or catching up with every one in the blogging world. Gosh ! I think I can spent whole day browsing and drooling at all the recipes!!! Even though I would love to bake a lot, I find myself hesitating due to health concerns. I love preparing lavish gravies and veg curries and stir fries the most. Love sweets but they have taken a back seat for now. I am trying to learn some authentic Kerala dishes now and hopefully they will make their way in the blog very soon. Today's recipe is one such authentic Kerala dish - Mutta Curry or Kerala style Egg curry. Of late, it has become one of the regulars in our weekly menu. I have done much research on the dish and prepared it atleast 5 times to get the authentic taste. Finally I am happy with the result and the recipe is making its way into my blog for reference.

 On a different note, do you guys use store bought Masalas or prepare them at home? My mom and me, both buys the Masalas from supermarket and use them in our recipes usually. It has worked so far for me. But I do admire what my sister does. She buys  dry red chilles and coriander seeds and give them to the mill and get them as powder and it lasts her for more than a year and is cheaper compared to buying the powders. While I was trying out the egg curry, somehow I was not getting satisfied with the end result. It did not taste like the Kerala restaurant ones. I was researching and then found that my store bought garam masala is the root cause!! My Garam Masala did not contain any fennel seeds and its flavor is the one making so much difference to my Egg curry. I tried adding fennel seeds and is powder to the recipe along with my Garam masala. The taste improved but still I wasnt satisfied. Thats when I decided to create my own home made Garam Masala. Not familiar with the regular ingredients in Kerala Garam Masala, googled and adapted a recipe from here. Did wonders to my egg curry after I tried with my home made Garam Masala. So guys, try my egg curry with home made garam masala and enjoy the lip smacking curry with some hot rice.

Home Made Garam Masala Kerala Style: Makes half a bottle of Garam Masala
Time : 5 min

Ingredients:

1/4 cup Green Cardamom 
1 Tbsp Cloves 
1 or 2 Cinnamon Stick
1/2 Cup Fennel Seeds
3 Tbsp Black Pepper
2 Star Anise
2- 3 Tbsp Nutmeg Powder

Method of Preparing:

Grind cardamom, cloves, cinnamon, fennel seeds, black pepper, star anise and nutmeg powder together till everything is mixed well. Garam Masala is ready. 

When I was grinding the powder, wonderful aroma filled the whole house and outside. People assumed that I was preparing some delicacy which I was :) My Egg curry.

Kerala Style Egg Curry: ( for 2 people)

Time: 30 min



Ingredients:

3 eggs
1 - 2 big onion
1 big Tomato
1 tbsp Ginger Garlic Paste
1/4 Tbsp Turmeric
1 Tbsp Chilly Powder
2 Tbsp Coriander Powder
1 Tbsp Garam Masala
1 cup Medium Thick Coconut Milk
3 to 4 Curry Leaves
1 Tbsp Mustard seeds
1 Tbsp Oil
Salt
Coriander leaves for garnishing

Prepping:

Step 1: Cut onion into very thin long pieces. Use lot of onions. Cut Tomato into cubes. 

Step 2: Boil the eggs in water for 15 min. Add a little baking soda while boiling. Once the eggs cool, peel the eggs and cut into slices. 

Method of Preparing:

Step 1: 

Heat 1 Tbsp Oil in a non stick pan. Once the oil becomes hot, add the mustard seeds. Let it Crackle. Then add the onions and curry leaves. Saute till the onions are brown. 

Step 2:

Add ginger garlic paste and stir for 2 min. 

Step 3:

Lower the flame and Add Turmeric, Chilly Powder, Coriander powder and Garam Masala. Mix well. Fry till oil starts leaving the mixture. Takes around  5 - 8 min. 

Step 4:

Now add the tomatoes, fry till they are mushy. 

Step 5:

Now add the egg slices and mix. Be careful while mixing as the yolks may get separated if stirred too much. 

Step 6:

Add the coconut milk and cover and cook. Let it boil and switch off. Garnish with coriander leaves. Serve with hot rice or Appam or Idiyappam.