Tuesday, October 19, 2010

Leftover Eggs? Here's Chicken and Egg Curry Recipe:

I always find myself stuck with too many eggs in the fridge. I never learn my lesson and always buy the dozen when all I really need is one. When that happens, I scour tastespotting for recipes and am always tempted by the tasy pictures of carbonara, madelines and egg salads. They all sound good but I was hoping for something that would be more satisfying and hopefully utilize less butter, sugar, mayo or carbs. Since I grew up in Southeast Asia, my idea of comfort food is curry. I found this recipe for Malay Chicken curry which I used for inspiration. The recipe called for more chicken but I substituted with eggs.

The best thing is that curry recipes are so flexible. You can throw in whatever you have in your fridge: potatoes, okra, any meat such as fish/chicken/pork. I went with some chicken leg and chopped up some thighs. Because I had so many eggs, I didn't want to overload on the chicken and made this more of an egg curry dish.

Hard boiled eggs. I never know how to do it perfectly, but I read online that you have to bring the water to a boil, shut off the fire and close the lid. Let stand for 7 minutes, then run under cold water. They turned out perfect! My first batch of perfectly boiled eggs.

Next, brown the marinated chicken. You don't have to cook it all the way through as it will be braised further in the curry liquids.

Finally, add all the other ingredients and simmer. It's that simple. And with such a hearty and satisfying dish, you'll never be stuck making egg salads with leftover eggs ever again.

Recipe: Ayam Masak Merah (Malay-Style Red Chicken & Egg Curry)
Adapted from www.mycookinghut.com

Ingredients:
7-8 eggs
8-10 Chicken drumsticks/thighs
2 tsp Turmeric powder
2 red onions, diced
3-4 Tomatoes
4 tbsp Tomato Puree
2 tbsp Tomato Ketchup
1 -2 tbsp Dark soy sauce
1½ cups water
1/2 tbsp Sugar
Salt, to taste
Vegetable oil, enough to pan-fry

To grind into paste:
10 Shallots
2 tsp Ginger
5-6 Dry chilies
3-4 Fresh red chilies
4 cloves Garlic

Method:
1. Coat the chicken with turmeric powder and marinate for about 20-30 minutes.

2. Place eggs in saucepan and cover with 1-2 inches of cold water. Bring water to boil on high heat. After 3 minutes, take saucepan off heat, cover with lid and let stand for 7 minutes. Run cold water over eggs to cool. Peel.

3. In a wok or deep pan, fill with vegetable oil enough to pan fry the chicken. When the oil is hot enough, fry the chicken in batch until they turn slightly golden brown. Drain and set aside.

4. In a food processor, grind shallots, ginger, dry chilies, fresh chilies and garlic into paste.

5. In a pot, put about 3-4 tbsp of oil, put in the ground paste. On a low heat, cook until the oil surfaces the paste.

6. Then, put in onions and tomatoes. Cook until they are soft.

7. After that, put in tomato puree, tomato ketchup, dark soy sauce, sugar, salt. Adjust seasoning if needed. Mix well. Then, put in water. Bring to boil, then reduce the heat and cover for about 10 minutes.

8. Add in the chicken, mix well to coat the chicken with the sauce. Bring to a slight boil. Then, reduce the heat to low, add eggs and put the lid on and cook for another 30-35 minutes or when until the sauce has reduced and thicken.

4 comments:

Liz said...

Looks yum! Perfect for the rainy weather that has attacked San Diego.

Banana Wonder said...

mmm yum! i love hard boiled eggs in gravy like dishes ... but would it be weird if i used tofu instead of chicken? Or maybe ducl ? ;)

Diana said...

I need to better familiarize myself with curry in the kitchen. I've only attempted it once so far!

stuffycheaks said...

Liz - This is Asian's version of chicken soup!

Anna - tofu would work perfectly! I was thinking of doing that too. Trying to be healthier.

Diana - The only thing bad about curry.. is that it'll stink up your kitchen. You neighbors may not approve