Peanut butter egg curry

An egg curry was something we normally ate at home when Mum’s dozen other curries were depleted. But an egg curry can shine all on its own – it needn’t be the understudy or Plan B to something better. Oh no! This curry is packed with flavour and finished with peanut butter for the smoothest sauce ever.

Credit: Michael Joseph Books

• serves

  4

• prep

  30 minutes

• cook

  50 minutes

• difficulty

  Easy

Ingredients

• 6-8 duck eggs
• ⅓ cup (80 ml) oil
• 50 g unsalted peanuts
• 1 bay leaf
• 1 large dried chilli
• 3 tsp coriander seeds, crushed
• 6 cloves of garlic, minced
• 2 onions, grated
• 1 tsp salt
• 2 tsp tomato paste
• 2 tsp tamarind
• 3 tomatoes, grated
• 3 tsp curry powder
• 85 g peanut butter
• 300 ml hot water
• 60 g watercress, finely chopped
• rice or naan bread to serve, optional

Instructions

1. Hard-boil the duck eggs for 10 minutes in a pan of boiling water, then remove from the heat and peel when cool.
2. Start by pouring the oil into a shallow non-stick pan. Heat the oil on medium to high heat. Now make sure each egg is dried of any liquid using kitchen paper. Drop the eggs into the hot oil and encourage them to move around to be scorched and bubble the texture. This should take about 5 minutes and will help the sauce stick to the egg rather than just slide off. Once they are browned and textured all over, remove them from the pan.
3. Now add your peanuts to the pan and toast for a minute till golden, along with the bay leaf and chilli.
4. Add the crushed coriander seeds and allow them to sizzle. Add the garlic and as soon as the garlic is golden, add the grated onion. Cook on medium heat for about 10 minutes until the onion is golden brown and caramelised.
5. Now add the salt, tomato paste, tamarind and grated tomatoes and cook till the mixture is dry. Add the curry powder, peanut butter and hot water and leave to simmer till the oil bubbles rise to the top. This should take about 10 minutes.
6. Add the watercress and stir in till wilted. Add the eggs back in and mix through. It is ready to eat. I like to eat this with rice or naan bread.

 

Recipe and image from Nadiya's Fast Flavours by Nadiya Hussain (Michael Joseph, HB, $49.99).

Cook's Notes

Oven temperatures are for conventional; if using fan-forced (convection), reduce the temperature by 20˚C. | We use Australian tablespoons and cups: 1 teaspoon equals 5 ml; 1 tablespoon equals 20 ml; 1 cup equals 250 ml. | All herbs are fresh (unless specified) and cups are lightly packed. | All vegetables are medium size and peeled, unless specified. | All eggs are 55-60 g, unless specified.