Egg Drop Gravy | Muttai Kuzhambhu
This is one of my absolute childhood favorites. My mom taught me this recipe during college days. She makes this at least twice in a month. The poached egg absorbs all the flavors of the gravy and it tastes amazing. It goes well with Idli, dosa, chapathi, rice, upma, idiyappam… almost anything.
It is similar to a Kurma recipe, with slight modifications.
Servings: 4
Preparation time: 10 minutes
Cooking Time: 30 minutes
Ingredients:
- Large Eggs – 4
- Cinnamon stick – 1 inch
- Cloves – 3
- Onion – 3/4 cup (finely chopped) – the onions that I use have more water content, hence I use 3/4 cup. Otherwise use 1/2 cup only
- Ginger Garlic paste – 2 teaspoons
- Tomato puree – 1/2 cup
- Turmeric powder – 1/2 teaspoon
- Chilli powder – 1 teaspoon (spicy one)
- Coriander powder – 2 teaspoons
- Garam masala powder – 1/4 teaspoon (I use Sakthi garam masala – Not Sponsored)
- Salt – as required
- Shredded Coconut – 2 tablespoons (fresh or frozen)
- Cashews – 5 to 6 whole pieces
- Fennel seeds – 2 teaspoons
- Coriander / curry leaves – few sprigs (to garnish)
- Oil – 2 teaspoons
Method:
- Heat a thick-bottomed, wide pan and add oil to it. Then add the cinnamon stick, cloves, onion and saute on medium flame until onions turn translucent. After which, add the ginger garlic paste and saute for 2 minutes.
2. Then add the tomato puree along with turmeric powder, chilli powder, coriander powder, garam masala, salt and mix everything together. Then add 1 cup water and simmer for 10 to 15 minutes until the raw smell of the spice powders are gone. ( I have used ready made tomato puree, but you can make your own at home. Also the chilli powder I have used is home made one).
3. Now lets make the coconut paste:
Take the shredded coconut, cashews, fennel seeds in a blender along with little water and blend them into a fine paste. (No need to soak the cashews in warm water for some time, directly put into the blender and use it.)
4. After the raw smell of the masala is gone, add the above coconut paste along with 1/2 cup water and cook for 3 minutes on medium flame. The consistency of this gravy should not be too thick or too thin. Add water if the gravy is too thick.
5. Then remove the vessel to another place where there is no heat. Now crack the eggs directly into the gravy that is prepared.
Very important: After cracking the eggs into the gravy, do not stir the contents. Transfer the vessel to the heat source and cover it with a lid. Let it cook on low-medium flame for about 5 minutes.
6. After 5 minutes, it looks as shown below. Now, carefully flip each egg without stirring the contents.
7. Then cook for 3 more minutes and then switch off the heat. Finally it looks like as shown below.
8. Garnish with curry / coriander leaves and serve hot.
