This chettinad egg curry has roughly been adapted from my chettinad chicken curry recipe on the blog. The curry isn’t very hot but is moderately spicy which makes the gravy very flavorful.

Preparation

  1. Bring eggs to room temperature. Wash and boil them. Remove the shells and pierce them randomly with a fork few times. Set aside.
  2. We need to make fresh chettinad masala for this recipe. The key to making this chettinad spice powder is roasting them right without burning otherwise it will lend a bitter taste. Heat a pan and dry roast red chilies and coriander seeds on a low to medium heat. If your red chilies turn crisp at any time during this process set them aside.
  3. When the coriander seeds smell good, add green cardamom, saunf, cumin, pepper corn, cloves and cinnamon stick. Allow them to roast lightly, make sure the spices do not get over roasted otherwise it will lend a bitter taste.
  4. Set aside the spices roasted earlier to prevent over roasting them. Ten add poppy seeds or cashews and saute for 2 mins. Then add grated or chopped coconut. I did all in the same pan but I suggest not to over fry the spices as it may lend a bitter taste. Saute until it smells good for 2 mins. Cool these completely.
  5. Add them to a blender and powder finely.
  6. Add little water and make a thick paste.
  7. This step is optional. Most people like to use roasted eggs in gravy, so just showing it. I do not prefer to reheat cooked eggs. If you like to then proceed with heating a pan with 1 tsp ghee. Saute on a medium flame until golden and sprinkle some salt and chili powder. Set these aside.

How to make chettinad egg curry

  1. To the same pan, add more oil and heat up. Allow mustard seeds to crackle, then saute curry leaves.
  2. Add finely chopped onions or onion paste. Saute until golden.
  3. Add ginger garlic paste and fry until the raw smell goes off. I had to interrupt cooking my curry for an hour, so onions were discolored.
  4. Add finely chopped or pureed tomatoes.
  5. Saute until the moisture from tomatoes evaporate. Make sure the raw smell of onion and tomato has gone completely.
  6. Add the ground masala and then enough water to make a gravy.
  7. When the gravy thickens & oil appears on top, add salt and stir. Check the salt and adjust as needed. Then add eggs. Stir well and add coriander leaves. You can simmer the eggs in the gravy for a while, but as i such do not do it. I just add them to the hot gravy and switch off the stove. Keep covered until served. Serve with rice, chapathi, biryani or jeera rice. You may also like this punjabi egg masala and this south Indian style egg gravy recipe.

Chettinad egg curry recipe