Egg Korma, aka Hard-boiled Eggs in Spicy Tomato Sauce

For the X’th time, a lovely dinner was created and the photograph forgotten until mere fragments were left, smashed up and partially sauce-covered bits of hard-boiled eggs. It all started with a photo and recipe in last week’s PCC flyer. I thought the recipe looked both tame and a bit familiar, so a quick trip to my Indian cookery books by Julie Sahni and Madhur Jaffrey confirmed it was indeed a red sauce with many different spices, topped with hard-boiled eggs, heated through and served with naan and Basmati rice, fresh sliced oranges and a small piece of vanilla vanilla cake with chocolate buttercream icing.

Recipe adapted from the three sources was tasty, but made my daughter and I both wish for an eggplant version with that delicious sauce the next time. I added red bell pepper because it was the vegetable on hand and we both like it. You can choose.

For those who want a recipe, please consider your own palate with respect to heat and salt. These are guidelines.

Hard-boiled Eggs in Spiced Tomato Sauce

6-8 hard-boiled eggs, cut in half (set aside)

big yellow onion, sliced. Caramelize slowly for approx. 15 minutes in

2 T. canola oil with 1 t. cumin seeds and 1/8 t. red pepper flakes. Then add

1 T. fresh garlic and 2 T. fresh ginger, both chopped. (I added red bell pepper at this point.) Saute a couple minutes.

Add these spices and stir fry them into the mixture for a minute:

1/8 t. ground cloves; 1/4 t. ground cardamom; 1 t. turmeric; 1 t. ground coriander, 1/4 t. ground cinnamon, 1 t. garam masala. Then add

14-ounce can of tomatoes crushed in puree and 3/4 c. water. Stir well and simmer for approx. 30 minutes until sauce is thickened and spices have mellowed a bit. Then add

1 c. plain Greek yogurt, clearing a space in the middle of the sauce, “frying” the yogurt a bit in small batches and incorporating it into the sauce after it’s heated through.

Add salt and pepper to taste. Pour sauce into a dish. Place the egg halves into the sauce, put into 350 degree oven for 30 minutes to heat through.