Dimer Kosha - Rich Bengali Egg Curry

Certain things are evergreen and never go out of the staple kitchen menu.Things like the humble egg bhurji or the plain Bengali alu bhaja(potato fry) or even alu sheddo(boiled potato) and ghee bhat (ghee mixed rice) continue to satisfy the bengali babu when the kitchen is empty - as it happened - - during a recent week day, having returned from the office.

Dimer Kosha - Bengali Styled Egg Curry

The kitchen was well neigh empty with only some potatoes, onion,ginger,garlic,eggs and some cucumber and lemon.Apart from that we had some musur dal.Confused what to do, the wife suggested Rice,dal sheddo,thinly sliced cucumber-onion salad in lemon juice and alu bhaja. I loved the thought of such a simple but delicious menu but later replaced the alu bhaja with Dimer kosha.


With the menu laid down, wife took care of the rice,dal and salad and I got down to prepare a real fiery dimer kosha.


Dimer kosha, I am sure, has several memories for most of all bengalis.During the good old days,when we were growing up, I remember the occassional get-together at a friend's house when we used to go without notice, the lunch used to be plain rice and dimer kosha.Times when there was nothing present in the kitchen, the dimer jhol with onion-garlic-ginger used to come to the rescue. We had picnics when the dimer kosha used to be on the menu - that one was different though.It had loads of onion,garlic and ginger and the spices used to be heavily braised giving a dark reddish brownish to black colour to the gravy.


Heres the one which I prepared yesterday and it gave me real delight.It tasted excellent, almost like the picnic style dimer kosha.


Ingredients:

• Eggs - 2. The count depends on how many you want to have.
• Potato - Large slices of potato.Preferably a single big potato sliced into 2.I used a single potato.
• Onions - 2 medium ones.One onion sliced longitudinally into half and the rest made into a paste
• Garlic - 5 cloves. Crushed
• Ginger - A half inch piece.Crushed.
• Tomato - 1 medium sized.Deseeded.And made into a paste.Use your mixer grinder.
• Garam Masala: 2 green cardamons(chota elaichi),A 1 inch cinnamon(darchini) and a couple of cloves(lobongo)
• Powdered Spices: 2 tsp turmeric powder, 1 tsp coriander powder, 1 tsp kashmiri mirch powder and 1 tsp cumin(jeera) powder.
• Green chillies: 2-3, slit.
• Use mustard oil(sorser tel) - 4 tsp
• Sugar - 1/2 tsp
• Salt - As per taste

Preparation:

• Boil the eggs.
• Coat the eggs with turmeric powder and salt. And fry them in 1 tsp mustard oil until they turn golden yellow.
• Coat the potato slices with tumeric powder and little amount of salt. And fry them in 1 tsp mustard oil.

Procedure:

• In medium heat: Heat 2 tsp of mustard oil. 
• When the oil gets hot, add the whole garam masalas
• Once the spices start to crackle, add the crushed ginger, garlic and onion slices
• When the smell of ginger-garlic starts to evolve, add the onion paste.
• Add the sugar now. And turn the gas to high heat.
• Add the tomato paste and all of the powdered spices. 
• When the gravy starts to turns thick and brown in colour, add the potato slices and eggs.
• Add the salt now and mix thoroughly with the gravy.
• Put a lid on the wok and let it cook for 10 mins. 
• The spices will melt into the gravy giving it a uniform texture,flavour and aroma.
• Add the slit green chillies. 

The smell of green chillies will add an extra zing into the curry.Serve hot and enjoy!