Eggstensions

Will suit ovo-vegetarians too, just keep reading, don't let the picture turn you away!

This recipe is mine, he said, as she finished with the camera and put it back in its suede pouch.
It will be duly acknowledged, she said.

So here it is, the spouse’s brainwave! To us, it was a new thing but in general, not really that new.

The vegetarian version

My helper at home would always tell me to break an egg into any vegetable stir-fry that I was making, that it would be “super” – but the idea of mixing up an egg with vegetables never appealed to me. Finally, one day, I asked her to do it for me, she made it with beans and carrots, was it tasty!

Temper the oil with some mustard and cumin seeds, some onion, if you like, put in the veggies (about a cup-and-a-half), season them, let them cook after stir-frying them on 'high', break a couple of eggs into them and scramble. Add some more seasoning and curry powder if you think it's necessary, at this stage.

Somehow, I never repeated it, though, and the recipe stayed dormant in my mind till the other day when the spouse, on an impulse, whipped out a packet of frozen prawns from the freezer, thawed them under running water singing paeans to how this particular meat was oh so simply thawed, and quite without any idea of what shape the dish was going to take, started sautéing the prawns pink. We didn’t have any ginger-garlic paste ready, and neither of us was going to start skinning ginger and garlic and grinding them at that late hour, so he said, shall we break an egg into it and see what it’s like? A bit of hesitation, and then I brought two eggs and cracked them into the pan and scrambled them – and voila, a blog post was born!

Using egg (or vegetables) to stretch the curry is an old habit. If there isn’t enough potato to go around, add some pumpkin. If there isn’t enough meat to go around, add some potatoes. Or simpler still, leave the daughters out and feed those choice morsels of meat to the sons.

Before I can get any more snarky, here's the recipe:

Prawns/shrimp, shelled and deveined - 250 gm
Some salt, chilli powder, curry powder - a pinch, to taste, a teaspoon, a tbsp, take your pick of the amount
Eggs - 2
A bit of coriander
Oil - 2 tsp

Saute the prawns, season with just a little salt and chilli powder till cooked. Break two eggs into the pan, put in a little more salt and chilli powder into the eggs, add the curry powder and mix them up with the prawns, stirring constantly, till they are scrambled moist. Remove from fire, sprinkle chopped coriander. You can add some lime juice for added flavour. (I didn't think of that when we made it.)

Note: The texture of the eggs changes when you re-heat it in the microwave but it's tasty all the same. Sandeepa reminds us that the prawns/veggies made this way can be a good thing to put in fried rice!

Tags: Prawns Eggs Quick recipe Shrimp Stir fry Substitute vegetables for prawns Gluten-free Low-carb