(Creamy) Hard-Boiled Eggs Masala and 5 Favorite Madhur Jaffrey Recipes for Souper (Soup, Salad, & Sammie) Sundays and IHCC

So, it's Sunday and you are probably wondering why I am featuring egg curry and not a bowl of soup. Well, it's been a crazy week, I am seriously behind on a work deadline as well as a school test deadline and I have house guests on the way. So we are going to call Madhur Jaffrey's Hard-Boiled Eggs Masala, a soupy curry and combine my Souper Sundays and I Heart Cooking Clubs posts into one.
 

This week we are featuring Madhur Jaffrey at our Monthly Featured Chef Event at I Heart Cooking Clubs. It's our chance to go back in time and as a group, cook the recipes of one of our previously featured chefs. We cooked with Jaffrey from October 2012 through March of 2013. What I like most about her is knowledge of cooking, her sheer number of recipes--Indian and also the cuisine of Southeast Asia, her many veg-friendly dishes, and how she blends cooking classic ethnic dishes with bringing spice and flavor to non-Indian recipes like mashed potatoes, omelettes and French toast. Her books are full of hidden treasures and she makes it possible for me to get my Indian food fix easily at home. 
 

I have become a fan of curries with hard-boiled eggs lately and Jaffrey has plenty to choose from. I was torn between two recipes, Hard-Boiled Eggs in a Spicy Cream Sauce and Hard-Boiled Eggs Masala. I ended up going the masala route, but as I was finishing it up and tasting I decided that it was good but not quite what I wanted. Having leftover cashew cream from last week's soup, I decided to add it along with veggie broth to keep it from being too thick. So this ended up being a bit of a mashup of both recipes and it made for a tasty and easy dinner when served with some brown basmati rice.

(Creamy)Hard-Boiled Eggs Masala
Slightly Adapted from Madhur Jaffrey's Quick & Easy Indian Kitchen
(Serves 2-4) 

1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
1/2 tsp ground turmeric
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp ground coriander
1 tsp fresh lemon juice
3/4 tsp salt, or to taste 
fresh ground black pepper, to taste
2 Tbsp vegetable oil
1/2 tsp cumin seeds
5 Tbsp onion, peeled and finely chopped (I used 1 medium sweet onion)
1 Tbsp fresh ginger, finely chopped
1 cup canned tomato, chopped (I used 1 can fire-roasted tomatoes)
1/4 tsp sugar (I used coconut sugar)
(I added 1/2 cup cashew cream)
(I added 1 cup veggie broth)
3-4 Tbsp fresh cilantro
4-6 hard-boiled eggs, peeled and cut into halves lengthwise

Combine cayenne, turmeric, ground cumin, coriander. lemon juice, salt, black pepper, and 1 tablespoon water in small bowl. Mix.

Put oil in medium-sized, nonstick pan and set over medium-high heat. When the oil is hot, put in cumin seeds. Ten seconds later, add onion and ginger. Stir and fry till onion turns medium brown. Add the spice paste, stir, and cook for 15 seconds. Now add tomatoes and sugar and bring to a simmer.

Cover and simmer gently for 10 minutes. Add cilantro. Stir once or twice. Lay the cut eggs in the sauce and spoon more sauce over them. Cover and simmer gently for 2-3 minutes. Serve with rice,or toasted naan, or other bread.
 

A Note About Eggs: I am always looking for the easiest way to peel them and this method of bringing the water to a boil, then carefully lowering the eggs in and cooking them until desired 'doneness'--putting them in ice water to shock them and then cracking them against each other in the bowl and letting them set for a few minutes, results in the easiest peel eggs ever. This is the third time I have used this method and I can't see trying anything else. Look at the photo below--how good the eggs look and the large size of the peels--they slide off so easily. 

 
Notes/Results: Rich and creamy with a nice bit of heat, this is a tasty curry--very hearty and satisfying with the eggs and the addition of the cashew cream. I suppose that adding it made it similar to the Hard-Boiled Eggs in Rich Moghali Sauce that I featured in my favorite Jaffrey recipes below but there is just something irresistible to me about a good creamy curry paired with eggs, so I am happy that I made the change. If you don't want to make cashew cream and want a similar result, you could certainly use coconut milk. This curry hit the spot--I would happily make it again. 

Because it's always fun (and hunger-inducing) to go back and savor food memories, here are some favorite dishes I have cooked with Madhur Jaffrey. It was surprisingly difficult to narrow down my Jaffrey recipes--I LOVE Indian food and made so many really wonderful dishes with Madhur--but I stayed strong and cut it off at five. So these are the recipes I made again, am still craving, or just kept thinking about, long after they were finished.

Yep, the egg dish that hooked me on egg curries is the recently posted scrumptious Hard Boiled Eggs in Rich Moghali Sauce from 100 Weeknight Curries. Such a great blend of flavors and the creamy curry sauce is completely indulgent. 

I loved the Spicy (Roasted) Cashews from Madhur Jaffrey's Spice Kitchen--although I found them more savory than spicy (up the cayenne to your tastes and heat preference). Pretty darn addicting--especially when warm.

My vegan version of Jaffrey's Muligatawny Soup from 100 Weeknight Curries was another favorite--great flavors and completely satisfying. 

I love a good lassi and the Pale Green, Spicy, Minty Lassi from Madhur Jaffrey's Quick & Easy Indian Cooking was refreshing and unique--perfect for a hot day. 

 

My final pick for my favorites list is the Indian Mashed Potatoes or (Mash Aloo) from Madhur Jaffrey's Quick & Easy Indian Cooking. If you know me at all, you know I love my mashed potatoes and these (I made a vegan version) with their garam masala, green chile, cayenne and lemon were different and delicious. 

You can see what Madhur Jaffrey dishes the other participants made and what they loved by checking out the picture links on the post.  

It was all about chicken soup at last week's Souper (Soup, Salad, & Sammie) Sundays linkup with two delicious versions of this classic comfort food. 

Yep, if you hadn't noticed, Souper Sundays is back with a new format of a picture link each week where anyone interested can post their soups, salads or sandwiches and then a recap of (some, OK usually all of...) the entries the following week

(If you are not familiar with Souper Sundays, you can read about of the origins of it here.)

Tina of Squirrel Head Manor made this creamy Chicken and Rice Soup. She says, "One thing is for sure........if I have bits leftover from a meal I will usually find a way to make use of it in soup or a casserole. Such is the case with this chicken and rice soup. Nothing planned but it turned out well and provided us with lunch for a few days."

Pam of Sidewalk Shoes tried a Slow Cooker Chicken Parmesan Soup and says, "I’m going to go on record here stating that this Slow Cooker Chicken Parmesan Soup is definitely in my top 5 slow cooker recipes. It is so rich and creamy. A little bit of heat from the red pepper flakes and some nuttiness  from the Parmesan cheese. Perfect."

 
Thanks to Tina and Pam for linking up this past week!

If you would like to join in Souper (Soup, Salad, and Sammie) Sundays I would love to have you! Here's how...

To join in this week's linkup with your soup, salad or sandwich:

• Link up your soup (stew, chili, soupy curries, etc. are fine), salad, or sandwich dish, (preferably one from the current week or month but we'll take older posts too.) on the picture link below and leave a comment on this post so I am sure not to miss you.

On your entry post (on your blog):

• please mention Souper (Soup, Salad & Sammies) Sundays at Kahakai Kitchen and link back to this post.
• you are welcome to add the wonderful Souper Sundays logo (created by Ivy at Kopiaste) to your post and/or blog (optional). 

An InLinkz Link-up

Have a happy, healthy week!