Try the best egg curry recipe from Bangladesh

When I’d watch my mother cook and eat her cooking I would always notice three things, onions, garlic and ginger. Her egg curry recipe was no exception, onions, garlic and ginger were key ingredients.

Now ginger wasn’t a fun thing to bite into but it was always there. In time, I just accepted it needed to be used and always had some and put it into dishes. I still don’t really know what ginger is and decided it was time I learnt more about it.

What is ginger?

Ginger is a flowering plant and the root is what is used as a spice and for medicinal purposes in fold medicine. Ginger is a plant from the Zingiberaceae family which includes members such as turmeric, cardamom and galangal. Ginger originated in the Island Southeast Asia; transported throughout the Indo Pacific 5000BP (before present); reaching Hawaii. Ginger was one of the first spices to be exported to Europe during the spice trade. Ginger is a true cultigen a plant that was purposely selected by humans and altered; artificially selected. As a result, ginger doesn’t exist in the wild.

Ginger has done a lot of travelling around throughout the years. Now, in current day, as of 2016, the global production of ginger was 3.3 million tonnes. The distribution of this production is 34% by India then close behind I production is Nigeria, China and Indonesia.

The uses of ginger are broad from adding a hot, spicy taste; pickled; steeped in tea with honey; candied; hot beverages such as chai; even made into wines.

Nutritional information about Ginger

Raw ginger is 79% water, 18% carbohydrates, 2% protein, 1% fat. 100 g of ginger contains about 80 calories; contains vitamin B6; minerals such as magnesium and manganese. [3]

Ginger is a native plant to warmer Asian countries such as China, Japan and India. Over time it has traveled the world and is not grow in parts of South American and Africa and the Middle East. Common uses of ginger include many types of “stomach problems” such as motion sickness, morning sickness, colic, upset stomach, gas, diarrhea, IBS, nausea, loss of appetite. My mother always tells me to keep a bottle of ginger ale in the fridge. As I’m not a pop drinker, this bottle ginger ale I refer to as “medicinal ginger ale”. Other uses of ginger are using the fresh juice on skin to treat burns; using oil made from ginger on the skin to relieve pain; ginger extract applied to the skin to prevent insect bites. When used in food and beverages, ginger is usually included for flavour. In manufacturing, ginger may be used as a fragrance in soaps and cosmetics. Chemicals in ginger have been used as ingredients in laxative, anti-gas and antacid medications. More details on the uses of ginger can be found in [2]

There is a great list of health benefits of ginger listed in 11 Proven Health Benefits of Ginger, by Joe Leech, 2017 [1]. I’m not going to repeat the article here but I will summarize what I got out of the article and the highlights. Ginger has a lot of valuable medicinal, anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties. It can be used in many forms, in foods, oils, juices, cosmetics, dried or fresh. Gingerol is the main bioactive compound in ginger that is responsible for all these wonderful medicinal properties.

Benefits of ginger

great for all kinds of nausea
is effective in reducing day to day muscle pain
may reduce exercise induces muscle soreness
effective at reducing symptoms of osteoarthritis
lower blood sugar levels; help improve heart disease risk factors in type 2 diabetes patients
is helpful in emptying out the stomach which is helpful with indigestion.
When taken at the beginning of a menstrual cycle it can be effective against pain
Some evidence shows that reductions in LDL cholesterol and blood triglyceride levels is possible with ginger.
Can help protect against age-related damage to the brain.
Help improve brain function in elderly women. [1]

Egg Curry Recipe

Ingredients

6 hard boiled eggs
1 + 1/3 c cooking onions
2 c small potatoes
1 can coconut milk
1/3 c cooking oil
1 tbsp Ketchup
½ tsp Turmeric powder
½ tsp Cayenne powder
½ tsp ginger powder or 1 teaspoon of ground ginger
½ tsp garlic powder or 1 teaspoon of ground garlic

Instructions:

Peel the eggs, wash, then poke holes with a fork all around. Sprinkle Turmeric and salt mix and marinate for at least 1/2 hr. In a medium size pan cover with cooking oil, heat it at high temperature, add the eggs one by one into the hot oil. Gently, moving it from side to side with a soft spatula. When the eggs are Golden Brown at medium high. Remove the pan from heat and put the eggs in a dish.
Wash and peel potatoes. Chop small potatoes in half.
In a frying pan heat the oil and add 1 cup of thinly chopped onions. Fry until light brown.
Add all the eggs; turn off the heat; stir in all the spices.
Cook at medium heat for a few minutes; add the potatoes while stirring and the solid part of the coconut milk.
With continuous stirring cook for about 5 minutes. Then pour in the coconut milk, remaining onions, and ketchup.
Mix well. Bring to boil, cover and simmer at setting 1 until the potatoes are cooked.
Turn off the heat, let it stand for 5 minutes garnish with cilantro and serve with rice.

Recipe Notes:

I find with these curry recipes that a two stage approach to making them works for me. It spreads out the work so it doesn’t feel so laborious. For example, doing all the prep before hand such as boiling the eggs, chopping the onions, preparing the potatoes. Then on day two, put it all together and do the actual cooking.

Modifications:

This is one recipe I wouldn’t modify even if I knew how. There are no extra ingredients. Every ingredient in this recipe has a purpose and function. Substituting one ingredient for another I don’t think would result in as good or authentic a flavour and taste.

Tea pairings:

According to Arbor Teas, Darjeeling is paired with egg dishes. So I would try a Darjeeling tea with this dish. [4] According to Twinnings, Pu’er and Lapsang Souchong can be paired with eggs. Kemun tea is suggested to be paired with eggs. [5]

References:

11 Proven Health Benefits of Ginger, Joe Leech, June 2017, Health Line, URL: https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/11-proven-benefits-of-ginger
Ginger, WebMD, URL: https://www.webmd.com/vitamins/ai/ingredientmono-961/ginger
Ginger, Wikipedia, URL: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ginger
Tea Pairings, Arbor Teas, URL: https://www.arborteas.com/tea-pairings/
Food Pairing with …Tea!, Twinings, URL: https://www.twinings.co.uk/about-twinings/latest-news-and-articles/food-pairing-with-tea

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Lani and Norm

I enjoy learning and sharing that knowledge.Sharing has been in many forms over the years, as a teaching assistant, university lecturer, Pilates instructor, math tutor and just sharing with friends and family.Throughout, summarizing what I have learnt in words has always been there and continues to through blog posts, articles, video and the ever growing forms of content out there!