Bengali Omlette Curry
[This article was originally published in Zomppa, the International food magazine with a social cause.]
There are a number of Indian recipes which never find their way to the restaurant menu. Omlette curry is one of them. This is a very easy dish and it can be cooked in a jiffy. When the omlette boils in the gravy, it swells up a little, absorbs the flavours of the gravy and becomes soft and juicy. This curry is made in different ways in different parts of India. I am sharing this recipe from West Bengal (Kolkata), where it is called dimer jhol, and is cooked in a simple way. The gravy is always less in this dish, for a concentrated and culminated taste arising from carefully chosen spices mixed with omlette’s own flavour and aroma.
There is one interesting thing about omlette curry. If you have to feed a large number of people and have just half the number of eggs you need to make boiled egg curry, this humble omlette curry would be the answer. For example, if you have just three eggs and you want to make egg curry for six people, mix some besan (gram flour) with the beaten eggs and then make the omlettes. In this way, the omlettes would be denser and bigger and one omlette would easily suffice two.
Bengali Omlette Curry
[Mustard oil is pungent and Bengalis love to cook with this oil. Once the oil is heated and begins to smoke, the raw smell goes away, leaving an appetizing aroma behind. However, you can substitute with canola or sunflower oil if mustard oil is not available.]
Ingredients:
- Eggs: 6
- Onion paste: 2 tbsp
- Green chilli paste: 1 tsp (divided)
- Milk: 2 tbsp
- Salt: ½ tsp for the omlette and 1 tsp for the gravy
- Finely chopped onion: ½ cup
- Finely chopped garlic: 1 tbsp
- Ginger paste: 1 tsp
- Bay leaf: 1
- Cinnammon sticks (one-inch each): 2
- Cloves: 6
- Green cardamoms: 4
- Peppercorns: 10–12
- Dried red chillies: 2
- Coriander powder: 1.5 tsp
- Cumin powder: 1 tsp
- Turmeric powder: ½ tsp
- Yogurt: 2 tbsp
- Spring onion greens’ paste: 1.5 tbsp
- Mustard oil (or white oil)
- Water
Method:
Break the eggs together in a bowl. Add ½ tsp salt and beat well. Add the milk, onion paste and half the green chilli paste and beat once more. Divide into six (or eight) equal parts and shallow-fry each part to make six (or eight) vertically folded omlettes. Keep aside.
Heat oil to the smoking point. Add the bay leaf and dried red chillies. When the chillies darken a bit, add the cinnamon sticks, cloves, green cardamoms and peppercorns. When these start sputtering, add the finely chopped garlic and sauté for 1 min. Add the chopped onions and sauté till the onions are browned and soft.
Add the ginger and sauté for 3 min. Now make a paste by mixing the salt, turmeric, cumin and coriander powders with a little water (roughly 3 tbsp). Add this paste to the pan and keep the flame at medium. Sauté constantly, till the mixture starts leaving oil. Sprinkle some more water and sauté till oil starts leaving from the mixture one more time.
Mix the yogurt, spring onion greens’ paste and the rest of the green chilli paste together in a bowl with around 2 tbsp water. Add this yogurt mixture to the pan now. Sauté for 5 min and then add 3 cups of warm water.
When the gravy starts boiling, slowly insert the omlettes, one at a time.
Cover and simmer for 5 min. Serve with rice or chapattis.
August 6, 2012 @ 2:17 pm
Nice recipe …looks so yum
August 6, 2012 @ 3:13 pm
awesome omellette gravy curry.
August 6, 2012 @ 3:56 pm
Delicious and lovely omelette.
Deepa
August 6, 2012 @ 4:08 pm
Eggs take so well to curry flavors. I’ve done a hard-boiled egg curry before and liked it. This looks wonderful. Great tip on adding besan to stretch the eggs. Very nice recipe – thank you.
August 6, 2012 @ 4:09 pm
Delicious and easy recipe love it.
August 6, 2012 @ 4:56 pm
Hi Purabi Naha,
Omlete curry Looks Excellent !!!!
Neat presentation:)
Keep on Dear…
http://www.southindiafoodrecipes.blogspot.in
August 6, 2012 @ 5:26 pm
Truly an innovative dish with egg..Nice worth a recipe Purabi.I am bookmarking.
August 6, 2012 @ 6:44 pm
Very different egg curry, looks so inviting..
August 6, 2012 @ 10:11 pm
Curry with omelette is new to me. But looks very interesting and delicious.
Divya’s Culinary Journey
August 6, 2012 @ 10:28 pm
delicious omelette curry,yum!!
Ongoing Events of Erivum Puliyum @ Spicy Aroma-Curry leaves or Red dry Chillies
August 7, 2012 @ 4:24 am
Interesting recipe Thanks for sharing. Have a good week, Diane
August 7, 2012 @ 4:41 am
beautiful recipe! i love those homey recipes that don’t make the restaurants and recipe books, but everybody loves.
August 7, 2012 @ 6:21 am
I do love boiled egg curry, so I will have to try this! The curry gravy looks so good!
August 7, 2012 @ 11:39 pm
You’re right that I have never seen this on an Indian restaurant menu, but oddly it reminds me of a dish I had in France a couple of years ago. It looks so flavorful!
August 8, 2012 @ 3:42 am
Omlette curry looks fantastic and yummy.
August 8, 2012 @ 4:20 am
The is a new curry dish for me! I love it! What a great way to stretch an omelet and you certainly can’t beat the flavors of your spices. I’ve never cooked with or even smelled mustard oil, but you have me curious. Great dish!
August 8, 2012 @ 7:39 am
this is so very good!love this recipe.
August 9, 2012 @ 3:26 pm
I’m sure the eggs absorb all the flavor and aroma of the curry sauce. I would really enjoy this delicious omelet with a big bowl of rice. Thank you, Purabi! 🙂
August 9, 2012 @ 11:39 pm
a different egg recipe… will sure try this… Hi dear first time to your blog… you’ve got a lovely collection of recipes… following you… do visit & follow me http://cooklikepriya.blogspot.co.uk/
August 10, 2012 @ 12:23 am
This looks amazing and I bet it taste even better! Amazing!
August 10, 2012 @ 1:58 am
I bet this is good and filling, I’m sure the eggs absorb all the curry flavor. It’s a little hard to find some of these items near me, I will have to be on the lookout. Great looking recipes.
-Gina-
August 10, 2012 @ 4:44 am
I’ve never tried an omelette curry Purabi, but i’m tempted to now! 🙂
August 10, 2012 @ 10:25 am
This is exactly the kind of recipes I love discovering on friendly blogs! As you say they are never in restaurants and maybe even not in cookery books… I am a big eggs fan and I love this curry idea. Thank you for sharing such a rare recipe.
August 10, 2012 @ 12:02 pm
I have also never had an omelette curry but I love the idea of making a main dish out of one of my favorite breakfast meals!
August 10, 2012 @ 4:16 pm
it will be perfect recipe for my breakfast blog 🙂 I love the idea and it’s Indian, wow. My husband loves curry, so this recipe will make him very happy.
August 10, 2012 @ 8:03 pm
You made a wonderful dish! Thanks for visiting my blog! 🙂
August 11, 2012 @ 6:18 pm
This looks amazing! I love me some breakfast and I love me some curry. This is the best of both worlds! And I totally need to get some mustard oil, for sure 🙂
August 12, 2012 @ 4:52 pm
Love Zomppa! I have to say I’ve never seen an omelette curry, but it sounds like a terrific change from the typical egg and cheese omelettes for sure!
August 12, 2012 @ 11:43 pm
Purabi…visiting you is such a culinary adventure. Your recipes and ingredients are always so unique, at least to me. I think I would enjoy using the mustard oil alone. This looks fabulous! : )
August 13, 2012 @ 1:30 am
You have a very happy looking omelet here-)) I can imagine all the flavors from many spices. Thank you for the recipe! And nice to meet you-)
August 13, 2012 @ 6:49 pm
Your delicious dish reminded me that we do have omelette and Japanese curry! I have to make it soon. I’m going to post omelette dish tomorrow too. 😀 I’m so inspired by your dish, Purabi. Thanks!
September 5, 2012 @ 9:29 am
OMG! Wish I could have this now 🙂
love
http://www.meghasarin.blogspot.com
September 12, 2012 @ 7:29 pm
Purabi, I’ve been away from home for a month (with no computer) and I’m just now getting caught up. Soooo glad I read your post today — I immediately made this for lunch. (Sent you an e-mail with the end results.) 🙂 This was the most flavorful omelette I’ve ever tasted! Thank you for sharing your diverse knowledge of food and flavors.
September 18, 2012 @ 1:24 am
I love all kinds of egg dishes and this omelette with gravy sounds so good!
October 22, 2012 @ 4:48 am
I cannot believe how precise these instructions are, especially with the timing of heating all of the spices. No wonder Indian food tastes so good. When I read this I realize how little most people in North America know about cooking. I didn’t even know how much there is to know. What an education!
November 11, 2012 @ 3:17 pm
I’ve seen several recipes lately listing mustard oil. I’ll be off to the Indian spice shop tomorrow to pick some up. This omlet curry looks terrific.
December 28, 2012 @ 4:05 pm
Hello!
I just would like to give a huge thumbs up for the great info you have here on this post. I will be coming back to your blog for more soon.
Man and Van Woking