"Eggs Chakra" - Invention of a Recipe

Eggs Chakra - Tutorial  

                                      

    

In 2020, my Ministry decided to assign senior officers as mentors to young officers joining the Indian Foreign Service. I was asked to mentor three extremely bright officers, all engineers, Prithika, Himanshu and Nitin;  an experience I found to be both engaging and enjoyable.

Through our numerous sessions, I got to know them and to instil in them- in small doses- lessons that I imbibed myself in a quarter of a century of being a diplomat. The importance of camaraderie, building relationships, being open to other cultures and peoples, the need to develop a large variety of skills from reading, writing, travelling to cooking were discussed.

Entertaining people is a basic skill to acquire for diplomats, something I strongly emphasised to my mentees. To drive the point home, one day, I decided to cook dinner all by myself and asked them over.

 With false bravado, I decided to take on the challenge of preparing the entire meal. I invited not only my three mentees but to add to their fun (and my misery), I invited some of my other colleagues as well. In all, there were nine diners that night. 

The task at hand was to put on the table a decent evening meal for nine, all from scratch. Friday morning came and I drew up a menu for the evening of the following day. After work, I went shopping for all the ingredients needed to make the evening a success. As a good old Bengali, egg curry was at the top of the recipe. I then added Chicken Teen Piaza (my invention), Doodh Paneer (a recipe popular in Eastern UP), Dal Makhani, Tossed Salad, and Rice Pulao to the list. I kept out rotis and parathas as rolling and baking bread is an art I haven’t been able to master yet.

On Saturday morning, when I lazily drifted into the kitchen, the first thing I did was boil the eggs. Neatly, one task was done. I thought to myself that since I made egg curry the best, I will keep the eggs aside and make the curry at the end.

Then the enormous chore of preparing food for nine  persons single-handedly began. One by one I started cutting and chopping and putting things together. By the time the initial preparation was over, it was almost noon. I took a break but was soon back to business. Lunch time came and went and I didn’t seem to have made much progress. For lunch, I ate some of the leftovers in the fridge, cautious not to waste time making lunch for myself. Energised with carbs, I was back to the task with avengeance, and by around 5 p.m., I was done with all the preparations except the egg curry. I looked at the boiled eggs on the counter and said to myself that making egg curry is the easiest of things. Let me take a short nap and I will then come back refreshed and finish all remaining tasks. 

Exhausted, I drifted into a deep sleep. When I woke up, it was dark outside. I got up with a start as there were many things left to be done. I had to set the table and arrange the living room to receive the guests. As I set myself to doing the remaining chores, at the back of my mind, the unfinished task of making egg curry persisted. By the time I finished making the arrangements for the dinner and setting the table, it was well past 7 p.m. The guests were expected at 7:30 p.m.

I thought about skipping the idea of making egg curry as there was enough to eat. I went to the kitchen with this thought and looked at the forlorn eggs. However, after another look at the eggs, I immediately changed my mind. How could we have a Bengali dinner without egg or fish curry? Yet I did not have the stamina or the time to make the traditional curry, which requires making a base curry with onions, garlic, ginger, and tomatoes along with the ubiquitous potatoes and then adding the boiled eggs to them. This was a daunting task. But I had to make something with the eggs. But what?

I opened the fridge with an experimental mind and three things stared back at me: Mayonnaise, milk cream, and cheese spread. I took them out. I thought to myself, why not make a base curry with these continental ingredients? But these ingredients would make a white sauce, not a curry. So I thought of mixing in some masalas. On the shelf were three small pearl pet containers with haldi (turmeric), mirchi (chilli) and dhania (coriander) powders in them. I thought of using these three along with the three continental whites I found in the fridge. In diplomacy, we have heard of 2+2 dialogue; here I thought of implementing a 3+3 fusion.

From somewhere, an unseen hand guided me. I had no recipe and no idea even of the proportions of the ingredients or the final outcome. It just happened on the fly. I took a pan, poured some oil in it and as soon as the oil heated up, I added haldi, mirchi and dhanai powders to the oil and let them fry for about 30 seconds. The oil turned a rich golden-red. In this mix, I slowly rolled in the eggs. Wow! The eggs turned golden red. They looked nice. I reduced the flame and added the mayonnaise, cheese spread, and the cream in almost equal proportions and within seconds the whole thing looked golden-yellow and beautiful. I opened the shelf which contained our continental condiments and chanced upon the jar with oregano and another with sesame seeds. Without much thought, I added in some oregano and sprinkled the sesame seeds on top for additional seasoning.

The whole preparation time, excluding the time required for boiling the eggs, was about two minutes, almost like the time it takes to put together a bowl of masala Maggi. A simple, fusion recipe combining ingredients from places stretched far apart on the globe. Content with my invention, I promptly named it "Eggs Chakra", half after myself but more so as it is a hodgepodge of a recipe.

 Since its creation, the impact of the invention of "Eggs Chakra" has been strong and lasting. The dinner with my mentees and colleagues was a hit, more so as I spun a tale around the new recipe. Ever since, it has occupied a pride of place in all the meals that we have hosted, and, every time, the eggs have disappeared before all else on the table. Encouraged by the appeal, my daughter Ishani, who wants to build a career in the culinary arts, entered the recipe and the associated story in an Instagram contest– and she won. I suspect one of the reasons the recipe may have appealed to the jurors is the circumstances of the creation of “Eggs Chakra".

The 1&Only Recipes: Eggs Chakra  

Ingredients:

- 4 eggs

- 1 tbsp. coriander powder

- 1 tsp. turmeric powder

- 1 tsp. red chilli powder

- 2 tbsp. neutral oil

- ½ cup mayonnaise

- ¼ cup fresh cream

- ¼ cup grated mozzarella cheese or cheese spread

- 1 tbsp. oregano leaves

- Fresh coriander/parsley to garnish

Preparation:

1. Bring a large saucepan of water to boil over medium-high heat. Using a slotted spoon, lower the eggs into the water one at a time. Maintain a gentle boil and cook the eggs for 10 minutes. Transfer the eggs to a bowl of cold water. After the eggs have cooled down, gently crack and peel the eggs.

2. Heat oil in a skillet over medium heat. Add coriander, turmeric, and red chilli powder to the pan. Stir until the colour is uniform. Then add the eggs and coat them in the masala.

3. Add mayonnaise, cream, and cheese to the pan and mix well. Add oregano leaves and mix again.

4. Garnish with chopped coriander or parsley and serve.

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