Masala Spiced Fried Eggs with Chilli and Mint
It's finally time to put my food fear in its place
In our house, the hottest food you will find if you rummage through the cupboards and fridge is probably curry powder, and one of the varieties even states ‘korma curry powder’ on the jar, so you know you stand firmly within the region of mild.
I’ve never had the guts when it comes to heat in my food - maybe a pinch of chilli flakes here or there in stir fries or noodles, or to garnish spaghetti. Gaylord is even worse than me, if you can imagine, just about tolerating paprika. There was an incident with fajitas - he confidently shook the jar of cayenne over the pan of simmering chicken, surprised at how mild it seemed. Then at the table, the culprit chicken wrapped snuggly in its tortilla blanket, that first bite brought the burning fire. Tears dripped from his eyes as he tried to eat, and then he gave up, wiping sweat from his face, and I powered through, topping the fajitas with spoon after spoon of yoghurt as a cooling lubricant. Lesson learned: avoid cayenne.
However, since the fajita incident, Gaylord hasn’t let it hold him back and has cautiously experimented with heat - sprinkling more and more chilli powder into soups or to garnish salads. While I admire his boldness and inability to admit defeat, I know we will eventually reach that line of fire which we cannot cross. And I think we found it in these masala fried eggs.
I can’t take any credit for this recipe - I saw it on my Substack Inbox feed and the colours and the runny egg yolks were enough to make me click without a second thought. Carolina Gelen, the author of the newsletter
which I wholeheartedly recommend if you don’t already follow it, is the creative inspiration I need more of in my life. She even got out of bed in the middle of the night to make these masala eggs. Midnight cooking is something I don’t do enough of, partly thanks to my paranoia I’ll forget to turn the stove off and burn the flat down in my sleep, but beyond that, it’s something I’d like to try - a plate of spiced eggs is exactly what I need when the rest of the building is soundly asleep and it’s just me and the little family of hedgehogs that like to explore our rainforest garden who are awake.But back to heat. These eggs’ garam masala and turmeric are nothing for Gaylord and I to get concerned about, it was the chilli garnish which made Gaylord widen his eyes in horror. And the fact that I, his trusted heat-adverse comrade, was there chopping up three. Yes three. (They were different colours, I wanted it to look pretty, what can I say?)
Sprinkled on top of the eggs which were merrily frying away, the scent of browned spiced butter, shallot, ginger and slivered garlic filling the flat, these chillis seemed to wink in sly daring. Gently steamed, the eggs were whisked off the heat while the yolks were still runny and we dined, using baguette to mop the pan clean of yolk and melted butter.
Those chillis? With the little steam cook, the heady flavours of ginger and garam masala, the butter, the fresh mint and squeeze of lemon juice on top, they perfectly blended with the explosion of flavours in the dish. I’ll possibly remove the seeds next time, and maybe not slice up three, but look at us! Eating chillis! Balancing them on bread with buttery fried eggs! Look at us go!
So, thank you Carolina for your recipe for masala fried eggs - you’ve broken a dam in this house and who knows where we’ll go from here? Medium curry powder perhaps?
Masala Fried-Eggs with Chilli and Mint
The recipe on Scraps includes optional cayenne which, of course, I left out. It also uses coriander instead of mint and lime instead of lemon and her recipe serves 1. I’ve adapted this according to what I had in my fridge - this is Raid the Fridge Friday after all - and to serve 2.
Prep Time: 10 mins
Cook Time: 15 mins
Course: Dinner, Lunch, Main Course, Breakfast, Brunch
Keyword: fried eggs, garam masala, turmeric, chilli, mint
Servings: 2
Author: Adapted from Carolina Gelen’s recipe
Ingredients
For the masala-fried eggs
2 tbsp butter
1 shallot
1 inch fresh ginger - roughly 1 tbsp, finely grated
3 cloves of garlic
½ heaped tsp garam masala
¼ tsp turmeric
4 eggs
Sliced chilli, colourful or otherwise, as much or as little as you would like
Sliced spring onion, the green part
Small handful of fresh mint leaves, for serving
Juice of ¼ lemon, for serving
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
Instructions
Finely dice the shallot, grate the ginger and slice the garlic.
Melt the butter in a frying pan over medium heat and once it’s melted and sizzling, add the shallot and ginger and a pinch of salt. Cook for 5 minutes until soft and fragrant then add the garlic, garam masala and turmeric. Cook for a further 30 seconds.
Reduce the heat to low then crack in your eggs, season with a pinch of salt, and add the chilli and spring onion slices. Cover with a lid and steam for 4-5 minutes until the egg whites are cooked yet the yolks are still runny.
Garnish with the mint and lemon juice. Finish with some salt and pepper and serve with bread, maybe a light fresh slaw and possibly yoghurt to help with the heat.