Don’t laugh when I say that I dread boiling eggs. I am not a fan of peeling or eating hard boiled eggs either. The husband and the 6.5 yo love eating boiled eggs. But they only get to eat it when the husband is around and he is boiling and peeling the eggs. In my defense, my eggs turn out either horribly over-boiled or pathetically under-boiled. And then I will have a hard time peeling them – almost always mauling the whites to the extent that it starts resembling the cratered surface of the moon. And no, none of the egg peeling hacks ever work for me.

Last Sunday I asked the husband sheepishly, how long does he boil the eggs for. He said 13 minutes.

13 minutes. 13 minutes! 13 was the magic number! How lucky for me.

I confidently put 8 eggs to boil and set the timer for 13 minutes. I ran to check when the timer beeped. Much to my dismay, there was no rolling boil, the water had just started to simmer. Hearing my anguished lament (or perhaps it was a frustrated grunt – I forget which), he came to the kitchen, and lectured me on the principles of egg boiling starting with the fact 13 minutes is for 2 eggs. Less water. And only when he’s multitasking and boiling them on medium low heat. Darn!

So here’s what he does –

* Puts a pot full of water (regular cold tap water) along with the eggs on medium-high heat and a pinch of salt.
* Covers and cooks the eggs till it comes to a rolling boil.
*Turns off the heat and lets the eggs hang out in the covered pot for in the hot water for 15 minutes (for hard boiled eggs). If you want softer yolks, you have to take the eggs out sooner.
* Lets the eggs cool down by placing them in cold water before peeling.

I boiled another batch of 8 eggs to perfection yesterday. And then peeled them almost perfectly too!

**I have a coil burner and that’s why it takes way longer to boil water than regular gas flame burners.

So here’s recipe #2 in our “Ingredient of the Month” series.

Ingredients:

Using a paring knife score the boiled and peeled eggs gently. Heat 1 tsp oil in a pan and lightly fry the eggs. Set aside.
If like me, you grind the poppy seed and mustard seed in a spice or a coffee grinder, then in a bowl, mix the ground poppy seed and ground mustard seed with 3-4 tablespoons of water and let it rest for a few minutes.
Add remaining 1 tsp to the hot pan and temper it with the green chilies and panch phoron – five spice mix. I usually make my own 5 spice mix by mixing equal amounts of fennel seeds, cumin seeds, nigella seeds, fenugreek seeds and radhuni seeds. If I do not have any radhuni seeds on hand, I use mustard seeds instead.
Once the seeds start spluttering, add the sliced onions and fry till translucent. Pour the poppy seed-mustard seed paste and cook for a minute or two till the raw smell is gone. Sprinkle the turmeric and season with salt. Tip in the eggs (I sliced mine in half) and mix gently till the masala coats the eggs. Let the eggs soak in the gravy for a couple of minutes. End with a generous sprinkle of finely chopped cilantro. Take it off the heat.

Serve hot with rice or roti. Refrigerate leftovers.