Ande ki Kari (Eggs in Spicy Tomato Sauce) Recipe (2024)

This gravy can be quite a workhorse. Instead of eggs, you can put in grilled and sliced chicken, roasted vegetables, tofu, paneer (Indian cheese) or whatever else you can imagine.

You can also modify this by a) making the tomato-onion gravy a little more liquidy, b) making more of it, c) breaking eggs into the hot gravy on the stovetop and letting them poach in the slurry, similar to shakshouka.
No need to boil eggs separately.

In Indian cookings, you fry the dry spices first, or what we call as chonk or phoron. You need to fry the cumin seeds, the cinnamon stick (much less than what's used here) and the cardamom lightly till fragrant, and then add the chopped onions followed by ginger and garlic. Frying the dry spices gives a much deeper flavor.

I used to make this years ago when I had Ms. Sahni's cookbook but, alas, lost the book in the course of moving house and never got around to replacing it. Thanks for reviving this. Now I have to lay my hands on that book. It was a keeper!
BTW, if you have a pressure cooker, hard boiled eggs are a cinch, and always come out perfect. 6 minutes, plunge into cold water...Perfect, sunny yellow yolks, firm whites and they practically peel themselves.

An egg pricker makes boiling and peeling eggs easier. Prick a small hole in egg's larger end where a small air space is found. Place in boiling water. The egg's air space heats up, expands, and escapes through the shell's pores (and the pierced hole), but not before the egg white sets. Water between the shell and internal membrane gives eggs smoothly rounded ends, makes them easier to peel, and are less likely to crack (particularly important for older eggs with larger air sacs).

A variation of this is a Kashmiri version. Make the sauce, hard boil the eggs, leave them whole, then( weird I know) deep fry them. The whites will fluff and bubble up. Then use a skewer to pierce the eggs all over, place them in the masala sauce and simmer gently for about 10 minutes. This allows the masala sauce to penetrate the eggs.

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www.bonnieslotnickcookbooks.com

This sauce would make shoe leather taste good. It is a simply splendid sauce for flavor. If you don't eat eggs, try it on veggies or rice or flatbreads of any kind or steamed cauliflower or...the list is endless for possibilities. In my opinion, grating the fresh tomatoes as described in the recipe makes a good amount of difference. I wouldn't modify that step. The aaaahhhh...roma of this as it cooks is an added bonus.

I grew up in Southern Indiana where food was seasoned with salt and pepper. So I've been frightened by spices. Tonight, I branched out for the second time (first was Tagine) and I have to say...I'm ready to go all out with explorations....because this dish is INCREDIBLE. The first time you do it may take a couple of hours, but it's worth your time. Serve in a bowl over Jasmine-style rice and top with yogurt...you will not miss meat ever again! Thanks Melissa.

This is a question I always want to ask about boiling eggs: the eggs that I buy from fresh food market or a supermarket are not in a cooled section, and I don't keep them in a fridge either. It is never mentioned in the "best way to cook eggs in water" recipes weather the eggs are at room temperature or not! Nevertheless, this will be a new recipe to try .... I have done already tens of Melissa's and have had big success with tehm. Thank you Melissa.

I poached the eggs in the sauce instead of hard boiling, and it was delicious...and half the work! This recipe is a keeper!

This is one of my favorite Indian dishes. I made it last week, and ate it again tonight. If you are just a few eaters, freeze half the sauce and add the eggs when you re-heat it.

This is one of the staple foods in my home back in India.Add cumin seeds, cardamom and cinnamon sticks to the hot oil first, then fry the chopped onions. For heat we add green chili peppers (thai ones).Put two-three thin slits with a knife on the whole boiled eggs. Light fry the eggs (you don't need to halve them). Add few potatoes (pre-boiled is fine) or fry them lightly prior to adding in the sauce.

In order to be more authentically Indian, I would add about a 1/2 teaspoon or more of red chili powder. I used canned diced tomatoes and that worked perfectly, however grating fresh tomatoes works great too.

My only comment is that I made the sauce about 8 hours ahead. I reheated it and followed the recipe just as we were about to sit down for dinner. I feel like that additional time of allowing the flavors to meld really made a difference. I love that Indian food just gets better and better!

Love this. Also added paneer as well after reading the comments. It’s so good. Can alter the intensity by changing how much boiling water at the end.

Oh my goodness what a surprise this was. I had low expectations with eggs and all but my oh my! I made this as written but didn't have cumin seeds so I just skipped them but will get some and add next time and there will definitely be a next time! I served with jasmine rice and naan

This was great, but I would prefer way more of the curry for the number of eggs. Next time make a big batch of the sauce, then freeze some for later.

The below commenter Clara recommended this recipe to me, and I’m only sorry I didn’t heed her recommendation sooner! This was one of the tastiest things I’ve made from NYT cooking.

I have made this recipe several times and I will make it many times again. I especially love serving it over coconut rice. You can cut corners by taking less time cooking the onions and simmering the sauce and it will still be very tasty. BUT the more time you take, the better the result. Let the onions brown over as much time as possible until you throw in the ginger and garlic. I also recommend upping the amount of spices and ginger for a bit more verve.

Really great recipe. I followed almost exact, but throughout cooking, I had to continuously turn down the heat and cook for less time than suggested.Hope that helps.

Substituted coconut milk for tomatoes. Would use low fat coconut milk. Flavor fabulous.

It's better if you dry fry the spices first. This recipe was just okay, there are better egg curry recipes out there. I'm Indian and I found it fairly bland.

In order to be more authentically Indian, I would add about a 1/2 teaspoon or more of red chili powder. I used canned diced tomatoes and that worked perfectly, however grating fresh tomatoes works great too.

This was pretty good, but not good enough to put it into rotation.

OMG was this good!At first I thought the mix of spices was overpowering, so added some coconut milk. By a few hours later, flavors had melded and the end result was superb. Once again: THANK YOU, MELISSA!

This is one of the staple foods in my home back in India.Add cumin seeds, cardamom and cinnamon sticks to the hot oil first, then fry the chopped onions. For heat we add green chili peppers (thai ones).Put two-three thin slits with a knife on the whole boiled eggs. Light fry the eggs (you don't need to halve them). Add few potatoes (pre-boiled is fine) or fry them lightly prior to adding in the sauce.

Great way to use Easter Eggs! and Wow this was good! I toasted the cumin, cinnamon and the cardamom then added the onion, ginger and garlic to the gee & coconut oil as the reviewer suggested below. The rest of the recipe was followed as the directions suggested. It was delicious served over brown basmati rice. I can't wait to try this with veggies or chick peas or tofu. Enjoy!

felt there was too much salt. added canned coconut milk to offset this.