Mama’s Punjabi Recipes – Ande ki Bhurji (Spicy Scrambled Eggs)

Mamas1

Ande ki Bhurji (Spicy Scrambled Eggs)

 Here is a very easy recipe that is also very fast to make. It comes in handy when you have a starving bunch of people who crave for the desi taste of food. I have made it many times for my two grown grandsons and watched in delight as they finished the bhurji down with paranthas, roti or even heated wheat tortillas!

Eggs are, of course, popular all around the world. In India, which is a predominantly vegetarian country, some vegetarians do eat eggs (mostly on doctors orders) to supplement their protein intake. Egg stalls can be found all over the country in India, offering eggs in a wide variety of ways. Egg production has grown tremendously through large scale hen raising methods in huge farms. Still, most people visiting the country say that the eggs taste better in India.

 Chicken eggs supply protein through essential amino acids, vitamins A, B2, B9, B5, B12, and choline, iron, calcium, phosporus and potassium. Vitamins A, D and E are in the egg yolk, which also has two-thirds of the recommended daily intake of 300mg of cholestrerol. A large egg yolk contains approximately 60 calories; the egg white contains about 15.

You can make the bhurji using many different ingredients – some even put coconut milk in it – but the difference is that my recipe uses the spices and basic ingredients that we used in our ancestral village before the Partition and it retains a Northern Indian flavor.

 Ingredients: 

• 3 large ande (eggs) (the brown type have a better taste)

• 1 small aloo (potato)

• 1 small pyaaz (onion) (green onions may be used too)

• 1 small tamater (tomato) – soft ones are best

• 1 tablespoon of mutter (peas) (optional)

• 2 teaspoons of vegetable or olive oil

Spices: namak (salt), mirch (red pepper) and haldi (turmeric)

Directions:

1. Peel and cut the potato, onion and tomato into small pieces and keep them aside.

 2. Heat the oil in a medium skillet and lightly brown the onions and potato in it. Now throw in the peas and tomato and let them vegetables cook a little bit, turning a little browner.

 3. Now crack open the eggs into the vegetables and mix thoroughly, adding the salt, pepper and turmeric to taste. Stir till the liquid is congealed but the eggs must be mostly scrambled.

 4. For best results, serve the bhurji with hot paranthas. This dish is also best eaten with roti.

 MAMA'S 2Shakuntla Malhotra recently returned to Houston after a six-week vacation in her homeland India. She is a skilled cook of Punjabi dishes made in the old-fashioned style that she learnt as a young woman in her ancestral home in Lyallpur, India before it became part of Pakistan after the Partition in 1947. People have often admired her cooking for its simplicity and taste that comes with each mouthful. Even in her mid-eighties, she continues to cook daily and agreed to share some of her delectable Punjabi recipes.