Dim Shukhno – an ‘egg’citing recipe from my mom’s kitchen!

After all these years of food events, tasting sessions, cookery workshops, etc I have realized one thing. One thing that I knew from the very beginning! Wherever on earth you go, you won’t find anything so comforting that can beat your home-cooked food! And especially if it’s cooked by your mom! The dishes which my mom used to cook when I was a kid are still etched in my memory! And it’s truly said that good food creates good memories, if it’s not worth creating a memory then there’s really no point talking about that food! I try to create new memories everyday while I hold on strongly to these sweet food memories which are connected to the dishes my mom cooked. These are the dishes which I ate all these years while I grew up.

One such typical Bengali dish which mom used to cook (and sometimes cooks these days on request) very frequently while I was a kid was a spicy dry preparation of Egg Curry that made me have on a plateful of steamed rice without any fuss! 🙂 It’s so damn tasty and has a typical inimitable aroma that’s so connected to my childhood days! My mom used to call this ‘Dim Shukhno’ in Bengali, or Dry Egg Curry! (well, there can be a better name given to this dish but then it won’t be that particular dish I am talking about). This is a kind of sukha (dry) preparation of dim (egg) that best goes with steamed rice, and nothing else! This dish surely has some signature touches that make it tad unique and different from other run of the mill egg curries we generally have every day.

So, let me try to share this recipe with you which is of course so close to my heart! Recently I have myself cooked this dish a couple of times at my place, and it came out pretty well and that was satisfying enough to write down this recipe! So, let’s start with the list of ingredients and then move on to the cooking procedure. I will be cooking a dish for three people with three eggs. Here we go:

List of Ingredients:

Cumin Seeds ( whole Jeera) -1/4^th tsp
Turmeric Powder – ½ tsp
Salt (to taste)
Green Chillies (kacha lanka) – 4 nos.
Dried Red Chillies (shukno lanka) – 2 big ones
Onion (sliced)– 1 cup.
Ginger (minced) – 2 tsp
Garlic (minced) – 2 tbsp
Potatoes (cut into small ½ inch cubes) – 1 cup
Eggs – 3 nos.
Tomato (sliced) – 1 cup
Tomato Sauce – 4 tbsp
Lemon Juice – 2 tbsp
Vinegar – 1 tbsp
Black Pepper powder – 1 tsp
Water (a cup)

Cooking Procedure:

To start with, you need to have patience while cooking this (especially in the end) though this is a pretty simple dish to cook and you need not be an expert chef to get this right! I basically got the list of ingredients from my mother and kept her cooking technique in mind, while I adjusted the procedure or sequence according to my ease! The end result tasted similar to what my mom prepares, so yes, the cooking time and the list of ingredients play the major role here.

Firstly, dice the onions, tomatoes, potatoes (peel off the skin) and mince the garlic and ginger. Slit the four green chilies vertically.
Boil 3 eggs for 10 minutes, take out the shell and lightly fry them in a separate pan till golden brown (sprinkle salt and black pepper on top); keep them aside.

Add mustard oil in the Kadai and heat it nicely, add the cumin seeds to it. Then add three green chilies and the dried red chilies to it, keep tossing, let them crackle.
Then add the minced garlic, ginger and diced onions to this and keep tossing. (You can also prepare fresh garlic and ginger paste and use it)
Add the diced potatoes after this, and let it fry a bit. Add salt to taste.
After the potatoes turn golden brown, add the roughly diced tomatoes to this and mix well (you can optionally beat the tomatoes while cooking to mix them well and faster). You can add a couple of spoons of water to this mixture and let it cook on a lower medium flame.
Add the boiled eggs to this and keep cooking

Now add a half cup of tomato sauce (I use Maggi Hot and Sweet Tomato Chili Sauce) and 2-3 tablespoons of vinegar to this, mix well and keep cooking.
Add a tinge of turmeric powder and some salt to taste (if required)
Keep tossing and cooking. Occasionally cook on high flame so that the oil comes out of this dry mixture. Add a spoonful of water from time to time, if required.
Make sure the potatoes are cooked well and the entire mixture is oozing with spices, tanginess and a rich aroma, along with a bit of oil coming out of it.

Slice a lemon and add a dash of fresh lemon juice, toss a bit and remove it from the flame.
Serve this with warm steamed rice and savor!

So, that’s the recipe. It took me some time to pen this down as I am somehow very reluctant to write down recipes! Don’t know why 🙂 Please try this dish at your home and let me know how you liked it, I try to prepare this on days when I am not in a mood to have fish or meat!

It’s a spicy and tangy refreshing break with loads of memories of the best days of my life! I will try to bring more such Bengali recipes to you, especially the ones which have some memories attached to it.

Cheers!