Curried Egg & Pepper Scramble

An eastern twist on one of my Central New York favorites. A light, fresh taste with a bit of heat. The sweetness of the chutney on the side balances out this dish. Goes great with coffee.

Total Time

• Prep: 10–15 minutes
• Cook: 10–15 minutes

Drink Pairing

Hot coffee from a french-press or pour-over drip.

Ingredients

Feeds about two people of the hungry adult variety.

• 4 eggs (free range with extra adjectives on packaging preferred)
• 1 large potato, chopped (white starchy variety)
• 4–6 green onions, chopped (regular onion is fine, green = nice color)
• 1 red bell pepper, diced
• 1–4 hot peppers, diced (serrano, jalapeño, or similar)
• fresh parsley, chopped (to taste, about 6–8 sprigs)
• peanut or sesame oil (any oil that can stand high-heat will do fine)
• 1/2 tablespoon yellow curry powder
• 1 teaspoon turmeric (optional)
• salt, to taste
• 2–4 slices bread, sliced (for toast on the side)
• mango chutney, hot sauce, or sriracha (serve on the side)

Preparation

Heat a non-stick skillet, preferably a long one that fits across two burners so you only dirty one piece of cookware #lazy #dishessuck. Add about a few teaspoons of oil to one side of the skillet.

Let the oil heat up, and add the potatoes. Let them sit for a few minutes at a time to brown, and give them a good turn over now and again. They’ll take a while so you can do more prep-work while the fry. Keep the potatos pushed to one side so they can keep cooking.

Prepare the spice mix. Combine the curry powder, turmeric, and a few pinches of salt into a bowl. Mix it up so its incorporated. Set it aside.

Prepare the eggs. Whisk them vigerously in a large bowl. As you whisk, incorporate the spice mix slowly to avoid clumping. No matter how slowly you add the spice mix, there will be clumps. Don’t worry about it. Take a few more sips of coffee.

Fry the peppers. Add a few drops of oil (don’t use too much oil here!) and then add the peppers on the other side of the skillet. Start on high heat and reduce the heat a bit after they become aromatic. After 3–4 minutes, sprinkle a handful of water over the peppers — this will steam them. As soon as the ppers are al-dente, push them towards the potatos, which should be crisping up by now quite nicely.

Add the eggs. Reduce the empty side of the skillet to medium heat. Add a bit more oil and bring it up to temp. Pour the egg mix onto the griddle. Let the first layer of egg cook, and then scrape it towards the potatos. The idea here is you don’t want to cook all the eggs at once. Ideally they’ll be semi-cooked and you will finish off cooking the eggs as you incorporate the rest of the ingredients. This coats the other stuff with egg and mixes the flavor profile nicely.

Add the garnish, salt, and mix together. When about 75% of the egg mix is cooked, add the onions and chopped parsley on the griddle. Mix everything together. Keep mixing. It’s still cooking as you mix. The parsley and onions will just get kissed with heat and add their flavors to the mix.

Plate and serve. In our house I serve this family-style on a big tray and we all dig in. I scoop some mango chutney on the side as a garnish. Enjoy!

Creator’s Notes / Inspiration

My wife LOVES Syracuse style “Fretta” (egg scramble) and it’s one of the dishes she requests the most — but alas, today we were out of cheese! Using the peppers, curry, and chutney together added an interesting twist with a fresh-taste, so she didn’t even miss the cheese. The chutney really added a sweet and moist character to it that the cheese normally provides.