Tuesday, March 22, 2011

Hard-boiled Eggs in Fragrant Kefir Sauce

I adapted this from a tasty recipe from Madhur Jaffrey's classic, Indian Cooking. I remember being amazed at how delicious this simple dish was the first time I made it. This time, I wanted to use my tangy, raw half & half kefir as the base.

Eggs in Fragrant Kefir Sauce
In blender or food processor, puree until smooth:
1/2 small onion
1/4 tsp garam masala
a one-inch cube or slice of ginger
fresh or dried hot chilies, to taste
1 tsp ground cumin
1/4 tsp salt
2 teaspoons sundried tomato paste, or 1/2 of a fresh tomato
1 scant teaspoon agave nectar
6-8 hard boiled eggs, peeled and halved.

Gently stir the puree into 1 1/2 cups thick kefir ( I suppose yogurt would work too!). Set sauce aside in refrigerator for flavors to develop.
To serve, arrange egg halves in a dish and pour the sauce over them.
If you like, you can gently warm the dish in a low oven--but not too hot, or you might as well follow Mrs. Jaffrey's scrummy original recipe!

I chose to serve this over a bed of diced, sauteed sweet potato and brown rice. Am I dithering over the whole raw foods thing? You bet I am. As indescribably rich and nourishing as raw flavors are--and I am really enjoying the fresh juices, and salads, and ripe fruit!--I still crave the chewy warmth of brown rice, the soft sweetness of baked sweet potatoes, and yes, the melty delicousness of cheese.
And to be fair there are many schools of thought about raw foods. In Traditional Chinese Medicine, for example, raw foods are often frowned upon as upsetting to the body's balance. Nutrition experts as respected as Dr. Andrew Weil have qualms about raw foods. There are many good reasons humans learned to cook their foods--among them digestibility, flavor and nutrition. To gain some understanding of the ongoing controversy, read here.
And I haven't learned to like sprouted brown rice or raw sweet potatoes...yet. I suppose I am still gradually and experimentally seeking the right diet for me. For example, I find it hard to believe that beautiful, tasty eggs from my own hens, and kefir fermented from raw, pasture-raised raw milk, are poison--as many raw foods purists would have us believe. I suppose, on balance, that I just have a hard time being a fanatic of any stripe.
It's almost 5 o'clock, today, and I have only had two large fresh juices and a few nibbles of fruit & nuts today. I'm lovin' the juice. It feels like pure magic. I feel as if another juice would fill me up for the night--but I'm also ready for a dish of yummy carbs, fiber and protein. That is to say, brown rice, sweet potatoes, and eggs in a creamy sauce.

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