My love for egg kirihodi is as strong as my love for Sri Lankan potato curry. This was one of those dishes that I would often request my mom to make, specially for breakfast or dinner. And on weekends that I know kirihodi is in the making for breaky, you will find me out of bed, in the kitchen without any prodding to wakeup.

A decade after leaving home, I still love this dish very much. Partly because it brings back so many fond memories, partly because it’s so damn delicious and also mostly because of its simplicity. By the time the eggs are done boiling in a separate pot, the kirihodi will be done and ready to go over a bowl of piping hot rice. In my case, slightly overcooked rice with a spoonful of vegemite.

Lanka has a few variations of an egg curry. Some mild and bright yellow, some deep orange and generously spiced. Some with hard boiled eggs, some with eggs poached in the curry, some with eggs beaten into the curry and in some cases with omelets or steamed eggs added at the very last minute. Though I’ll talk about a spicier orangish egg curry with omelet steamed in another post, this post is all about the gloriously yellow mild curry.

Though yellow, milky and mild it may look, this does still pack a little heat from the fresh red and green chilies added to it. However, that is completely optional and you can keep it completely heat free and it is still a treat. So without further rumblings, here’s the close to my heart kirihodi recipe.

So without further ramblings, here’s the close to my heart kirihodi recipe.

Ingredients:

• Eggs
• 1 medium onion, sliced
• 3-4 curry leaves
• 1″ piece of pandan leaf (rampe)
• 1 fresh green chili, sliced
• 1 fresh red chili, sliced
• 1 medium tomato
• 8-10 fenugreek seeds
• 1 tsp of turmeric powder
• 1 pod of Goraka (garcinia) or half a lime
• 1/2 + cup of Coconut milk
• Water & Salt

How to:

1) Put all except one egg to boil in a seperate pot. Tip: incase you didn’t already know, adding a tsp of salt into the boiling water with eggs makes it so much easier to peel the shells off the eggs. These should be done in about 8 mins max as we are looking for perfectly cooked eggs with a golden yolk.

2) Add the onions, curry leaves, tomato, rampe, goraka, chilies, fenugreek seeds, turmeric and salt into another pot with about half a cup of water and let the whole thing simmer.

Note: In my books, goraka is a MUST for a kirihodi. But if you are not able to source them where you live or simply ran out of stock like i sometimes do, squeeze in half a lime at the very end. It won’t give the exact depth of flavor but it’ll do.

3) Then add in one cup of thin coconut milk (if you are using coconut cream off a carton, simply dilute a 2 Tbsp in water). Let this come to a boil

4) Next, add in another half a cup of thick coconut milk and stir well. Tip: Never let the curry bubble vigorously after adding thick coconut milk. This will make the milk to separate and the curry to curdle. And you don’t want that. All you want is a smooth thick curry

5) Speaking of a thick curry, at this point I like to thicken my curry by adding one beaten egg into the curry.  Stir in the egg gently and this will thicken it without going overboard on coconut milk alone.

6) Finally, peel and halve the boiled eggs and place them over the curry and serve. You can sprinkle a dash of cayenne pepper over the eggs for a bit of heat and color.

This pairs amazingly well with a bowl of warm rice, a pol sambol and a salted fish fry.