Devilled Eggs

This is called devilled eggs in my cookbook, which always confuses people, because Americans mean something very different by devilled eggs. But I swear, that’s what we call them in Sri Lanka.

It’s really devilled onions with eggs — you hard-boil the eggs, and then slice them in half and top them with devilled onions. (I didn’t slice these yet, because they’re for a party on Sunday and I’m cooking in advance; I’ll do that step just before the party to maintain egg freshness.)

You can use devilled onions for whatever you like — even use oil instead of ghee and then they’re vegan. They’d be great on a sandwich with grilled mushrooms or eggplant, for example. And if you’re not vegan, then consider grilled chicken or pork. Yum!

The basic process is to:

– slice onions
– heat oil
– add mustard seeds and heat until they start popping (now you have mustard oil)
– add cumin seeds
– add onions — you can stand over them and stir on medium heat, but these days, I often put it on low and just come back and stir once in a while (which also makes it nicely compatible with playing a board game with Jed, who likes to think over his moves a little more than I do)
– once the onions are golden-translucent, add cayenne and salt, stir a few minutes on medium-high until the cayenne has cooked a little, then add ketchup (or if you are snooty, add chopped tomatoes, vinegar, salt, and sugar)

– that’s basically it — this is one of the first things I learned to cook in college, and I made it just like that — but if you want to fancy it up a bit, you can add a little lime juice, jaggery, and some curry leaves for added complexity

Actual recipe in Feast, of course. 🙂 Vegans, would it be helpful to have the devilled onion recipe in Vegan Serendib? I hadn’t planned on it, but it’s easy enough to add…

Vegan Serendib Kickstarter running here (stretch goal: a cocktail party recipe book!) — https://www.kickstarter.com/…/vegan-serendib-a-sri…

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