Recipe for a Royal Egg Pickle

This recipe is from the kitchens of the Thanjavur royal family. The cuisine is a mix of traditional Brahmin, Mukkulathor and Maratha cuisines, drawing from the communities that have lived in and around Thanjavur. More on the cuisine and it’s influences here.

Recipe: Egg Pickle

Ingredients
25 eggs
60 g roasted fenugreek seeds
60 g roasted and bran removed mustard seeds
10 g fried asafoetida
5 g turmeric powder
20 g powdered cumin seeds
10 tola salt
20 tolas garlic
10 limes limes

Method
Juice the limes in a large vessel. Add the turmeric powder, powder of red chillies, asafoetida, mustard powder to this. Peel the garlic and cut them into thin slices length wise.

Then place a frying pan in the oven and pour half a pound of groundnut oil and pour in it all powdered masala ingredients and the lime fruit juice already kept aside and blend the whole thing well and keep it on the stove, kindle the fire and boil the whole mixture.

Then put all the 25 eggs in a vessel and pour over 2.5 pounds of water and hard boil the eggs. Remove carefully and slowly the shells covering the eggs and pare with a sharp knife at the top of the eggs till it reaches the fringes of the yellow yolk; but should not cut open fully.

In this manner all eggs should be slightly cut open.

Then place a frying vessel and pour oil and slowly put all the peeled eggs and fry them to golden red colour and then pour over all the masala condiment ingredients.

Boil till steam escapes from the vessel, remove the lid and stir with the ladle and after a short while remove the vessel from the fire.

This egg pickle can be kept for 3 to 4 days for use without getting staled or spoiled.

In the same manner in which egg pickle is prepared, fish pickle can also be prepared. The fish pieces must be well fried in oil till they turn golden blackish red colour.

Then the fish pieces should be added in the pickle masala mix as was done in the case of the egg pickle.

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