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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