'There was an egg dish on the menu at Billy Kwong, which was a great example of something for dinner that would be equally good for breakfast, the eggs fried using the wok method. It was a perfect dish: the eggs dressed with oyster and chilli sauce, coriander, shallots and fresh chilli, offering a mix of textures and flavors.
It was a rich number, made even more decadent when cooked with duck eggs, as it originally was. And then, in Sri Lanka, one of the great breakfasts (or easy dinners) is kiri hodi, a gentle, runny coconut milk curry, almost like a sauce, often boiled eggs bobbing around in it, served with string hoppers, a delicate steamed rice flour pancake, and a fiery sambol on the side. Cross these two things and you get this perfect hybrid breakfast (or dinner), the crisp whites mimicking the lacy string hoppers and the yolks breaking into the curry sauce, creating a delicious puddle.' O Tama Carey - Lankan Filling
Ingredients
150 ml (5 fl oz) Kiri hodi
5 g (⅕ oz) fenugreek seeds
25 g (1 oz) coconut oil
4 g (⅛ oz) picked curry leaves,
finely sliced along the grain
150 g (5. oz) sliced brown onion
12 g (. oz) finely chopped garlic
8 g (. oz) White curry powder (page 26)
3 g (1⁄10 oz) turmeric powder
1 cinnamon stick
250 ml (8. fl oz) coconut cream
4 x 5 cm (2 in) pieces rampe (pandan) leaf
juice of up to 1 lime
salt flakes and freshly ground
white pepper
vegetable oil, for frying
4 eggs
coriander (cilantro) leaves,
to garnish
toast or roti, to serve
MORU CHILLI CRUMB
2 g (1⁄16 oz) white peppercorns
1 g (3⅓ oz) salt flakes
4 fried moru chillies, cut into pieces
method
To made Kiri Hodi
Place the fenugreek seeds in a small bowl, add 75 ml (2. fl oz) of water and set aside.
Melt the coconut oil in a medium saucepan over a medium heat, add the curry leaves and cook, stirring
for a minute or so, until the leaves are fried. Add the onion and garlic and cook, stirring occasionally,
for 4–5 minutes, until the onion has softened.
Stir in the curry powder, turmeric and cinnamon and continue stirring for 1–2 minutes until the powder begins to catch on the bottom of the pan.
Add the coconut cream, rampe (pandan) leaf, soaked fenugreek seeds and 600 ml (20. fl oz) of
water. Bring the mixture just to a boil, then reduce the heat and simmer gently for 2–3 minutes, until
the sauce comes together. Season to taste with lime juice, salt and pepper. The flavor should be mild and sweet with just a hint of curry and pepper, and lime in the very background.
The rest of the recipe
For the moru chilli crumb, use a mortar and pestle to grind the pepper and salt until coarse. Add in the moru chillies and continue grinding until the pepper is mostly fine and the chillies are broken up into small pieces.
Set aside.
Warm up the kiri hodi and have it ready to serve. Cook your eggs using the wok frying method then transfer them to a shallow bowl.
Using kitchen scissors or the tip of a sharp knife, cut into the yolks so they run a little.
Ladle on the kiri hodi, sprinkle with the moru chilli crumb and top with coriander. Serve immediately with toast or roti.