Jono & Jules do food & wine

This is a great lentil curry but the star of the show is definitely the spiced crispy eggs. We’ll definitely be making these again with other dishes that could do with a crispy egg. Serve with steamed basmati rice.

Wine Suggestion: the spices in this dish will fight with tannins so we’d suggest pairing with a white wine. Our choice this evening was the Chayeau Pesquie Terrasses Blanc, a blend of Viognier, Roussanne, Clairette and Grenache Blanc – a real southern Rhône style blend with fresh stone fruit and citrus flavours.

Spiced crispy egg and lentil curry – serves 4

• 100g red lentils
• 2 onions, roughly chopped
• 400g tin chopped tomatoes
• 1 tsp ground turmeric
• 2 tbsp oil for frying
• 1½ tsp ground cumin
• 1½ tsp ground coriander
• 4 cardamom pods, squashed
• a thumb-sized piece of root ginger, finely chopped
• 4 cloves of garlic, crushed
• 2-3 green chillies, sliced
• 100g baby spinach, chopped
• 1 tsp garam masala
• a small bunch of coriander, chopped

FOR THE CRISPY EGGS

• 6 eggs
• ¼ tsp ground turmeric
• ¼ tsp paprika

Put the lentils, onions and tomatoes in a pan with the turmeric and a teaspoon of salt. Add water to just cover, then simmer gently for 20 minutes or until the lentils are tender.

Drop the eggs into boiling water and cook for 7 minutes, then plunge them into iced water and leave to cool.

Heat 1 tbsp of the oil in a large pan, then stir in the cumin, coriander and cardamom. Cook for a couple of minutes, then add the ginger, garlic & chillies. Cook for a few minutes before adding the cooked lentils and 100ml water. Cover and simmer for 30 minutes, then add the spinach and cook for another 10 minutes.

Peel the eggs and heat the tbsp of oil in a frying pan. Add the eggs, turmeric, paprika and some salt. Cook the eggs until they start to blister and crisp.

Stir the garam masala and fresh coriander into the curry and serve with the halved eggs and some steamed basmati rice.

(Original recipe by Janine Ratcliffe in BBC Olive Magazine, December 2017)