Hard Boiled Eggs with Onions Caramelized in Indian Spices

The original idea for these eggs came from a new-to-me blog called Teczcape - An Escape to Food, where you will find a plethora of delicious-sounding, and often quite healthy, recipes.  On Teczcape, the recipe was for Spicy Chili Sambal Eggs, which were made up of hard boiled eggs, topped with caramelized onions that had been cooked in, what else,  sambal.  Sambal is a kind of spicy chili chutney that sounds crazy good.  It can be both purchased and made at home, assuming you either have the ingredients or want to go get them.  Neither was the case for me.  

Instead, I decided to caramelize my onions in a medley of Indian spices, which I both already know I love and already had in the kitchen.  So instead of spicy chili sambal eggs, I give you...

Hard Boiled Eggs with Onions Caramelized in Indian Spices

6 hard boiled eggs, cooled

2 large onions, white or brown are best, don't go with an overly sweet onion to begin with

Sunflower Oil for the pan

Heaping 1/2 teaspoon mustard seeds

1 1/2 teaspoons ground fenugreek

1 1/2 teaspoons ground cumin

1 teaspoon chili powder

1 1/2 teaspoons ground coriander

Peel and slice the onions into 1/4" thick half rings.  Heat the sunflower oil in a pan over medium heat until it shimmers.  Add the mustard seeds and allow them to pop.  When they're no longer popping, add the onions and reduce the heat to medium low.  Add the fenugreek and cumin and  stir to coat the onions.  

Cook the onions until they have reduced to about half the volume, then add the chili powder and the coriander.  Stir to combine and continue cooking until the onions reduce your desired doneness.  It took about 1 hour total for my onions to caramelize to the degree that I wanted.  It's worth it to keep them over a low heat and allow them to take their time.  They don't require much watching, just an occasional stir. 

Slice the eggs in half lengthwise, top with a small spoonful of caramelized onion and enjoy.

Notes:

* You can serve with either warm onions straight from the pan, or with room temperature onions once they've cooled.  It's good both ways.

* Extra onion can be stored in the refrigerator for quite some time, I'd say at least a week.  You can even freeze leftover onion for a later use.

Here are some ideas for what to do with leftover caramelized onions:

* Put them on a baguette with a little paneer or other cheese

*  Use them on a homemade pizza

*  Layer on sandwiches to make them really sing

*  Make French Onion Soup with an Indian Twist

* Use them as a garnish for meat or fish or veggies for that matter

* Puree them into a dip

* Add to pasta