Much to Shahina Kavarana’s dismay—who hails from a long line of intuitive cooking enthusiasts—her daughter Mehvash is far from being an adept cook. However, Mehvash does seem to have picked up the family’s affinity towards khageena. Khageena is a close relative of the scrambled eggs—or anda bhurji—but Shahina ensures that this tastes quite different.
A Sunday breakfast staple in their household, khageena is made using simple ingredients like eggs and onion, and is usually served with hot parathas. This preparation is special to Mehvash and Shahina, as it reminds them of their maternal lineage of passing down recipes and crafts over many generations. While Mehvash may be a novice at cooking, khageena is one dish she absolutely loves to eat. This was the sole motivation for her to learn how to cook it. She fondly remembers making it for her friends during the COVID-19 lockdowns.
Meanwhile, for Shahina, the recipe harks back to simpler times—of quiet Sunday mornings spent sharing extended meals and conversations with her parents and siblings. While Shahina’s cooking repertoire is vast, her philosophy for cooking is quite simple, which also holds true for novice cooks like Mehvash: Dishes need not be laborious and time-consuming to be delicious.
What You Will Need
Mixing bowls, deep-walled frying pan with lid, whisk, fork, spatula
Instructions
Place the frying pan on the stove on medium heat and add the oil.
Add the finely chopped onions and saute them until they turn translucent and pinkish. Make sure they don’t start becoming golden-brown.
At this stage, add the salt, turmeric powder, and chilli powder to the pan, and mix well.
Add a tablespoon of water to allow the spices to blend with the onions.
Then pour in the remaining water and turn the flame down to a low simmer.
In a clean bowl, crack open one egg at a time and then transfer them to the pan, on top of the onions. This will allow for an easier removal of shells/particles from the eggs if they find their way in.
Allow the eggs to cook on a low flame for about 5-7 minutes. Ensure that the eggs are not disturbed during this time.
A good indicator of the cooking time for the eggs is to ensure that the yolks turn yellow and fully solid in the centre.
After the egg yolks and the whites are fully solidified, break apart the eggs using a fork or a spatula into chunky, medium-sized pieces in the pan.
Ensure that no water remains in the pan and that the oil starts to ooze out from the cooked onions along the edges of the pan.
Garnish with green chillies and coriander. Cover this mixture and allow it to stand for 2 minutes.
Serve hot with freshly made parathas.
This recipe was contributed by Mehvash Arslan and is a part of ‘A Longing for Home Food Booth’, an oral food memories project from The Locavore’s immersive installation at the Serendipity Arts Festival, 2023.
Listen to the complete memory of the recipe by visiting this link: Khageena
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