Mornings in Bombay are famous for the bustling sounds of people heading into the city for work, the smell of fresh Chai being brewed, and the flavours of Akuri served in the Parsi cafe’s in town.

I first tried Akuri made by my father, who simply called it Parsi-style eggs. He made his with tomato, onion, coriander and some onion seeds and it was one of my favourite breakfasts to pair with thick cut bread. I didn’t realise this style of making eggs was called Akuri until I came across the recipe in the Dishoom cookbook.

True to my father’s recipe, here is my version of Akuri!

What is Akuri?

Akuri is a traditional Parsi scrambled egg dish that is extremely popular in all Parsi cafes, and very famous in Bombay. It is typically made with tomato, onion, fresh coriander and some turmeric with each cafe and household having their own individual spin to the recipe. Some serve it with plenty of ginger, whilst others use a lot of garlic. Either way, the eggs are delicious and just cooked till they are wobbly – not dry!

This is what I find is the key difference between Akuri and Bhurji – Akuri is never dry.

Not to say anything bad about Bhurji however. My dad’s Burji recipe is equally delicious and simple with my recipe here.

Ingredients to make Akuri

To make Akuri you are going to need a couple of spices. I think this is the beauty of this meal – there really are not too many components.

Onion seeds

Also known as Nigella or Kalonji, onion seeds actually belong to the black cumin family contrary to popular belief that they belong to the onion family. Rich in oil, these seeds are incredibly aromatic and used as a flavouring agent in plenty of foods all around the world. These seeds are typically only used as a whole spice, especially in tempering.

If you plan on delving a bit deeper into the realm of South Asian cooking, then this is an ingredient I highly recommend investing in. You can source them from your local South Asian grocer, from Amazon or (if you are in Australia) The Source Bulk Foods.

Turmeric

Need I say much about Turmeric? The wonder spice has made its way recently into western culture and is now a prominent feature in many different superfood drinks and recipes (i.e. the famous Turmeric Latte). In this recipe the turmeric adds a beautiful Earthy flavour and colors the eggs in a beautiful warm yellow hue.

Chilli

My dad would use both fresh chilli and ground chilli. If you don’t enjoy spice, or want a milder version of this recipe feel free to omit the ground chilli completely and deseed the fresh chilli.

I find the fresh chilli adds a light almost “crispy” tone to the recipe. I honestly cannot explain this in any other way, except for the fact it adds freshness to the recipe and complements the turmeric and onion seeds. Remember, there aren’t too many spices in this recipe so the layering of flavours is quite basic but incredibly effective.

The ground chilli works with the turmeric to give this recipe a beautiful earthy tone. Honestly the simplicity of this recipe is what sets it completely apart.

Onion

You’ll need 1/2 a Spanish red onion for this recipe, chopped nice and fine. You could substitute this with a brown or white onion, but this will change the flavour profile slightly. Red onions have a higher sugar content, so are much sweeter. As a result, red onions are preferred in salsa and salads, as well as omelet or egg based recipes like this one where (whilst cooking in a rush particularly) you may leave some of the onion raw. In fact my dad would often make this recipe with raw onion stirred into the eggs for some crunch and fresh flavour.

Brown and white onions are far stronger and more pungent, so you need to make sure these caramelise down completely before adding the spices in the recipe.

Tomato

Here is where we get our balance in sourness. The fresh tomato is what really rounds out the recipe. I mean, eggs & onion without some tomato just feels incomplete.

Similar to the onion, some people so mix this through raw into the eggs for that fresh and tangy flavour and texture. In my recipe I do cook them off a bit to reduce that sharp raw flavour, without completely ruining the texture.

Garlic

My absolute favourite ingredient.

I couldn’t live without garlic in my life.

You only need a little bit in this recipe, but it completely transforms it.

Fresh Coriander (Cilantro) Leaves

Okay, so I love coriander but if you find that it tastes like soap, of course don’t add it in. That should go without saying.

For those of us that can enjoy coriander, this herb adds the spark of freshness to the eggs and kind of rounds off the overall flavour profile. It’s a little bit bitter, and a little bit spicy and complements the rest of the spices perfectly.

Vegetable oil & Butter

I use both in my recipe, even though my dad would only use vegetable oil. If you wanted to , you could also use ghee. I find that by using butter you get a much richer result. The butter really transforms the onions as they cook and caramelise, and that beautiful brown butter flavour is what is infused right through the eggs. You just cannot beat it!

Let’s make Akuri

The first thing to do is get your eggs at room temperature. This is going to make cooking them a lot easier and prevent the burning of the egg that is exposed directly to the pan, whilst the rest of the egg continues to heat up. Room temperature eggs will actually help you achieve a really even cook on the eggs.

The cooking part is pretty straight forward. I promise.

Start by heating up the vegetable oil and butter in a non-stick fry pan over a medium high heat. As the oil and butter starts to heat up, add in the onions with a pinch of salt and sautee them until softened. It is perfectly okay to add the onions while the butter is still melting.

There is some debate about whether you should add ingredients into cool oil/butter. Ultimately there is a balancing act here. Add the onions to oil that is too hot will cause sputtering, and start to burn the onions before they even start to cook.

Once the onions are softened, add the turmeric, chilli powder (if you are using it), onion seeds, chopped fresh chilli and the garlic. Mix this through really well and moderate the temperature of the pan such that the spices are not burning and the garlic is still cooking. Usually a low-medium heat is perfect for this, but remember that every pan and stove is different so observe the heat of the pan and moderate it as you see fit.

You can tell that you are ready to move on when the garlic is super fragrant and the spices have completely coated the onions and your kitchen smells incredible. Add the tomatoes and another good pinch of salt and cook these until softened. These will take about 2 minutes to cook over a low-medium heat.

Now it’s time to lower the heat as much as possible and let the pan cool down a little, before adding in the eggs. Gently use a wooden spoon or spatula to scramble the eggs and add the coriander leaves as you do so.

You want to turn off the heat whilst there is still some wobble to the eggs so that they do not dry out, noting that they will continue cook on their own in the heat of the pan.

My dad always served this over a slice of thick cut sourdough and some mint chutney on the side. A younger version of me would ditch the chutney and run right for ketchup. Anything works.

The recipe