Bengali Egg Tadka/Veg Tarka Fry—Easy, Perfect Dhaba-style—Kolkata Street Food Recipes

Tadka dal (or, as Bengalis call it, torka’r dal) and roomali rooti is the Bengali’s favourite fallback dinner. On the way back from work the tired Kolkata worker will often stop by at the street-side dhaba to buy an earthen pot of steaming egg torka and some roomali rooti. The tarka most likely comes from the city’s Punjabi community that owns and operates famous dhabas such as Russel Punjabi Dhaba, Jai Hind Dhaba, Balwant Singh’s Eating House, Bachchan’s Dhaba, and many more. These dhabas stay open late in the night and serve customers buttery tarka, rotis, chicken bharta, tandoori chicken, lassi, and tea.

In our recipe we have tried to emulate the tarka prepared on the streets, cooking it in two stages—once with the spices, and then finishing in small batches on a screaming hot pan for the smoky flavour. This two-step process is important to achieve the dhaba style tarka flavour. For the egg tarka just like the dhabas, we don’t fry the eggs separately. Instead the eggs are whisked in and cooked briefly to give the egg tarka a creamy texture—the eggs get cooked in the residual heat leading to silky strands of egg instead of ending up dry, rubbery.
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Rooti: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jnQgkwVsMgc

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