Directions

Rinse the green beans, snap off the stem end and snap each bean into 3-inch pieces.

Blanch the beans: bring a pot of water to a boil and add kosher salt. When the water comes to

a rolling boil, add the beans and cook for 2-3 minutes. Remove the cooked beans from the pot

with a skimmer or slotted spoon and lay out on a towel. Set aside. (Keep the pot and water to

blanch the tomatoes.)

Peel the garlic. Thinly slice and/or mash to a paste. One heaping teaspoon of fresh garlic will

suffice.

Set aside.

Blanch the tomatoes: First, prepare an ice bath. Choose a bowl large enough to hold all the

tomatoes. Fill it with water and add some ice - now you have an ice bath. Nest, use a paring

knife, cut the core out of each tomato and cut an “X” into the bottom of each. Bring the ‘greenbean-

pot’ back to a boil, adding more water if necessary.

When the water is at a full boil, carefully lower the tomatoes into the pot. Count to 10 and lift

the tomatoes out of the water directly into the bowl of ice water.

Leave for 5 minutes. You will see that the skins have loosened. Peel the skins from each

tomato. Cut in half through the middle (the circumference), squeeze or scoop out the seeds,

and roughly chop.

Set aside.

Peel and finely dice the onion. A fine dice that ‘disappears’ into the sauce as it is cooking is

what you want. Very elegant, and the mark of a good cook who is considering the details. Onehalf

cup of finely diced onions should be enough.

Last vegetable to prep: the eggplant. Rinse and dry the eggplant. I had a bigger eggplant and

only used one-half of it for this dish. And I already have an idea for the rest of that eggplant!

I sliced the eggplant in thirds and then into 1 ½ inch planks and then sliced each plank on the

diagonal into thin slices. But you can certainly dice the eggplant into chunks. Two cups of

sliced or diced eggplant will be sufficient. Set aside.

Time to cook the sauce.

Choose a 12-inch sauté pan and heat on the stove over medium heat for a minute or two. Add

the cooking oil and let it warm up for 30 seconds. Don’t let the oil smoke. Add the finely

minced onions to the pan and stir to coat in the oil. Add a pinch of kosher salt, reduce the heat

to low and cover the pan. Let cook for 3-5 minutes or until the onions have softened and are

translucent.

Add the eggplant and another pinch kosher salt. Add another tablespoon of cooking oil if

needed. Re-cover the pan and cook until softened.

Remove cover, stir in the mashed garlic and the diced tomatoes. Stir to combine. Let this

sauce simmer uncovered for 10 minutes on low heat, stir often. Add the chickpeas and the

Goan Coconut Simmer Sauce. Add juice of ½ fresh lime. Let sauce simmer another 5 minutes.

Do not boil. Add the blanched green beans and cook for another minute or two, just to heat

the beans through. Taste and adjust seasonings and texture (Maybe it needs salt, pepper, lime

juice or more simmer sauce.)

Poach the eggs: Crack an egg into a heat-proof shallow dish. Make 4 indentions in the sauce

with the back of a large spoon and slide one egg into each concave space. Repeat with the

other 3 eggs. Work quickly. Make sure heat is at a low-simmer. Cover the pot and let cook for

6-8 minutes.

Serve in individual shallow bowls with rice or warm Naan or pita bread. Make sure to serve

plenty of vegetables with each dish. Give each egg a fresh black pepper twist from the

peppermill and a tiny pinch of kosher salt.