Whenever I go to India, one of my favourite breakfasts is a masala omelette. A spicy breakfast is always a welcome thing in my life, and the flavours combined with a good hit of protein mean I will have the energy needed to spend a day exploring.  After my first trip I added them to my own breakfast cooking repertoire.

Yesterday, while I was showering, something occurred to me. I could reinvent them by merging them with another dish I love: baked eggs. In the original baked eggs recipe, a whole egg with yolk intact is cracked in to a ramekin that had bacon and shredded cheese in it. A little more cheese is sprinkled on top and then it is tossed in the oven and cooked until the yolk is runny and the whole thing has a custard-like consistency.

What if I combined the two, taking the flavours of the masala omelette and added used them to make a new take on baked eggs?

I start by preheating the oven to 375F and chopping onions, green chilli, garlic, and a couple of cherry tomatoes.

I take a little sesame oil and oil the inside of each ramekin, making sure to coat all of the surfaces but not leave any pooled oil to make the dish too oily. Once that’s done, I sprinkle a bit of each of the ingredients in the bottom of each ramekin.

Once that’s done I carefully crack one egg in to each of the ramekins. Today I’m lucky as I don’t break any yolks. They taste OK when you do that but I find them less satisfying. There’s something about having a perfectly-cooked egg with a liquid yolk that is so delicious.

I finish by sprinkling a pinch each of salt and garam masala on the top of each egg. I grab a few fresh curry leaves and add them to the top.  Once that’s done I toss them on top of a cookie sheet – it makes it that much easier to get in and out and if something happens to boil over, it won’t make a mess of the oven. In to the oven they go.

Ten minutes later I take them out of the oven and they’re just right.

Today I serve them with a baby kale salad and a bit of lime pickle (not homemade, sorry!). Next time I make this I will change very little. The only thing I will change next time is instead of putting the curry leaves on top before baking, I will bake them as-is with only a bit of salt on top. Once I take them out I’ll make a tadka with the curry leaves and some cumin and/or black mustard seeds and put that on top of the finished product along with a pinch of garam masala. I suspect the flavours will be stronger and even more delicious if I do that. It would also have benefited from some fresh coriander but at the moment I’m completely out of that. Clearly a shopping trip is in order.