It has been a long time since my last post. Apparently life (or work) must have gotten in the way. As Easter represents rebirth, this Easter themed write-up represents the rebirth of my blog.
Deviled Eggs
Deviled eggs may not seem like the most exciting thing to write about, so I had to spice things up a bit. I tried three different recipes and put them up against each other for my Mother-in-law's Easter brunch.
All the recipes have a few basic ingredients: hard-boiled eggs, mayonnaise, some sort of fat (like butter), mustard, salt & pepper, and something for garnish. The things I experimented with were herbs, the garnish, spices, and the type of fat.
The first recipe was basically taken from my current favorite cooking website FOOD52. I have written about them in the past. None of their recipes have failed me yet. It is more a basic chive based recipe.
Recipe #1
6 eggs
¼ cup mayonnaise
1 tbsp unsalted butter (room temp)
½ tbsp dijon
Pinch of cayenne
Salt and pepper
1 tbsp chopped chives
Garnish: chives
My mother was in town and she kept saying that I needed to use horseradish. I happened to have some horseradish root in my fridge from something I made a few days ago. I grated it and added it to the mix. Plus, I used tarragon instead of chives, paprika instead of cayenne, and threw in some Worcestershire for good measure.
Recipe #2
6 eggs
¼ cup mayonnaise
1 tbsp unsalted butter (room temp)
1 tbsp chopped tarragon
2 tsp horseradish
½ tbsp dijon
½ tsp paprika
½ tsp Worcestershire sauce
Salt and pepper
Garnish: tarragon
For the last recipe, I decided to steal something I saw from a recent issue of Bon Appétit, bacon fat. Instead of using their recipe completely, I basically did a mix of the first two recipes and used bacon fat instead of butter. I know the whole bacon movement is getting a bit overdone, but you can't deny that bacon truly makes everything taste better. It also helped me feel a little more manly about making deviled eggs for Easter.
Recipe #3
6 eggs
¼ cup mayonnaise
1 tbsp bacon fat
1 tbsp chopped chives
2 tsp horseradish
½ tbsp dijon
½ tsp paprika
½ tsp Worcestershire sauce
Salt and pepper
Garnish: bacon
Hard boiling the eggs was fairly easy. Put the eggs in a pot and cover with at least an inch of water. Bring the pot to a boil. Remove from heat. Cover and let rest for 10 minutes.
The hardest part of making the deviled eggs is the peeling. My wife had told me using week old eggs would make it easier. However, I somewhat dismissed that thought as an old wives tale. (Not that my wife is by any means old. She is young, beautiful and I love her lots.) I ended up using a mix of week old eggs and brand new eggs. Some of the old eggs were brown, so I could tell the difference. My wife couldn't have been more right (again). The new eggs were extremely difficult to peel, while the old eggs just came right off like I was peeling an orange. My wive's technique is basically rolling them gently on the cutting board after slightly cracking them. Find the side with the air bubble and peel from there. There is a membrane under the shell that on the older eggs just peels right off.
After peeling the eggs, I carefully cut them in half and removed the hardened yolk. I put the yolks in the food processor, added everything but the herbs and processed until smooth. I then mixed in the chopped herbs and the filling was done.
To fill the eggs, I spooned the filling into a sandwich-sized Ziplock bag and cut a small hole in one of the corners. I then squeezed the filling into each of the eggs and topped with the appropriate garnish.
Needless to say, the bacon eggs were the overwhelming winner of the contest. However, as far as the herbs go, I was a much bigger fan of the tarragon with the horseradish and my wife liked the chives better. To each their own, I guess.
Bon appétit!
