Tuesday, April 29, 2008

Spicy Egg Salad

I love eggs. They have a multitude of uses and as long as you treat them right they are absolutely delicious in every way.

Friend, poached, mix into batter for baked goods... Mmmm...

But today, today we're going to talk about a veritable Anglo-American tradition.

Egg salad.

I firmly believe it's not given enough credit. The most common recipe seems to include chopped up egg and some mayo. Salt and pepper if you're lucky. That is no way to treat the noble egg. No way at all.

On it's own a hard boiled egg is very mild. When you pair it only with mayo, the flavors just don't balance right. It needs more. More... crunch, more spice... more soul if you will.

But let's move on to our story which begins this weekend when I was out of groceries. I did however have three eggs left and some veggies lying around. And of course my spice cabinet. My main goal was to bulk up the salad cause three eggs just didn't seem like much. But as with anything else, inspiration tends to take me where it will. This is where it took me that day.

Spicy Egg Salad
(double, triple or make a mammoth batch at your leisure)
-3 eggs
-1/4 onion (use white or red)
-a couple of leafs of romaine lettuce (I would also recommend arugula if you like it)
-2-3 Tbs of mayo
-2 tsp spicy mustard
-couple of dashes of paprika
-minced fresh dill to taste (you can use dry also but fresh is always better)
-half a handful of pecorino cheese
-salt and pepper

Hard boiling eggs perfectly can be a difficult endeavor. My favorite method is putting them in cold water, bringing them to a boil, then covering them, turning off the heat and letting them sit for at least ten minutes. And I've pretty much forgotten them there for much longer than ten minutes so it's pretty fool proof.

So then. Let the eggs sit in their hot bath and turn your eyes to the rest of the recipe. Mince your onion and drop it in a bowl. Roll up the lettuce and slice it into thin strips and put those in the bowl too.

In another littler bowl, mix together the minced dill, pecorino, paprika, mayo, mustard and salt and pepper. It distributes the spices more evenly than just trying to mix everything together at the same time.

Pull the eggs out, peel and rough chop to a relatively small dice. Put them in the bowl and then pour the mayo mixture on top. Mix until well incorporated.

Now at this point you could chill it but I ate it up warm with some toasted english muffins. So good.

-Vixen