Egg Salad and Kid-Goofy Hard Cooked Eggs!
Spring and April tend to be the time that eggs go on sale—think Easter and egg dying, etc. So we see a lot of potato salad and egg salad recipes floating around this time of year. In fact, after thumbing through a collection of my Aunt Annie’s vintage home and cooking magazines, I ran onto a couple for egg salad the other day that sounded so good, we had to give them a try.
My husband prefers foods with a flavor snap—he likes a zing in his bites. So Kick’n Egg Salad, which I found in a 1960’s copy of Family Circle Magazine, sounded like a winner.
The recipe creator didn’t offer any ingredient proportions—“combine to taste” was her directions. And since I felt I knew my way around egg salad, that’s just what I did: I used 3 eggs, about 1/3 cup of mayonnaise and 3 tablespoons of sour cream. To that I added 1 teaspoon of hot mustard and blended the mixture well. I mixed in 1 stalk of celery (finely chopped), 4 pimento-stuffed green olives (roughly chopped), 2 teaspoons dill pickle relish, 1 teaspoon of finely chopped onion, a dash of paprika, and a pinch of red pepper flakes.
Then there was a recipe called Ultra-Loaded Egg Salad. This called for adding Worcestershire Sauce and cooked chopped bacon. Who wouldn’t like that? Everyone at our house did. Here’s the recipe:
Ultra-Loaded Egg Salad
A zesty version of a timeless favorite!
Ingredients:
| 6 ounces | bacon |
| 3 stalks | celery minced |
| 1/2 cup | mayonnaise |
| 1/2 cup | minced yellow onion |
| 1 1/2 tablespoons | dill pickle relish |
| 1 1/2 tablespoons | prepared yellow mustard |
| 2 teaspoons | dried dill weed |
| 1 teaspoon | Worcestershire sauce |
| 1 teaspoon | black pepper |
| 1/2 teaspoon | paprika |
| 1/4 teaspoon | salt |
| 12-14 | hard cooked eggs peeled and diced |
Directions:
Cook bacon until crisp. Drain slices on paper towels and crumble when cooled. Mix bacon, celery, mayonnaise, onion, relish, mustard, dill, Worcestershire, pepper, paprika, salt together in a large bowl. Mash diced eggs and add to ingredients in bowl. Cover and chill at least 1 hour.
And although this isn’t an egg salad recipe, per se, it’s a great idea for a way to use it: An exceptional sandwich to make with your favorite egg salad recipe uses fresh basil and tomatoes. This idea received 5 stars on the allrecipes.com site. And since we’ll be growing basil and tomatoes this year, I’m filing this in my “Garden Fresh Ideas” chapter that I’ve created in my Cook’n 11.
Finally, that incredible, edible hard cooked egg can do so much than be the main ingredient in a salad—now you can have it in fun shapes! While many of our readers may not give a whoop if their hard cooked eggs show up in shapes, those of us with grandchildren might just like this idea, so I’m sharing the particulars.
The Japanese company, Kotobuki, came up with the idea. They created egg molds that turn hard-boiled eggs into cute shapes, like a fish and a car—perfect for kids! They also offer other shapes—a rabbit, a bear, a heart, and a star. All of Kotobuki plastic egg molds can be found on www.amazon.com. They sell in sets of 2 for between $3.10 and $3.70.
Maki, from Just Bento, explains us how these molds work: After you hard-boil the egg and peel it, wet the plastic mold with cold water, place the egg inside, close the fastener until it clicks, then place the mold in a bowl of cold water for at least 10 minutes, and voila! You have a fully formed hard-boiled egg shape! Kind of a kid-goofy idea, for sure. But shoot, life’s short and why not have a little fun with your food?
- www.allrecipes.com
- www.thekitchn.com
- www.creativeorchard.blogspot.com
Alice Osborne
Weekly Newsletter Contributor since 2006
Email the author! alice@dvo.com
