Who’s Afraid of the Big, Bad Egg?
Now that I work from home my morning routine is different. Instead of springing out of bed, having waited for the last of the possible “snoozes,” I now roll over, shut my alarm off and open my email. Right there in bed, with the ease of my newly updated (software version 4.0.2) iPhone.
First I check my work email to make sure nothing insane has happened, then my personal email. I receive a few blog posts directly to my email (otherwise I’m really terrible at keeping up with other food blogs that I enjoy). One of these is from Macheesmo.
Yesterday Nick wrote a thoughtful piece on the recent egg recall. As eggs’ number one fan, I knew this sort of danger was coming. But also as eggs’ fan, I know to buy my yolky treats straight from farmers. Farmers (thank you Truck Patch) that raise chickens as chickens should be raised, not cramped in an immoral amount of space and fed, well, I can’t be sure, but it’s not natural.
While most egg buyers tucked their sunny side up desires away, I, instead, dreamed of how I would use eggs in my lunch that very day.
Egg Salad with Oven Roasted Tomatoes
While we’ve had some trouble hard boiling eggs before on ES, I had an easy time of it today. I placed four farmers’ market’s eggs (enough for multiple servings) in a small pan, topped, by an inch, with cold water, covered, and brought to a boil. Once it started boiling I placed the pan on a cool burner and let it sit off the heat for 9 minutes.
Then I drained the water and shook the pan so the eggs would crack while bouncing off the sides, making it easier to peel. This also starts to cool off the hot eggs. (Jacques Pepin taught me this trick.) Then I placed the eggs in ice water and soon after started peeling. It wasn’t the easiest peel job, as the eggs were fresh and I couldn’t slide my finger under the membrane to release the shell.
I cut the eggs in half, placed the bright yellow yolks in a small bowl, and placed the chopped whites in a larger bowl. In the yolk bowl I added: spicy mustard, grainy dijon mustard, prepared horseradish, apple cider vinegar, celery seed, caraway seed, salt, pepper and a touch of water. I promise, you won’t miss the mayo.
I mashed that all together to create the dressing. I then mixed that in with the whites, threw in roughly chopped oven roasted tomatoes (a variety of the little tomatoes, which I have been obsessed with slow roasting this season) and served it with sliced and peppered cucumber.
I generally hate egg salad, but I couldn’t remember the last time I ate it. I loved this version, and I think it had a lot to do with the lack of mayo. I don’t mind mayo per se, but something about eggs and mayo doesn’t mix for me.
Two things. First, I’m also not a huge egg salad fan but that looks like something I could get behind! I normally find them kind of bland but that looks pretty flavor packed to me.
Second, I’m really thrilled to see that I have my own TAG on ES. 🙂
if you can find bantam eggs, they are soooo easy to peel. smaller too, but i quite prefer them for hard boiling due to the thinner, easier to peel shell. the guy at work that delivers me eggs from his mom’s chickens is moving to Houston. i’m so bummed. $3 dozen you can’t shake a stick at, and office delivery to boot! 🙁
This is en egg-peeling solution only for cooking solo and not sharing food. If you crack a bit off the hollow end of the egg and put your mouth around it while making a seal and blow hard for a few seconds, it losens the egg from the membrane and makes it much easier to peel. Gross, I know, but it work really well.
What a coincidence that I came across this post this week. I just was about to write a post on my blog (http://savourthesenses.tumblr.com) how to get perfect hard boiled eggs. Here is the secret recipe:
1. Place eggs in pot with COLD water, then bring to a boil. (this reduces the risk of cracking eggs)
2. As soon as water begins to boil, cover and remove from heat. Let sit and cook for 12 minutes.
3. After 12 minutes place eggs in bowl with ICE WATER and 1 tbsp of BAKING SODA (it helps the egg separate from the membrane). Let the eggs cool completely.
4. When you are ready to peel the eggs, tap the egg on each end to find the air bubble underneath the shell. Begin peeling where the air bubble is (it reduces the risk of damaging the egg when beginning to peel)
Voila!