Deviled Eggs

This is the time of year that everyone is looking for quick dishes to feed a party crowd. Whether it’s a starter for that elegant dinner party or potluck social, a get together for your teen’s friends or a make ahead, have in your fridge for unexpected guests or a light supper side dish, deviled eggs are very popular. They also happen to be the easiest thing in the world to make. There are a couple of tricks and tips that I’d like to share with you so that you can make them at a moment’s notice.

Ingredients:
1 dozen hard boiled eggs
good mayo (Duke’s or Hellman’s)
dijon mustard
sweet relish
prepared horseradish (optional)
paprika
12 green olives halved (optional)

The first tip is for hard boiling the eggs. I’ve tried many, many techniques for boiling eggs and this one always comes out perfect. I learned this one from the Silver Palate “New Basics” Cookbook, about a million years ago.
Start with room temperature eggs. Place them in a pan and cover with cold water, an inch above the tops of the eggs. Bring the water to a boil, then cover the pan, turn off the heat and wait 20 minutes. When the time is up, run the eggs under cool water. Hard cooked eggs will last 4-5 days in the fridge if left unpeeled. If you’re going to peel them right away, crack them and run them under cool water again. They should peel pretty easily.

Alternately, you can buy eggs that have already been hardboiled at your supermarket and that’s the road I chose this time.

Slice your hard boiled eggs in half

Then remove the yolks from the whites – the trick here is a gentle hand.  Position the egg half over a bowl

Very gently squeeze the sides with your thumb and forefinger

Let the yolk drop into the bowl

If there’s any yolk left in the egg, just remove it gently with your finger.

Mash the egg yolks with a fork until they’re crumbly

Add two heaping tablespoons, just a regular serving table spoon, not the measuring kind, of mayonaise, 1 of mustard, about a teaspoon of the horseradish and about 1 heaping tablespoon of the relish.  At this point I realized I had no relish, so we improvised, which bring us to tip number two.

Chopped sweet pickles are really all that relish is anyway, so that’s what I did.

Tada!  relish.
Add it to the egg mixture along with a pinch of paprika and mix well.

If you’re making ahead, you can stop at this point and refrigerate.  This will keep easily for a couple of days.

Right before you’re going to serve, spoon the egg mixture into the whites, sprinkle with a little paprika and pop a half an olive on top if you so desire and then pop one in your mouth before everyone eats them all!

If you liked this, you might like:

• Scallops with Mango and Avocado Salad
• Stuffed Shells
• Baked Chicken Tenders and Green Beans with Tomatoes
• Cold Peanut Noodles
• Hakuna Frittatta and Teflon Giveaway!