Easter Eggs--the Next Day

 

March 26, 2016

 

       

Whether you made detailed, difficult Ukrainian Easter eggs, simply dunked your hardboiled eggs into cups of commercial egg dyes with vinegar, or coloured your eggs with onion skins and red cabbage leaves, you may have a bowlful of hardboiled eggs on hand. These ideas for using them up range from sublimely simple to superlatively elegant.

 

A caveat: If your coloured eggs have been adorning your dining room table for a week, don't even think of eating them! Like any eggs, they should be kept refrigerated--though they can grace your Easter-dinner table for a few hours with no problem.

 

The simplest of all: Eat them with pinches of sea salt and sprinklings of freshly ground black pepper.

 

An old favourite, modified but not at all difficult: Chop them coarsely, add a little minced celery and onion, and dress with my favourite non-mayo dressing. For a dozen hardboiled eggs, use 5 tablespoons full-fat plain yogurt, 1 tablespoon Dijon mustard, and 2 teaspoons interesting, slightly sweet chutney (I like mango). This is a bright, fresh-tasting alternative to oily mayonnaise. Now you have egg salad. Stuff a tomato with it. Put it between two slices of good bread (rye or whole wheat), and serve it as is or grilled/toasted. To grill, heat a cast-iron skillet or ridged grill-pan. Brush both sides of the sandwich with olive oil or dot them with butter. Put into the pan and grill for three or four minutes per side. Crisp: my favourite flavour.

 

More complicated, but a satisfying supper: Slice the eggs and add them to a white sauce. While heating a cup and a half of milk or milk-and-stock, melt four tablespoons of butter in a small saucepan. When the butter bubbles, stir in four tablespoons of flour and mix well over low heat. When the milk is hot, whisk it into the butter-flour mixture and keep whisking until it thickens. Season as you like (salt and pepper, a spoonful of Dijon mustard and/or curry powder, a bit of tomato paste or sauce). Let the sauce simmer over very low heat for four or five minutes, stirring occasionally, then add the sliced eggs and serve over rice or mixed grains, or as a topping for baked potatoes. Mushrooms sautéed in a little butter make a good addition.

 

And finally, a dish so elegant it will seduce everyone: Eggs mimosa. Halve the eggs lengthwise and remove the yolks. Fill the little holes with homemade mayonnaise. Sieve the yolks over the top. See how simple? For this you will need homemade mayonnaise, of course, for nothing else will do.

 

Homemade Mayonnaise

 

These instructions ore for using a blender or food processor. Break a room-temperature* large egg into the blender or processor. Add a spoonful of dry mustard and a large pinch of fine sea salt. Turn the machine on and slowly add 1 cup plus 2 tablespoons of oil**, putting in 3 tablespoons of fresh lemon juice halfway through, and scraping down the sides occasionally to be sure all the oil is incorporated. Taste and adjust the flavourings; you may want to put in additional lemon juice (a teaspoon at a time) and/or a spoonful of Dijon mustard. These amounts will give you   about a cup and a half, more homemade mayonnaise than you'll need for your Eggs Mimosa, but I'm sure you'll find a use for the leftovers.

 

*If you forgot to take the egg out of the refrigerator beforehand, you can bring it to "room temperature" quickly by immersing it in a bowl of hot tap water for 10 minutes.

 

**Up to half of the oil can be olive oil; more than that is a bit strong for North American tastes. The rest can be any cold-pressed organic seed oil (sunflower, sesame, etc.).