The Easter Egg Hunt is Over? Now What?………..Egg Salad. That’s what.

So Easter is over.  The great hunt of 2014 has come and gone.  You’ve counted all the eggs to make sure they have all been found and that there aren’t any out there slowly rotting just begging to stink the place up.  Now what?

I’m going to go with the obvious and say; EGG SALAD.

I got my very first job was when I was 15.  It was at a deli in Vermont (a truly beautiful place; Vermont, although the deli wasn’t too shabby either).  I started working there when it first opened.  Now forgive me if this story isn’t entirely accurate but it’s how I remember it and weelllll, 15 years old was a lot of years ago for me.  It was opened by a couple of women from Burlington VT and they were in partnership with a man from my town.  I was hired and quickly train.  I mean, really, how hard is it to make a few sandwiches?  After all, as you learned a couple weeks ago, I am the Sandwich Queen!  I worked there until the end of high school.  At some point in that first year or so there was a name change to the deli.  One day we were called Noonies.  On the last day that Noonies existed we were pulled aside at the end of the day and told quietly that when we arrived the next day the deli would no longer be called Noonies but would be called Zoey’s.   Would I still have a job? Yes.  Would I still get a paycheck? Yes.  Yeah, well, ok.  Call the deli anything you want.  It’s still open and operating as Zoey’s.  I haven’t been there in years.  I hope they haven’t changed too much over the years.

Anyway, when I was there, it was a really awesome sandwich shop, baking fresh bread and using really awesome ingredients and making really awesome egg salad.  That’s where I first learned to love egg salad; honey oat bread, hand sliced, with a bit of mayo spread carefully from edge to edge, a scoop of egg salad with just enough lettuce and red, ripe tomato slices sprinkled with just a pinch of salt.  Cut in half.  Served with fresh fried potato chips and a Boar’s Head dill pickle spear.

Here’s my version of that sandwich.

Now don’t go saying this is just another egg salad sandwich.  This egg salad is made with care.  There’s a method.  Follow it.

Start with perfect cooked hard boiled eggs.  Using the back of a knife lightly strike the top of each egg in the carton creating a localized crack (don’t do this if you intend to dye them).  Put them in a pot and cover with cold water.  Place them on the stove on high heat and bring to a boil as quickly as possible.  Once it gets to a rolling boil set the timer for 11 minutes.  Keep at a rolling boil for the entire 11 minutes.  When the timer goes off, immediately move to the sink and run cold water over them until they are cool enough to touch.  Congratulations.  You have now produced the perfect hard boiled eggs.  Bright yellow perfectly cooked yolks with no green/grey ring between the yolk and the white. 

I usually don’t make much more than 8 eggs at a time.  That should give you about four sandwiches.  Although at the deli I think I used to make 3 flats of eggs at a time (72 eggs I think).  That produced something like three or four gallons of the stuff.  It was a lot but it was a busy deli.

Once your eggs are cool enough to handle, crack the shells by rolling the eggs on a paper towel.  Peel the shell away.  Remember striking the egg with the back of the knife before cooking?  Yup!  That makes them easier to peel.  Once the shells are removed rinse them to remove any residual shell.

Now separate the yolks from the whites.  Put the yolks in a bowl and the whites on a cutting board.

Run a knife through the whites to get a medium chop.

Using a fork smash the yolks until you have a very dry paste.

Now add a small spoonful of Dijon mustard and mix with the fork.  Keep adding small spoonfuls of mustard until your paste comes together. 

Add a sprinkle of white pepper and a couple spoonfuls of good quality mayo (I prefer Hellman’s/Best Foods).  Stir to combine.  Add more mayo if needed to reach a thick, saucy consistency.  Taste.  Add a pinch of salt if needed.  Remember that Dijon can be a bit salty so you might not need much.  At this point you can also add chives if you’d like.  I call that, faanncy!

Now that you’ve prepared the yolks add the chopped whites to the bowl and using the fork gently stir the whites in.  Viola.  Not your ordinary egg salad.  The yolk is no longer grainy and the whites are suspended in a smooth sauce with just enough bite from the Dijon and white pepper.

So for frame of reference I used 8 eggs, about 3tsp of Dijon and 3 – 4Tbsp mayo.  As you can see from the photos it went from grainy to pasty to smooth.  That’s what you want.  You want the end result to be thick enough to hold the whites without being running.  Otherwise when you make a sandwich it will just moosh out the sides of the bread.  That, my friends, is not a sandwich queen caliber sandwich!  Cannot have it!  Won’t stand for it!

An egg salad sandwich; that’s when we know Easter weekend is over.