Deviled eggs

When I was growing up, I had to eat an egg for breakfast every day. Every. Single. Day. Seven days a week. For approximately 17 years.

(I’m not sure exactly when I started, but I vividly remember staging a revolt on my 18th birthday, as had all my sisters before me. Because I was still in high school, my mother and I struck a deal, cutting eggs for breakfast to three a week until graduation, at which point I swore off them entirely for I forget how long, but until at least sometime in my mid-20s.)

(I think I’ve mentioned before about my mother’s, um, inflexible meal schedule?)



Anyway, to inject some variety into the 6,000+ incredible edible eggs that we each had to eat growing up, my mother poached them, fried them, scrambled them, and hard boiled them. She used them to make French toast and frittata, and I grew to loathe all of these preparations to varying degrees, until a good long egg vacation re-opened my mind.

Perhaps because of the breakfast commitment (which my mother followed herself, and still does to this day), we rarely ate eggs at any other meal, aside from some of my grandmother’s Italian specialties, such as scrambled eggs with sautéed red peppers for lunch or dinner (fantastic, once I got over my pepper prejudice), and pizza chiena at Easter. So that, when I re-introduced eggs to my diet, I noticed with time and investigation that I had rarely eaten, and never prepared, quite a few classic egg dishes. I’m still working to get caught up, and this week I made my first-ever batch of deviled eggs. I can't believe what I've been missing.

Chunky deviled eggs
Adapted from Grazing by Julie Van Rosendaal
I was drawn to this recipe because it had lots of stuff in it, making it more substantial than the classic deviled egg, which usually just spices up the yolk filling. (Then I realized I didn’t have most of the stuff that the recipe called for, so I improvised.) Deviled eggs are usually served as an appetizer or party snack, but I used these as the centerpiece of a couple of light but very satisfying (all that protein!) lunches.

3 eggs
2 slices salami
1 scallion
1 tsp Dijon mustard
2 tsp Greek yogurt
salt & pepper

Hard boil the eggs: place in a small saucepan, cover with cold water. Cover pan and bring just to boiling point. Remove from heat and let stand 12-15 minutes. Drain pan and rinse eggs until cool to the touch. Peel eggs, then slice in half lengthwise. Remove yolks.

Place yolks in a medium bowl. Chop salami into small pieces and slice scallions, and add to yolks. Mash ingredients in bowl with mustard and yogurt, and season with salt and pepper to taste.

Stuff filling into egg white halves and serve.*

Makes 6. Can be multiplied.

* The recipe specifies to serve immediately, but these were just as good the next day.