Shallot Deviled Eggs

A shallot is simply a smaller, slightly milder version of an onion. While an onion's strong smell and flavor might be overwhelming in a deviled egg recipe, a shallot seems like a perfect idea. Nice flavor, nice scent, shallots just would seem to be a great idea as the primary component in a deviled egg recipe.

And they were. This recipe uses the deviled egg staples - mayonnaise and mustard - and supplements the shallots with a little celery salt, a dash of cayenne pepper on top, and an additional topping of fresh chives. I like the idea of the double garnish, if only for visual reasons. These eggs look really cool and very appetizing.

Here is the recipe:

6 hard-boiled eggs, peeled and sliced in half

2 tablespoons mayonnaise

2 tablespoons yellow mustard

1 shallot, finely minced

pinch celery salt

pepper to taste

cayenne pepper, as needed

minced fresh chives, as needed

1. Mash egg yolks with mayonnaise, mustard, shallot, celery salt and pepper.

2. Place a scoop of the mixture in each egg white half.

3. Sprinkle with chives and a generous amount of cayenne pepper.

4. Allow eggs to chill for at least an hour for flavors to blend.

Above: adding the mayonnaise, mustard, and shallots


Above: adding the pinch of celery salt, the eggs with the cayenne pepper garnish, and the final product with the chives as a garnish.

This recipe is easy, quick, a bit unique, looks good with the double garnish, and is tasty to boot!

Here are the scores:

Overall: 79 out of 100
Texture: 16 out of 20
Flavor: 16 out of 20
Uniqueness: 15 out of 20 (extra because of the double garnish)
Appearance: 15 out of 20 (more extra because of the double garnish)
Ease of preparation: 17 out of 20

Comments?

Gourmet Magazine Deviled Eggs

Old Cleveland Municipal Stadium had a secret recipe for spicy brown mustard, and I will never forget my only trip to watch an Indians game there. Today, that stadium sits at the bottom of Lake Erie, shoved in the lake in whole to become what is one of the world's largest man-made lakes. I fondly remember the hot dog with the spicy mustard at Cleveland Municipal Stadium, so I'm a spicy mustard fan.

But a little too much spicy mustard is way too much spicy mustard. And this recipe supposedly came from Gourmet magazine.

I expected more from Gourmet magazine. I don't know whether this recipe really appeared in Gourmet magazine or not, but they can do better. I like that this recipe at least tried something new - in this case, using more mustard than mayonnaise - but it didn't work out. The use of the spicy brown mustard made THAT the dominant flavor, and you couldn't really taste anything else. This recipe also included capers, parsley, hot sauce, and vinegar, but all were lost under the spicy brown mustard.

I also sort of liked the idea that everything, including the capers and parsley, were mixed in the filling rather than used as a garnish. I liked it until I saw the result, which looked like Stewie Griffin had eaten a Toblerone and deposited it in these egg whites.

The only other interesting concept with this recipe is that it suggests thinning the mixture with a little water. I'm not a fan of this. Runny filling is always a deviled egg problem, and adding water makes the filling MORE runny, plus adds no flavor. Just not a great concept.

Here is the recipe:

6 hard-boiled eggs, peeled and cut in half
3 tablespoons spicy brown mustard
2 tablespoons mayonnaise
3/4 teaspoon white-wine vinegar
1/8 teaspoon hot sauce
2 tablespoons minced fresh parsley leaves
2 teaspoons drained bottled capers
1 to 2 tablespoons water
salt and pepper to taste

1. Crumble egg yolks in a small bowl untilyolks are very fine.
2. Stir in mustard, mayonnaise, vinegar, hot sauce, parsley, and capers.
3. Stir in enough of the water to reach desired consistency.
4. Add salt and pepper to taste.
5. Mound filling in egg whites, and allow to chill before serving.


Above: adding the mustard, mayonnaise, and vinegar

Above: adding the hot sauce, parsley, and capers

Above: the finished product (notice no garnish)

The picture of the finished product doesn't do it justice - they looked a lot worse. Maybe SOME garnish would help, but the spicy brown mustard becomes the dominant color, and the eggs just don't look that appetizing. Couple that with the overwhelming spicy brown mustard flavor, and these just don't work that well.

Here are the scores:

Overall: 58 out of 100
Texture: 14 out of 100 (bonus points for trying the water addition, although I didn't like it)
Flavor: 8 out of 100
Uniqueness: 14 out of 100
Appearance: 7 out of 100
Ease of preparation: 15 out of 100

Comments?

Champagne Vinegar Deviled Eggs with Chives

I like using chives from my herb garden in the summer, so this isn't the first deviled egg recipe I've tried that uses chives. I had high hopes for this recipe because it thins the mixture with a little heavy cream, which I thought might be a good idea I hadn't explored yet, and because the recipe uses champagne vinegar, which I thought might give the flavor a little upscale kick.

Wrong, wrong, wrong. The texture was a little runny, the flavor was a little bland, and these eggs didn't even get eaten up by my tasters. This was one of the rare occasions where I had to throw away a couple of deviled eggs.

Not that they were THAT bad. They just weren't that GOOD either. The ingredients that should set this recipe apart - sugar and champagne vinegar - just got lost. When you could taste them, they weren't that good. But you mostly couldn't taste them.

Here is the recipe:

6 hard boiled eggs, peeled and split in half

1/4 cup mayonnaise

3/4 tablespoon heavy cream

1/8 teaspoon sugar

1/2 tablespoon champagne vinegar

good quality sea salt to taste

snipped fresh chives

1. Mash the egg yolks.

2. Add mayonnaise, cream, sugar, vinegar, and sea salt

3. Fill egg white halves with filling.

4. Garnish with chives.

5. Let deviled eggs sit in the refrigerator for at least an hour before serving.

Above: adding the mayonnaise, cream, and sugar

Above: adding the champagne vinegar and the sea salt

Above: the finished product, garnished with fresh snipped chives

Here are the scores:

Overall: 59 out of 100
Texture: 9 out of 20 (the cream was a good idea, but they were a little runny)
Flavor: 8 out of 20
Uniqueness: 11 out of 20
Appearance: 15 out of 20
Ease of preparation: 16 out of 20

Comments?

Blue Devils

Well, I hate the name. So would Aminu Timberlake, I imagine. Or anyone else with any class. It's hard to imagine that anything with the words "Blue Devil" in the title would be anything other than an arrogant, amoral, holier-than-thou basketball program. But this recipe is REALLY REALLY good.

The first time I made this recipe, I thought I might class it up a little by using pancetta rather than bacon bits. Mistake. No need to class up these - they are great on their own.

It's stunning how simple this recipe is - and it has a unique ingredient, blue cheese. Three ingredients, one garnish, and BOOM you're done. The proportion is great (an odd amount of mayonnaise, but it works), the flavor is unique, and they look good, too. You don't even have to cook the bacon, just use Hormel bacon bits. It's certatinly not haute cuisine, but what deviled egg recipe is? It's quick, easy, delicious, and unique.

Here is the recipe:

6 hard-boiled eggs, peeled and cut in half
2 tablespoons plus 2 teaspoons mayonnaise
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
2 tablespoons crumbled blue cheese
salt and pepper to taste
about 3 tablespoons bacon bits

1. Crumble egg yolks.
2. Add mayonnaise, mustard, and blue cheese and mix well.
3. Fill egg whites with yolk mixture.
4. Garnish with bacon bits.

Here are the pictures:

Above: adding the mayonnaise, mustard, and blue cheese

Above: the finished product, garnished with bacon bits

Here are the scores:

Overall: 82 out of 100

Texture: 17 out of 100

Flavor: 15 out of 100

Uniqueness: 16 out of 100

Appearance: 15 out of 100

Ease of preparation: 19 out of 10

Comments?