The Power of the Deviled Egg

Deviled eggs are such an interesting appetizer. What about it makes it so attractive and delicious, especially to party-goers?

As you know, I recently had a surprise birthday party for my hubby. As a part of the menu, I made these tasty treats. To my surprise, we ran out. It's interesting because although I use words like "delicious" and "tasty", when you break it down, it's really just a fancy hard boiled egg. And I don't know many people that just LOVE hard boiled eggs. Some people I know would just wrinkle their nose at the mention of hard boiled eggs. And honestly, hard boiled eggs to have that sulfur like smell... so why then is it that when deviled eggs are serve, people are grabbing several off the buffet line? After some pondering I came to a conclusion. It must be the wonderful addition of... wait for it... don't act like you hate it because you know you love it... MAYONNAISE! Along with some other key ingredients of course... but truly, the bulk of the addition is mayo. People also wrinkle their nose snobbishly at mayo but I know your true heart when it comes to this matter. WE LOVE MAYO.

Having had the awesome response to the deviled eggs at hubby's party, I decided to make them again. This time for my father-in-law's surprise 60th birthday party, hosted at our house by none other than yours truly. Whew! That's TWO surprise parties in a row and you may want some info on how I managed that, but that's another blog for another day. TODAY, I'm going to post my deviled eggs recipe, which I didn't have one till yesterday because I just tend to eyeball ingredients to taste, but knowing that I wanted to share that goodness with you lovely folks, I busted out my measuring cups and spoons! So here comes my first recipe... ever...

First things first. I HEART deviled eggs so when I came across this beautiful deviled egg serving plate at Marshalls for only $9.99 I pounced! Literally POUNCED. J gave me a look like I was crazy as I did what I now call "my great-sale-find jig". I'm not saying you have to have fancy shmancy deviled egg plate-ware but if you know this is something you make often, you may want to invest. However, you can always plate it onto anything you want and if you have a problem with them rolling around, just take your knife and slice a small bit of the egg of it's rounded back to create a small level surface for it to sit on.

(you can't see it, but there are two ladybugs painted onto this beautiful dish)


On to the ingredients:

12 large hard boiled eggs cut in half, lengthwise (it was for a big party)
1/4 C mayonnaise
1 Tablespoon Dijon mustard
1/4 teaspoon Lawry's seasoning salt (I tend to like the filling on the saltier side because once it goes back into the egg whites, it'll balance out nicely, BUT you can put in less salt and work your way up to taste)
1/4 teaspoon Paprika
1/4 teaspoon Turmeric
1/4 teaspoon coarse ground black pepper
a small bunch of flat leaf parsley
extra Paprika for decorating at the end (optional)

1. Take your eggs and start scooping out the cooked yolk into a large bowl.



2. Add all the ingredients into the large bowl with your yolks except the parsley and extra paprika.



3. At this point, I like to mash everything together with a potato masher. You can use a fork, but I found that the fork isn't as good at ensuring that all the chunks are out (or I'm just lazy and not thorough). If you plan on scooping the filing into the eggs, then even a little chunky is ok but I prefer my filling to be smooth and creamy because it gets all the flavors incorporated better AND if you want to pipe it through a decorative tip, it won't clog your tip. So again, mash away till you get a nice, creamy texture.



4. Once you've done this, the rest is the fun part. I took my Wilton #32 tip and filled the piping bag with the yolk mixture. Then I proceeded to pipe the mixture into my eggs. It made a nice flower looking shape which is what I was going for because my serving plate had flowers on it. Now, you don't have to do all this that's coming up in the next few steps. Again, if you want, just scoop it into your egg with a small spoon. I was just making it for my Father-In-Law's party so I needed to make it somewhat impressive.





5. Usually towards the end of deviled eggs recipe, you'll find that there a step of chopping up and sprinkling parsley over the eggs. I decided to take the parsley and making "leaves" for my "flower" yolk. I just started picking off small parsley leaves off the stem and inserting their tips into the yolk filling gently. Then I took pinches of paprika and sprinkled them on the centers of the "flowers" to give them a more eye catching look. Seriously, I would not have done all this if it wasn't for a special occasion. In fact, for J's surprise party, we just chopped up the parsley and sprinkled.



6. Lastly, plate, serve, and eat! YUMMMM!



Hope you enjoy these deviled eggs. Just as a note, there's no "written in stone" rule about the ingredients to flavor your filling so if you want to omit something, and add something else, go for it. Make it yours. Don't be afraid to taste along the way and remember... you can always add stuff to make it saltier or more moist... you can't always take it out once it's done. So when experimenting, go in baby steps. Bon Apetit!