by When my sister-in-laws and I took a road trip to central Texas’ famous Canton Trade Days, we each went armed with a wish list of treasures. One of my first purchases was a huge score: a deviled egg tray, that retro symbol of “Mad Men”-era cocktail parties.
When I was a kid, my mom always made deviled eggs for bridge club and faculty parties. I was mystified: what, exactly, was the appeal? She took a perfectly good hard-boiled egg, added some gooshy stuff, and then served it cold.
Gross.
Despite my refined culinary opinions, Mom’s deviled eggs were always well received by guests. She followed the classic instructions from The Good Housekeeping Cookbook, her favorite resource for recipes: boil eggs, remove yolks, mash, mix with mayonnaise—in our house, Miracle Whip equaled mayo—and season with salt and pepper to taste.
Until recently, you couldn’t have paid me to eat a deviled egg.
Updated Classic: Curried Stuffed Eggs
Last spring, I had no dinner plans, little desire for a trip to the grocery, and a lot of eggs. I remembered my husband’s fondness for deviled eggs and searched through my cookbooks for a recipe variation that looked tasty. I discovered just the thing in one of my favorites — Karri Ann Allrich’s Cooking By The Seasons: Simple Vegetarian Feasts.
Allrich’s update takes the basics (boil some eggs and remove the cooked yolks) before jazzing up the mayo and mashed yolks with red onion, jalapeño, Dijon mustard, and a splash of red wine vinegar. The game changer ingredient? Curry powder.
The term “deviled” derives from British cooks in the 1800s; it meant a food had been made spicy.
I’m not a huge curry fan but this…oh, man…THIS is delicious. I’ve gone from a deviled egg hater to lover, licking the bowl to get every last bit of stuffing.
Since discovering Allrich’s recipe, I’ve made a few minor adjustments:
- These days, I’ve abandoned my roots to use real organic mayonnaise.
- Because I prefer a chunkier texture, I go heavy on the diced red onion and fresh jalapeño.
- I only top half the stuffed eggs with cilantro (my husband doesn’t like it) and sprinkle the rest with paprika.
When spring rolls around, I plan to use beets to create pretty pink eggs with a sunshine-y yellow topping. They’d look so adorable in my fancy deviled egg plate, wouldn’t they?
There is, however, one unforeseen drawback to that much sought-after deviled egg dish:
It’s obvious when I eat one in advance.
Read More Here
First Monday Trade Days in Canton, TX
Cooking By The Seasons: Simple Vegetarian Feasts by Karri Ann Allrich
“The Ancient History of Deviled Eggs” by Laura Schumm
Beet-Dyed Deviled Eggs (recipe)
