Hardboiled Eggs

Every couple of months or so, Julie tells me “You need to send your hard boiled egg recipe to ….” So it’s time i gave it a permalink.

This is basically the Julia Childs/Alton Brown/America’s Test Kitchen approach and I have found that fresher eggs are easier to shell.

1. Place eggs in pot and cover with cold water, 1 inch above eggs.
2. Bring to a boil, uncovered.
3. Turn off heat, cover pot.
4. Wait 10 minutes.
5. Transfer eggs to a large boil filled with ice water.
6. Wait 10 minutes.
7. Remove shells while running under cold water.

Deviled Egg Addendum

Julie points out that once you have all these hardboiled eggs the absolute best thing to do with them is make Deviled Eggs. We have been trotting these out for various parties and pot-lucks and they always go fast.

Unfortunately there is no hard and fast recipe that I use. The main ingredients are:

• Hard boiled eggs (12)
• Mayonnaise (~1/2 cup)
• Boars Head Delicatessen Mustard (~1/4 cup)
• Paprika

Cut the eggs in half and put the yolks in a large bowl, Mix the egg yolks with the mayo and mustard. The key to the recipe is the Boars Head mustard which has a little horseradish in it. It makes all the difference. Fill the half eggs with the yolk mixture. Sprinkle a little paprika on top and away you go.

For all who asked, here are the appetizers I made for Julie’s Cocktail/Birthday Party.

• Olive Twists, one of my go to easy appetizers.
• Hot Stuffed Dates, this is from one of my all time favorite gifts, a Bar Bites
  cookbook given to me by my SIL Laurie.
• Green Bean and Prosciutto Negimaki, I was looking for some lighter, vegetable based appetizers and these looked great. They tasted great as well.
• Endive Spears with Sweet Potato, Bacon, and Chives, I thought these would be good, but WOW were they tasty.
• Shrimp Cocktail, I just make a standard cocktail sauce but the brined and broiled shrimp are always incredible.
• Stuffed Filet Mignon, we have dubbed these cannonballs and will be making them again.
• Flourless Chocolate Cake, this one didn’t get served and we were forced to eat it all ourselves.

A couple of weeks ago the Lovely Julie and I celebrated our 8th wedding anniversary.  As she will tell you, my cooking is how I “got” her, so I always like to break out the verve for our anniversary dinner.   Also I have had a craving for veal saltimbocca that has been lingering for far too long due to an inability to find good veal dishes when we go out.

A Roman Feast: Veal Saltimbocca, Artichokes, and Polenta

The menu for our Roman Feast was Veal Saltimbocca alla Romana, Polenta, and Steamed Artichokes.

For the Saltimbocca, I followed this recipe from Tyler Florence on the Food Network.  The polenta is an old standby recipe from my America’s Test Kitchen cookbook.

The artichokes were a first.  They always seem expensive when I’m staring at them in the store and I’ve never been sure how much effort they would be to prepare.  Following the directions from  America’s Test Kitchen  the preparation turned out to be very straight forward.  Keeping things simple, they were served with a little clarified butter on the side.  The artichokes turned out to be very tasty though a large artichoke is quite the commitment for a side dish.  Next time I might try a recipe that involves trimming them done to the heart for a more manageable portion.

All in all it was a successful meal to celebrate a successful year.