You'd never know this sandwich holds as much excitement as it does.

I had a terrible craving for eggs this week. Not just any eggs though. I wanted deviled eggs… and a lot of them. A normal person would take that as a sign and just make them – I mean, why mess with a perfect thing, right? Not me. I’m far too lazy for that.

To make a good deviled egg, you’re supposed to lay the eggs on their sides overnight to get the yolk to sit nicely in the middle. You’re supposed to let them adjust to room temperature before boiling so they don’t crack when the water gets hot. You even have to worry about how old the eggs are, since fresher eggs don’t peel well after being boiled. You have to boil them perfectly and hope none of the them break. You have to rig up some kind of piping device and fill the egg whites up prettily, all the while losing a tiny bit of that deviled yolky goodness to every surface it comes into contact with. And after all of that work, you have to constrain yourself from eating all of them at once, for the sake of your health, and because you know it will be a long time before you muster up the patience for such a project again.

And you know, when you really want deviled eggs that’s just far too much work and willpower. So it’s only natural that one day I would be so lazy that I would come up with this instead. No worrying about looks, just pick your favorite deviled egg recipe, add an extra dollop of mayonnaise, and get crackin’.

And if you don’t have a favorite deviled egg recipe (I wouldn’t be surprised if I were the only nut who did), try this one I’ve already tricked out for salad:

Recipe: Deviled Egg Salad

Makes 4 servings

• 5 extra large eggs
• 2 tbsp mayonnaise
• 1/2 to 1 tsp cayenne pepper
• 1/2 tsp paprika
• 1/2 tsp dry mustard powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp black pepper
• 1 tsp white vinegar
• Optional: 1/2 cup white mushrooms or hearts of palms, chopped
• Optional: 3 slices of well-done bacon, crumbled

1. Hard boil the eggs. What I like to do is put the eggs in a pot, and then fill the pot with water until the eggs are covered. I salt the water and put the pot on high heat. Once the the water comes to a rolling boil, I cover the pot and turn off the heat and let sit for 10 minutes. Then I put them straight into a cold water bath with plenty of ice before peeling. If you have a different method that you like, use that. Just get the eggs boiled.
2. Peel the eggs. Do the best you can to get the shell cleaned off the egg white, but if you lose a hunk here or there, don’t worry about it. I like to run the peeled eggs through a bit of cold water afterward to make sure I’ve removed all of the bits of shell.
3. Slice the eggs in half. Remove the yolk from each half and add it to a bowl, or a container that you will be storing your salad in. Leave the whites on your cutting board.
4. Mash the yolks with a fork. Add all of the spices and condiments, combine well. Taste and adjust seasonings if necessary. If the mixture is still a bit powdery, add a bit more mayonnaise or vinegar until the yolks are creamy.
5. Chop the egg whites, and any of the optional additions if you chose to include them. Stir into the deviled yolks.

Enjoy plain or on a bit of plain toast. I’ve found that the flavor is quite delicate, and so I prefer not to use bread with too much of its own flavor. Garnish with a bit of paprika, chili powder, or cayenne for extra kick.

One year ago: Flourless Chewy Chocolate Brownie Cookies

Related posts:

1. Egg White Avocado Salad
2. Lotus Root Salad
3. Bacon Waffles

Steam-roasted Brussels sprouts

Brussels sprouts have a bad reputation. At some point when we were kids, we heard a rumor that they were gross. They were the “punishment” vegetable kids on TV were always forced to eat. Surely they were part of a nationwide parental scheme to fool children into being “healthy.” And who even knew what they were?

Being the adventurous eater I always have been, I always wondered about this mysterious veggie that everyone seemed to hate. What about them could inspire such universal feelings of torture at dinner? My parents never served them, so I never had that childhood moment in which to whine, “But mooom, I don’t want any brusselsprouts!” They were a mystery to me, and one I wanted solved.

Brussels sprouts are pretty much mini-cabbages. If you like cabbage, you might like these sprouts. The first time I actually ate them, I fell in love. They are adorable little green bulbs. They are fairly inexpensive at certain times in the season (which seems to be right around now at New York City produce stands). They are packed with nutrients up the wazoo like most greens. They are incredibly easy to prepare.

When buying the sprouts, look for firm sprouts without damage or loose leaves (as loose leaves will have to be removed later anyway). If you hold one and give it a squeeze between your thumb and index finger it should be firm and not crunchy. Sizes will vary but they generally fall around the size of a ping pong ball or smaller. Smaller sprouts (an inch to an inch and a half) tend to have a milder flavor and are more firm and fresh. Even if the ones on sale are not that small, just try to pick sprouts of similar sizes so that they will cook at the same rate.

Recipe: Steam-Roasted Brussels Sprouts

• Brussels sprouts, firm and fresh.
• Cooking spray or olive oil
• Coarse salt and black pepper

1. Preheat the oven to 425 F
2. Prepare the sprouts by pulling off any loose or damaged leaves. Cut off any remaining bit of stem. Slice in half lengthwise (as in the photo above).
3. Line a baking tray with tin foil. Spray or otherwise grease the foil.
4. Place sprouts on the tray, cut side facing up.
5. Spray or drizzle oil lightly over the sprouts. Sprinkle evenly with salt and pepper.
6. Cover the tray with another piece of tin foil and lightly fold the edges over to form a not-quite air-tight seal.
7. Roast for 15 minutes so that they get a little brown on the bottom and tender from the steam on the inside. Allow to cool slightly.

Enjoy these steam-roasted Brussels sprouts wherever you would eat other greens. I love them on their own. They go well with hearty tomato sauce and pasta dishes and red meat, though the sky’s the limit with these simple bite-sized wonders.

Using the heart-shaped side of the iron to make moffles

Many of you may know, that I, like Alton Brown, hate kitchen gadgets that only do one thing. To justify the real estate taken up by a huge gadget like a waffle iron, I try to find as many unusual uses for the thing as possible. That’s why I was thrilled to read about Maki’s “Moffles” on Just Hungry. Moffles are mochi rectangles pressed and grilled in a waffle iron until they become crispy wafers, gooey on the inside. Mochi, for the non-Japan-o-philes out there, is glutinous rice flour dough, which often comes in rectangles.

Jen did all the ironing of these waffles. She brushed sesame oil onto the machine for extra flavor and to aid in removing the finished moffles. Because I’m a broken record, I spread freshly-made guacamole all over mine. Jen had some with guac, some with Japanese Bulldog barbeque sauce and a sweet one with a bit of chocolate syrup, maple syrup and whipped cream.

I give this technique a definite A+ so if you have a waffle iron and can get ahold of mochi near you, head over to Just Hungry for the recipe. This is worth a try. Yum!

Related posts:

1. Bacon Waffles
2. Savory Rosemary Waffles

Guac on Cheddar Cheesy Sourdough Bread

I’ve been having unstoppable cravings for avocados for the last month. Avocados sometimes have a bad rep: it can be hard to tell  if they are ripe, they can be confusing to open, once you do open them they turn brown, they have more fat than other fruit, they are an awkward shade of green, and on top of all of that they are usually expensive. Well don’t listen to any of that.

Besides being gorgeous, in my opinion, avocados boast a cool creamy, subtle, versatile and nutty flavor. I delight in pairing them with just about anything savory or sour, and others claim success in the use of avocado in sweet dishes, such as in buttercream frosting. I also love it just plain on its own. If you have the luxury of eating an entire avocado by yourself, which I don’t find difficult at all, it could be possibly one of the most divine healthiest 300 calories you’ll eat (note: I’m not a nutritionist, so I’m probably wrong, but I’d like to think that I’m right – it doesn’t carry the same guilt for me that 300 calories of ice cream might). Yes, avocados are high in fat but fat in and of itself is not a bad thing. They have no cholesterol, are low in sodium and sugar, high in dietary fiber and a handful of other vitamins. Pair one with lean protein and a carb and you’ve got a match made in heaven. I’d eat avocado in some form every day if I could (or if they last in my house that long).

To tackle some of the other “myths” that may be keeping you from the splendor that is the “alligator pear,” it’s actually not very hard to tell if an avocado is ripe. Just give it a squeeze. With just a little pressure, you should be able to feel the flesh squish underneath the skin, to the point at which it seems that if you were to exert more pressure, it might squeeze out of the skin. Usually the avocados at the market will not be ripe enough to eat yet. Avocados only begin to ripen after they have been picked, which works out quite well for transport. If you’d like to speed the ripening process, put them in a paper bag and check each day until they pass the squeeze test. If you want to slow down the ripening process, put them into a refrigerator loose. Don’t put them in plastic bags in either case as the lack of ventilation will cause them to rot in their own moisture before they ever ripen. Once it is ripe, you should plan to use it swiftly – once you open the avocado you should plan to use it immediately (see instructions for preventing discoloration a bit later in this article).

Once you’ve got a ripe avocado, you’ve got to open it to get at the bright green flesh inside. I like to slide my knife around it lengthwise, until I hit the hard pit on the inside, and then I turn the fruit around with the knife still inside until I’ve made a full circle and cut all the way through. Then I put down the knife (important step to remember!) and hold the fruit in both hands and give a little rubix-cube-style twist to dislodge one of the halves from the pit. If the fruit is very ripe, you might see a bit of the flesh squeeze out on the sides where your gripping fingers were. You’ll end up with two halves that look like this:

Avocado cut lengthwise in half

The avocado pictured above was probably the ripest one I’ve ever handled. You can tell by the way the flesh pulls away from the skin, and by the color gradient. With this type of avocado, flesh closest to the center of the fruit will be a pale yellow or green, which will gradually turn greener the farther away from the pit it is. [By the way, these are Hass avocados, which are my favorite. They are small and have very textured leathery dark green/black skin with pits about the size pictured. Other varieties sport differently textured and colored skin, and vary in size of fruit and pit. I find the Hass variety are most available where I live, and I just seem to have an affinity for them and their bumpy skins.]

Now to extricate the flesh from the skin I find the easiest way is to give each half another lengthwise cut so that you have quarters (cut around the pit on the side that has it if you can’t yet get it out). Then you can grab the avocado skin by the top corner and watch the avocado flesh slip out. If you’re lucky (I was not in this picture), the skin will come off intact, and none of the avocado flesh will stick to it. It won’t always be perfect though. Then you should be able to more easily remove the pit from the quarter it is still attached to. Just grab the pit and twist and pluck. If it is very slippery, use a paper towel to get a better grip.

Getting the avocado out of its skin

Now that you have the avocados out of their skins, you can do what you wish with them. They shouldn’t turn brown very quickly, but sprinkling a bit of lemon or lime juice on them should help keep them bright for longer. When planning to use the avocado mashed, I include at least one whole pit in the container. I’m not sure if there is any scientific validity to this, as I’ve heard both that the pit does nothing and that the pit is essential in preserving freshness, but it seems that when I include it, my mixture stays green for as long as it lasts. Granted, once again, mashed avocado does not last long enough in my house to really test this since we all love it.

My favorite use of avocado hands down is in guacamole. There are many ways to make this vibrant spread, check out mine.

Guacamole in its designated green container

So, are you game enough to tackle the green monster? If you still aren’t convinced, well, fine. More delectable avocado for me! ::starts to salivate at the thought::

Related posts:

1. Guacamole
2. Egg White Avocado Salad