Living each week like it's shark week

Truffled Deviled Eggs (4/22)

I'm an egg lover. Prepare me an egg six ways from Sunday and I'll happily eat it. In my egg compendium (my compeggdium, if you will) there is a special place reserved for deviled eggs. The first time I had them was from a platter at Amanda Perkins's 8th birthday party, quietly sitting beside the much more popular chips sidled up next to the dip and those annoyingly outgoing cookies.

I thought to myself, "Self, this is some sort of egg. But an egg the likes of which I have never seen in all my years. I must eat it at once." And I did.

I liked it so much that I probably ate far more than I should have, and since then I eagerly nose them out at parties where that all-American heritage runs deep. I don't know how to put this delicately, so I'll just say it: this is the whitest way to prepare eggs I can imagine. A blob of mayonnaise, a squirt of mustard and a little sprinkle of paprika? My Vietnamese-American self could never imagine such flavors.

I also assumed that everyone knew what they were, which is why I was so confused when I got involved in this conversation at a Denny's a few years later:

Waitress: And how do you want your eggs?
11-year-old-self: Deviled, please.
Waitress: I'm sorry?

I still think she was faking. She just didn't want to go back there and tell them that a little girl had just asked for her eggs to be hardboiled, the yolks seasoned and then piped back into their shell.

Well, I'm here to tell you that I will have my eggs deviled, dangit! (chews and spits something)

This recipe was based on Anne Burrell's that I got by way of Menu for Love. I thought that preparing 4 eggs would be a nice lunch, forgetting that I'm eating essentially eight deviled thingies loaded with mayonnaise, so I'd say try to set these out for other people. This is why I can't go to buffets. Careful not to overdo it on the truffle oil, because that stuff is strong. Sta-rong.







I used both whole grain and Dijon mustard, but substitute whatever you like. And am I the only one who thinks that the truffle oil looks like the "2001"/monolith tribute shot from "Clueless" when Cher gets the call from Christian on that huge black cordless? Or am I reading too much into this? Don't answer that.




Truffled Deviled Eggs

Ingredients
4 eggs
1/2 cup mayonnaise
1/2 tsp truffle oil
1 tsp Dijon mustard
1 tsp whole grain mustard
Pinch cayenne pepper
salt and pepper to taste
Chopped chives, for garnish

Directions
Place the eggs in a pot and cover with tap water. Bring the water to a boil, turn off the heat and let sit for 10 minutes. Drain, cool and peel.

Cut in half lengthwise. Remove the yolks and add to mayonnaise, truffle oil, mustard, cayenne, and pepper. Mix to combine, then whip until very light and fluffy.

Spoon or pipe the yolk mixture into the whites. Sprinkle with chopped chives. I held back on salting the yolk and instead sprinkled coarse sea salt on top, which lent a sharp crunch and nice contrast. Otherwise, just season to taste with kosher salt.

Love, Christine at 5:35 AM

Tags: cooking, food, recipes