Karen’s Deviled Eggs

Do you have a signature dish others know you for? A fallback you take to potlucks when you don’t know what else to take? People would be disappointed if you didn’t bring it?

I guess I now do! I started bringing deviled eggs to potlucks because potlucks are notorious for being high carb and I wanted to make sure my diabetic husband got some kind of protein. Then he’d complain the eggs were gone by the time he got through the line. Sure enough, I always went home with an empty pan.

Friends would exclaim over the eggs. “Who brought these? They’re delicious.” Um, me? Um, nothing special. Doesn’t everyone make deviled eggs the same?

A peek through my cookbooks to write out the correct proportions (I never measure my ingredients for deviled eggs) quickly showed me, no, my eggs are distinct. PLEASE! Leave a comment if you make deviled eggs like I do.

I realized it’s not just the ingredients although I couldn’t find any recipe that calls for celery. It’s as much those little tricks that guarantee a delicious taste every time. Let me share some of my tips for great deviled eggs with you.

TIPS

• Deviled eggs do not take as much time as you expect but you do need to plan ahead. You can make them the day before and slip them out of the refrigerator when you’re ready to leave for your event.

• You must keep them cold. It’s worth the investment of an insulated carrier.

• Involve others in the making. My best memory of the last family event is the help I got from my 2 ½ year old granddaughter who enthusiastically cracked all 12 eggs. I realized I was being too gentle in cracking those shells–they came off so easily when she cracked them. And she did an acceptable job of mashing the yolk before she lost interest.

• Did you know you can cook hard boil eggs in an electric pressure cooker, aka InstaPot? So easy! You don’t have to babysit them while they boil, they do take less time, and they are consistently perfect. The receipe site, Delish, has a simple 5-5-5 method for making perfect hand boiled eggs.

• If you choose to add celery or onion in your eggs, dice it very fine. You want either to add a bunch of crunch without overpowering the rest of the egg. I don’t put onion in mine (yuck) but I know lots of people who do. If you want to, be very sparing and mince it fine.

• Garnish with paprika if you have a steady hand or if you don’t care that every egg looks different. If you stress over sprinkling paprika on top, leave it off!

• Use a grapefruit spoon to fill the eggs. I’m not kidding. The pointed tip and serrated edge makes it easy to gently scrape the egg yolk mixture into the while. A pastry bag with tip? Too much trouble, too much mess, you waste valuable filling, a spoon works just fine.

• 12 eggs is too many for you? Make as many or as few as you want and adjust the ingredients accordingly. Amounts don’t have to be exact. With time, you’ll guess as good as I do!

• If the mixture seems too thick, add small equal amounts of sour cream and mayonnaise. Be careful not to get the mixture too thin.

• I use regular sour cream and mayonnaise with olive oil. You may substitute Greek yogurt for the sour cream. Be aware of a difference in consistency. You may also use regular mayonnaise or Miracle Whip if you prefer.

Are you ready to see what’s different about my recipe? Here we go. Oh, and why are there two eggs missing in my photo? Well, the whites split when I was cutting them apart. And I certainly wouldn’t want my guests to deal with a messy split egg, right? So I had to eat them – and make sure they were “safe for social consumption,” right?

That’s my story!

I hope you enjoy.