Neil’s Favorite Deviled Eggs

Neil and I are huge fans of the show ‘Kitchen Nightmares’. Have you seen it? It stars the very blunt celebrity chef Gordon Ramsey as he travels to failing restaurants to try to help. The show really changes the way you go about deciding where to eat out. We now know that if the restaurant is always empty, there’s a reason, and you probably shouldn’t stake your health to find out why.

One night, after watching the Hot Potato Cafe episode, Neil and I were imagining ourselves as owners of a themed restaurant and what we’d have as our niche menu items. I was imagining all the different foods you could make with peanut butter, and after a minute Neil stated seriously, “If I had a restaurant, it would serve hot wings and deviled eggs.” He was serious, well as serious as Neil can be. Neil loves deviled eggs. I don’t mind them, but I tend to like hard boiled eggs in a salad or made into egg salad. It’s a texture thing. However I love the deviled eggs Neil makes and wanted to share the recipe since we’re just past Easter and many people might have hard boiled eggs to make use of.

INGREDIENTS:

• 1 dozen eggs
• 2 teaspoons dijon mustard
• 1 teaspoon chipotle powder
• 1/2 cup mayonnaise
• 1/4 teaspoon sriracha or tabasco sauce
• salt and pepper to taste
• Paprika

1. The first thing you have to do is hard boil the eggs. Fill a saucepan half with water and gently place the eggs in the water. Make sure eggs are covered with at least an inch of water and add a little salt and vinegar to the water. Bring to a boil, cover and remove from heat. Let sit 12-15 minutes. Drain water and from saucepan and run cold water over eggs. Allow to sit for 5 minutes.

2. Peel shells from eggs. Neil’s method is to crack gently on the counter and roll with your hands in order to loosen shell pieces. Often the shell comes off in three pieces!

3. Use a sharp knife and cut eggs lengthwise, removing yolks and placing in a bowl. Leave whites face up on plate or serving dish. (In our case, we made them on the counter. We keep it real)

4. In mixing bowl, mash yolks with mustard, mayonnaise, salt and pepper, chipotle powder, and sriracha/tabasco sauce.

5. Spoon mixture into egg whites and top with a sprinkling of paprika. We made use of a Ziploc bag because we’re classy like that. In retrospect, using a spoon probably would have looked better.

I don’t know about you, but we love making appetizers for dinner in the spring/summer. We’ll make one or two things, snack as we do an activity and wrap the leftovers for lunch the next day. It adds a little zing to the work week, and as the days get longer we want to spend as much time outside and in our garden or running as possible. These taste great, are easy to make, and a good source of quick protein when you need it. Enjoy!