Easter: Deviled eggs

This post comes after a weekend of holiday cooking, first for Passover and then for Easter. I love both holidays, and will share with you one of my favorite recipes.

Lemon-Dill Deviled Eggs:

This recipe is an amalgam of the many deviled egg recipes I found on the web, which are all variations on the same theme:
eggs+mustard+mayo+anything else= YUM.

I'm including some of my own cooking philosophy here, too: The appeal of deviled eggs is the taste and the uniform look, in equal proportions. Luckily, the egg makes this pretty easy for the chef, since it's white with a smooth texture.

However, there is some technique here.




The two tricky parts are The Boiling of The Egg and The Piping of The Filling.

I'd say don't even bother making the eggs if you don't pipe the filling... Why go to all the effort of peeling a dozen eggs if you are just going to shlopp in the filling with a spoon? I mean, the taste will be the same, but you are only selling yourself short.

The recipe:

1 dozen eggs+ 2 (old are best! easier to peel!) Why plus one? Well... stuff happens. Boil yourself two extra eggs, just in case one bursts during boiling, or cracks while you peel it, or looks funny when you cut it.
1 teaspoon mustard
1/3 cup mayo
1/2 teaspoon lemon juice
zest from 1 lemon
1/4 teaspoon ground pepper
3 tablespoons chopped dill
paprika, preferably smoked, for garnish

1. Boil the eggs: Put your eggs in the bottom of a pot. Add water to cover them 1 inch. Add 1 teaspoon salt to the water. Heat the water till it simmers, then keep it simmering for 10 minutes. DON'T overcook these puppies, you want the filling to be creamy, not dry. Using tongs, remove eggs to a bowl of ice water, let sit until they feel cool to your touch.

2. Peel the eggs. Tip: on the flatter end of the egg, there is usually an air pocket. This is a good place to start peeling. If there are shell bits stuck to them, rinse and dry thoroughly.

3. Cut eggs in half. Over a medium bowl, place a sieve. Squeeze out the filling gently into the sieve and mash it through the holes with a spoon. OK, so you could forget the sieve and just mash it with a fork, sure. But must I remind you, you have ALREADY peeled the eggs! That was the hard part! Go the extra mile here and feel like a winner.

4. Put all other ingredients in the bowl, mix, adjust for seasoning. Mmmm.

5. Get your pastry bag out and choose a nice fat tip. Fill the bag and pipe the filling into the eggs, really pushing it down so there is a mound of filling for each egg. This is not like cake decorating... we want maximum fill, not a nice little nubbin. You should have exactly enough filling for all the eggs, plus a few squirts to put on top of some cucumber slices.

6. Make it pretty with dill, paprika, lemon zest, etc. Enjoy!