Recipe 98 from The Smitten Kitchen Cookbook by Deb Perelman
This recipe can be found in Deb Perelman’s “The Smitten Kitchen Cookbook” on pages 290-291 or on this site:
Deviled eggs! I have a odd relationship with deviled eggs. Generally I don’t like eggs that are hard boiled and I don’t love egg salad either. The texture of the egg white and the egg yolk just kind of make my stomach turn.
I make myself have at least one every time my mom makes them for a family gathering around Easter time. And generally I’m satisfied with that 1 and I’m happy to wait a year to have it again.
I took an Everlywell home food sensitivity test and discovered that I have a high sensitivity for egg whites and a medium sensitivity to egg yolks. This explains so much to me because I really am not a big fan of eggs and now I’m wondering if it’s because my body is telling me they’re not really for me.
That being said, I was drawn into this recipe because these looked extra tasty. When you add different elements to something that’s familiar it always piques my interest… especially if I generally don’t like it in its normal form. With the marcona almonds and the jamón….it was very possible I was going to like these a lot!
To get the hard-boiled eggs just right I pulled out my Pampered Chef Quick Cooker which is like the Instapot. I purchased the Stackable Steaming Racks that Pampered Chef has to hold eggs and the 1-Cup Prep Bowls and I love using them for things like this. Just eight minutes in the pressure cooker and you have hard boiled eggs! Take them out and put them in an ice bath so that you can peel them sooner.
Just a tip that I learned today when watching a video on Instagram from somebody in the Food52 family. If you crack the eggs while they’re cooling in the ice bath, apparently the water goes underneath the shell to help cool the egg quicker and ultimately assists with peeling them when you’re ready. I obviously didn’t try it this time because I found this tip too late but I’m passing it on in case you need a little help with the peeling process.
You can tell by this picture that my peeling was kind of a hack job. I might have tried to peel them a little sooner than they were ready. But since they were just for my husband and I, and because this quarantine makes it impossible to share anything with anybody, I figured it didn’t matter so much.
All that to be said, I thought these were very tasty. I think I might add a little liquid smoke to the filling to really help out what the smoky flavor I was anticipating. I did not end up toasting the marcona almonds and it’s possible that would have really helped bring out the smoky element of the recipe. But if you’re like me and a little lazy when it comes to toasting nuts, a little liquid smoke might go a long way. And I’m talking like one drop or two.
These were a nice little snack that weekend that I made them up. We managed finish off this plate within a day. I still have some jamón in the refrigerator I need to figure out what to do with but I loved it crisp like this on top of the egg. It added a little something extra that I wouldn’t necessarily expect when I think about deviled eggs.
Definitely a good recipe to pull out when you need an appetizer. It’s elevated enough that you could use it anytime of the year, not just Easter 😉.
The Novice Life 