| Moscow Food Co-op Recipes | |
Meals Kids Might Eat:
Perfectly Peeled Deviled Eggs
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| The author's three-year-old son, Karun, sprinkles paprika on the deviled eggs. |
Welcome to a new column in the Co-op Community News. I am the mother of two boys, ages 7 and 3. I wanted to write a column about healthy foods that kids will eat. Then I thought about my boys—and changed the word “will” to “might.” I never know, from one day to the next, what they’ll eat! This column is also about foods kids like to help prepare. My children will often eat something new if they help prepare it. Since I’m a vegetarian, all the recipes will be lacto-ovo vegetarian.
Peeling Those Eggs
My kids tend to like eggs and maybe your kids do too. The last time I made
deviled eggs they were gobbled up in no time. The only problem with making
deviled eggs is, how do you peel those darn eggs so they look nice instead
of pock-marked, with half the white still sticking to the shell?
We get our eggs fresh from Kate and Brad Jaeckel’s farm in Moscow. We love the fact that the yolks are so orange! Kate says she feeds the hens kitchen scraps and alfalfa which boosts the beta-carotene of the yolks.
However, farm-fresh boiled eggs do not peel easily. It is widely recommended that you leave your eggs in the fridge for two weeks before boiling and peeling them.
I don’t know about you, but I have a hard time planning to make deviled eggs two weeks in advance! So I sought a way to easily peel fresh eggs. I found (and was offered) numerous suggestions to get the peels off: leave the eggs out overnight; add salt to the water; poke holes in the wide end of the egg.
I conducted an experiment using the methods above. I left two eggs out overnight; I put a tablespoon of salt in with two eggs, and I poked holes in the wide ends of two eggs. Two additional eggs received all three treatments. (Note on poking holes in eggs: it’s not as hard as it seems. Take a safety pin in one hand. Hold the raw egg firmly in the other hand with the wide end up. Twist and push the pin through the shell. I poked one or two holes in my eggs. A bit of white will leak out of the holes when the eggs are boiled).
The following boiling method is recommended on www.GoodEgg.com as well as by my mother-in-law, Sharon Winstein, a cooking teacher:
Put eggs in cold water to cover.
Bring to a rolling boil.
Turn down the heat and let the eggs simmer for ten minutes.
Immediately drain the eggs, cover them with cold water, and throw in a bunch of ice cubes. (The chilling helps prevent a green ring around the yolk).
When the water is cool, crackle the eggs all over and peel carefully.
The results? All three methods worked well! One of the salted eggs didn’t peel as easily, but the other seven eggs came out perfect!
We served the perfectly peeled deviled eggs with pasta and sauce, salad, and fresh fruit.
In a future column I will be discussing ways to make shopping, cooking, and dinnertime easier and more pleasant when kids are around.
Deviled
Eggs
(Adapted from www.GoodEgg.com)
6 hard-boiled eggs (cook using the method described above)
3 Tbsp. mayonnaise (we used Spectrum Naturals)
1 Tbsp. yellow mustard (we used Westbrae Natural)
1 Tbsp. sweet pickle relish (we used Cascadian Farm)
Paprika
Cut each egg in half lengthwise and carefully remove yolks into bowl. (An older child might help with this.) Mash yolks. Add all ingredients except paprika and mix. (Kids as young as two can help with this part.) Carefully spoon yolk mixture back into egg-white halves. Sprinkle with paprika. Serve immediately or chill.
Before becoming a mother, Jyotsna Sreenivasan would never have spent this much time and energy on the subject of peeling an egg
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