Triple Deviled Eggs

Firstly I have to apologize that I have been keeping a lot of your waiting for recipes that I've promised to post.  It's been more than six months since my last post and during this time, I haven't stopped cooking, so I've actually have this huge blogging backlog that I've been meaning to clear.  Instead of letting that backlog grow even bigger, I will try to post a few shorter ones this week.  Let's start with the  Triple Deviled Egg recipe requested by Sally Ho.

Deviled eggs are my favourite food for potluck parties and picnics and they are always the first ones to disappear.  Ever since I saw the Triple Deviled Eggs recipe on I am a Food Blog I’ve been looking for an occasion to make them, so when I found out that we are planning for a bread making cum afternoon tea party for the very first Shinya Shokudou Cooking Club gathering, I immediately volunteered to bring them.  They were a great hit and I promised everyone that I would post the recipe as soon as I get around to do it.  I just didn't realize that the wait was going to be more than 9 months.

These are called Triple Deviled Eggs because three kinds of eggs are used – chicken egg, tobiko (flying fish eggs) and ikura (salmon eggs).  The ikura adds a little classy touch to the eggs and gives a lovely presentation.  I piped the filling into my eggs using a pastry bag and a decorating tip as I find it cleaner and easier to manage, but you can also just spoon it in for a more rustic look.

There are so many wonderful variations of these little goodies. Do you have a favourite deviled egg recipe?

Adapted from I am a Food Blog’s recipe

Yield: 8 deviled egg halves

Difficulty: easy

Ingredients:

For the hard-boiled eggs:

4 eggs

3 cups of water

1/2 tablespoon salt

2 tablespoons white vinegar

For the filling:

2 tablespoons kewpie mayonnaise

1 tablespoon tobiko

Salt and pepper to taste

1/2 teaspoon sriracha chili sauce – I only added a little since I wasn’t sure how spicy the others could take. I personally love spicy food so I’d add more if I were to make it for make again for myself.  You can omit it entirely if you prefer non-spicy.

1 tablespoon ikura

seaweed strips for garnish

Method:

1. Hard boil the eggs by combining the salt, vinegar and cold water and placing the eggs gently in a single layer in a saucepan, making sure that the water level is covering the egg by at least an inch.  Bring the water to a boil over high heat, then turn off the heat, cover and let sit for 12 minutes.  Do not leave the eggs in the hot water for too long as it might overcook the eggs.

2. Remove the eggs from the saucepan and place them in ice water to quickly chill them.  Crack the shells immediately putting them in ice water while waiting for them to cool off, about 5 minutes.

3. Once cooled, strain the water from the eggs and peel them.  The shells should slip right off the eggs.

4. Cut the eggs in half lengthwise and remove the yolks from the egg halves into a small bowl.  Place the egg whites on a serving platter.

5. Mash the yolks with a fork until fine and crumbly. Mix with the mayonnaise and tobiko. Taste and season with salt, pepper and sriracha.

6. Fill the egg halves by piping the filling into the whites and top each egg half with some ikura.  Sprinkle seaweed strips as garnish just right before serving.

Notes:

1. Many people thought that it is impossible to overcook hard-boiled eggs, but it’s not true! If a boiled egg is overcooked, a greenish ring sometimes appears around the egg yolk.  The method I described above (steps 1-3) will guarantee you PERFECT hard-boiled eggs.

2. An egg-timer as shown below is also a very useful tool to have in the kitchen if you love boiled eggs.    I bought it recently during a trip to Japan but I believe they are available in local kitchenware stroes as well.  Just drop the timer into the water with the eggs at the time same and watch the timer as it starts to change color and slowly reaches the marker for "soft", "medium", or "hard", depending on your yolk texture preference.

3. Starting with cold water will prevent the eggs from cracking. Adding the vinegar and salt also prevents cracking and making the eggs easier to peel. Chilling the eggs in ice water afterwards makes the shells separate from the whites which makes them easy to peel as well.

4. When removing the yolks from the whites, give the each egg half a gentle but firm squeeze and the yolk should pop out easily.  If there is residue remaining on the egg white, rinse it off in a small bowl of water.

5. If I were you, I would make a couple more than you need, because I bet once you’re done, you can’t resist eating one or two right away! =)