Lazy Deviled Eggs

Deviled Eggs are always a hit at parties and potlucks. My aunt's deviled eggs are famous in our family. But they're kind of a pain to make and transport, even if you have a fancy deviled egg tray. 

These lazy versions are much easier! You don't need a piping bag or any other special tools - although there are a couple of pieces of equipment that do make these especially easy, but you can make them without anything special. 

Instead of scooping out the yolks, you just slice up hard boiled eggs, season them and serve them on a cracker. It couldn't be simpler!  And you can transport the peeled eggs to your location and make them fresh on site quickly, instead of transporting piped egg halves that can get squashed.

One of the things that makes this particular recipe so easy is using an Instant Pot to cook the eggs. If you don't have one, you can just hard boil your eggs the normal way, but the Instant Pot makes wonderful hard boiled eggs that never get that green line around the yolk. 

To hard boil eggs in the Instant Pot, use the rack.  Put a cup of water in the bottom of the pot and place your eggs on the rack. This recipe calls for only 3 hard boiled eggs to make 18 bites, but why not cook more eggs to double the recipe or have for lunch during the week?

If you want to hard boil a dozen eggs, just pile them on top of each other!  Close the lid and set to low pressure for 7 minutes for a creamy hard yolk. For a firmer yolk, try 8 minutes. For a jammy yolk, 6 minutes (not for this recipe, but if that's what you like, go for it.)

Release the pressure manually, remove the lid, and use tongs to plunge the eggs into a bowl of ice water to stop the cooking. 

The nice thing about the Instant Pot is peeling the eggs. The peels come off beautifully! I do recommend peeling them just after cooling, because the peels are a little harder to get off cleanly if you refrigerate the eggs in their shells. 

Mix some mayonnaise and Dijon mustard together.

Spread a little on 18 plain rice crackers.

Peel the eggs and slice them into even rounds.  An egg slicer is really great to have for this step, and super cheap.  If you don't have one, carefully cut them with a knife as evenly as possible. 

Place an egg round on each rice cracker. Sprinkle with smoked paprika, kosher or sea salt, and a sprig of dill. 

I took these to a work potluck and it was so simple to mix up the dijon mayonnaise and cook the eggs the night before, then slice the eggs and assemble the bites right there in our work kitchen. People loved that it was just a taste of deviled egg, rather than half an egg.  And you really get a lot of bang for your buck, making 18 servings out of 3 eggs!

Here's the recipe:

Ingredients:
3 hard-boiled eggs
1 tablespoon mayonaisse
1 tablespoon dijon mustard
18 plain rice crackers
smoked paprika
sea salt or kosher salt
fresh dill

Instructions:
Mix the mayonaisse and mustard together and spread on rice crackers
Slice the eggs. Place one egg slice on each cracker
Sprinkle with paprika and salt and a small sprig of dill

Enjoy! 

Skor Apple Dip

This is an incredibly easy 3-ingredient dish that will wow guests at any potluck or holiday gathering. 

It doesn't seem like much - just cream cheese, caramel and crushed skor bars.  But when you combine them and refrigerate overnight, it becomes a tangy, sweet and crunchy dip for apple slices. 

In a class dish or pie plate, spread the cream cheese into a thick layer. 

Cover the cheese layer with caramel.

Spread into an even layer over the cream cheese. 

Crush the Skor bars into small crumbs by placing them in a plastic freezer bag and pounding with a meat mallet or heavy pan. 

Spread the crumbled Skor bits over the dip, cover, and refrigerate overnight. The chocolate on the bottom will start to meld into the caramel a bit, but the top will stay crunchy.

Serve with sliced apples for dipping.  You could even try dipping pretzels or ladyfingers.

Believe me, people will love this!

Here's the (simple) recipe:

Ingredients
340 gram tub spreadable plain cream cheese
250 gram tub old fashioned caramel sauce (found in the refrigerated section of the grocery store in the produce aisle)
191 gram package mini Skor bars or 5 full size Skor bars, smashed into small pieces
1 lemon
6-8 apples for serving, sliced

Instructions
Spread the cream cheese in a thick layer in a glass baking dish or pie plate. 
Spread the caramel sauce over the cream cheese
Spread the Skor pieces over the caramel layer
Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate 24 hours
Squeeze the juice of the lemon into a large bowl and add a cup of water.
Slice the apples and dip the slices in the lemon water to prevent browning
Serve the dip surrounded by apple slices

Enjoy!

Tart of the Month - Carrot and Herb Tart

April's tart of the month is not exactly seasonal. Carrots are available year round but at their peak in late summer and fall. But the fresh herbs and ricotta make this tart light and spring-like, and the beautiful, multi-coloured carrots are striking. 

This is one of those incredibly easy puff pastry tarts that can be whipped up in 30 minutes or so. 

This beautiful tart comes from Bon Appetit magazine. Here's what you need:

Spring Pea Soup

This extremely simple soup is perfect for spring! It is served at room temperature, so you can make it a little in advance and garnish just before serving.

Of course, fresh peas are the best thing ever. But this tasted very sweet and delicious with frozen peas, so you can enjoy a taste of springtime anytime.  

This recipe is inspired by Cooking Light magazine. Here's what you need for delicious soup:

Gougères (Cheese Puffs)

It is the secret dream of my life to become a pastry chef. Pastry is usually considered more exact and less forgiving than savoury cooking and it appeals to my love of being careful and following rules.  Particularly, I would love to make croissants.  There's a course at the Cordon Bleu school in Ottawa on Viennoiseries (croissants, brioche) that I would love to attend.  

These little cheese puffs are made from pâte à choux.  The dough steams to create a light, fluffy puff that can be used to make cream puffs, profiteroles and éclairs.  Or you can add cheese like I did for a delicious, savoury treat.  

Seared Tuna with Avocado, Soy, Ginger and Lime

Matt has been on a seared tuna kick recently and he orders it whenever we see it on a menu.  I happened to see some nice tuna at the seafood counter this week so I picked some up for him.  It is unbelievably expensive, but I got a small, 1/4 pound piece which made a nice appetizer for us.  Matt found the recipe and cooked the dish.  Great work!  It was delicious!

Here's what you need:

Short & Sweet Sunday - Smoked Duck Salad

The Western Fair Farmers & Artisans Market in London is a great place to find interesting local products.  I found this smoked duck breast at Saucy Meats & More, which sells local meat and game.  

I thinly sliced the smoked duck breast over some organic greens from the market.

I  made some smaller, bite-sized slices too.

Then I whipped up a vinaigrette with some cherry juice, dijon mustard, honey, white wine vinegar and olive oil.  It was a great complement to the duck.

The smoked duck tasted almost like bacon and was so tasty.  Some nuts or pepitas sprinkled over top would be a nice touch, but just the duck and greens together with the vinaigrette was lovely.  

Poached Shrimp Cocktail & Shrimp Stock

If you ever buy those frozen shrimp rings at the grocery store, consider this instead. Poaching your own shrimp gives you such a nice, fresh flavour, plus the opportunity to make useful shrimp stock from the shells.  And it's so easy!

All you need is some frozen raw shrimp and some aromatics.

This is the shrimp I used, but any large, raw, shell-on shrimp is fine.  This is a great resource for finding out about sustainable seafood.  I'll admit, I didn't use it this time.

Fill a large, shallow pan with about an inch of water and add a bay leaf, garlic clove, a few peppercorns and a sprinkle of chili flakes.  Bring the water to a simmer and add the frozen shrimp in their shells.

As the water starts to come back to a simmer, the shrimp will start to turn pink.  Flip them over as they become opaque.  They only need about 3-4 minutes.  

Once they're just cooked through, remove them from the water with a slotted spoon or tongs and reserve the poaching liquid for your stock.  Cooking shrimp in their shells gives them way more flavour than peeling them first.

To make shrimp cocktail, chill the shrimp and peel them but leave the tails on.

You can make an easy cocktail sauce with a tablespoon of horseradish, two tablespoons of ketchup and a few dashes of Tabasco sauce to taste.  Serve on a platter with sliced lemon or in little cocktail glasses for an individual appetizer.  

That's diced celery and celery leaves at the bottom of the glass.  You can make these in advance and chill them in the fridge until guests arrive. 

But save the shrimp shells!  We're going to make a flavourful shrimp stock you can keep in the freezer and use in lobster bisque or any recipe that calls for fish stock.  

In a medium pot, heat a little oil and add a celery stalk and the white parts of a couple of green onions or a quarter of a small white onion.  

Add the shrimp shells and stir, cooking for about a minute.

Cover with water and throw in the shrimp poaching liquid. Bring to a boil.  Reduce heat and simmer uncovered for about 20-30 minutes until reduced by about half.

Strain out the solids and place the stock in a freezer container.

I ended up with exactly 2 cups and put it in the freezer for next time I need a little flavour in a soup.  Next time I'll show you what you can do with the rest of the poached shrimp.