Deviled Eggs with Cumin and Chutney #NewYearsRecipe by @LeslieKarst

 

Have you ever noticed that the first food item to be snapped up at pot lucks is deviled eggs? Well, if you’re looking for a dish to bring to a New Year’s potluck, I can guarantee that this recipe for deviled eggs will be the hit of the party, and it’s SO easy to prepare!

 

Some food trivia to impress your friends: The first known print reference to the English word “devil” in reference to food was in 1786. In the 19th century, the adjective “deviled” came to be used most often with spicy or zesty food, including eggs prepared with mustard, pepper, or other ingredients stuffed in the yolk cavity. Similar uses of “devil” for spiced foods include deviled ham (which I used to love as a kid!) and fra diavolo sauce, from the Italian word for “devil.”

At church functions in parts of the Southern and Midwestern United States, the terms “stuffed eggs,” “salad eggs,” and “dressed eggs” are often used instead, to avoid reference to the word “devil.”

Deviled Eggs with Cumin and Chutney

Ingredients

(simply double the ingredients for a dozen eggs) 

6 eggs

2 tablespoons mayonnaise

1 teaspoon Dijon-style mustard

¼ teaspoon cumin powder

2 teaspoons mango, papaya, or similar chutney

salt and black pepper, to taste

garam marsala for garnish (not pictured)

chopped green onions, for garnish (not pictured)

 

Directions

Place the eggs in a saucepan and fill to at least an inch above the eggs with cold water. Bring the water to a boil, then remove from the heat, cover the pot, and let the eggs sit in the hot water for 15 minutes. Drain the eggs and run them under cold water until cool. (The hard boiled eggs may be made up to three days before preparing the deviled eggs.)

Peel the eggs, then slice them in half lengthwise. 

 

Spoon out the yolks into a bowl and mash them with a fork. To the egg yolks, add the mayo, mustard, cumin, and chutney, and mix until smooth. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

 

Spoon the yolk mixture back into the egg whites (or pipe it out with a pastry bag if you want to go the fancy route), then sprinkle lightly with the garam marsala and chopped onions.

 

🌱  🍋  🌿

 

A SENSE FOR MURDER

the brand new Sally Solari mystery

is now available for purchase!

 

Praise for A SENSE FOR MURDER:

 

“[Sally is] sassy, irresistible company... Culinary cozy fans will be in heaven.”

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“An enjoyable read for mystery mavens and foodies alike.”

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Also now available:

Justice is Served:  A Tale of Scallops,

the Law, and Cooking for RBG

(available for purchase here)

 

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"[This] book is a romp from cover to cover—and, just like a great meal, left me ready for more."

-Karen Shimizu, executive editor, Food & Wine-

All of the Sally Solari Mysteries are available through Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and Bookshop.

 

 

Deviled Eggs Fit for a Queen + #Giveaway!

Please give a warm welcome to Peggy Ehrhart who writes the Knit & Nibble Mysteries. Her latest book, Knit One, Die Two, is the third book in the series and involves a litter of kittens!

Don't miss her giveaway at the end of this post!

Besides her knitting hobby, my sleuth Pamela Paterson loves to cook—thus the tagline of the series in which she stars: Knit & Nibble. In the Knit & Nibble books she’s often baking sweet goodies to serve with coffee and tea when her knitting club meets at her house—and each book includes a recipe for a goody baked in that book.

Besides the goodies, however, deviled eggs are a specialty of hers. Pamela collects deviled-egg platters, as do I—from thrift stores, tag sales, and flea markets—and she often makes deviled eggs for the pleasure of showcasing one of her vintage platters. Deviled-egg platters are usually made of pottery and decorated with motifs like proud chickens watching over their eggs. But some are more elegant.

Inspired by the cut-glass deviled-egg platter in my collection, which seemed to demand a more elegant version of a usually humble recipe, I invented Deviled Eggs Fit for a Queen. The pairing of hard-boiled eggs and caviar made sense because connoisseurs of caviar often accompany it with chopped hard-boiled egg.

What you’ll need:

6 hard-boiled eggs

2 tablespoons mayonnaise

1/2 teaspoon salt

A few grinds black pepper

1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon powdered mustard

1/8 teaspoon Tabasco—optional

About 2 tablespoons caviar (1 ounce)

 

A note on the caviar: I used a small jar of inexpensive caviar from the supermarket—and I had a lot left over. It was labeled “Black Capelin Caviar,” it was from Iceland, and it was right there with the anchovies and canned tuna. But if you are feeling extravagant, you can buy a bit of the fancy fresh kind from a gourmet shop. You only need a tiny dab for each egg half.

Here’s an easy method to end up with hard-boiled eggs cooked just right. Starting at least a few hours in advance, or the night before, put the eggs in a saucepan large enough to accommodate them in one layer. Cover them with water and add an additional inch. Put the lid on the pan and bring the water to a rolling boil—you can hear when it reaches this stage. Lift the lid to make sure the water is really boiling well, then put the lid back on and turn off the heat. Leave the covered pan on the same burner until the water cools completely or until the next morning.

What to do:

Peel the eggs and cut each one in half lengthwise.

Pop the yolks out by holding the halves over a bowl cut side down and squeezing gently. Set the empty whites aside.

Mash the yolks with a fork.

Add the mayonnaise, salt, pepper, powdered mustard, and the Tabasco if you are using it.

Mix everything well.

To fill the whites, you can simply spoon the filling in, trying to make it look smooth and nice. If you have a cookie press, you can use that for a professional look.

 

Here are the almost finished eggs in the cut-glass platter.

Top each egg half with half a teaspoon of caviar.

Deviled eggs can be topped with many other things besides caviar. The classic look is a sprinkle of paprika, but I sometimes use capers (3 or so), or green or black olives cut in half. If the green olives have pimentos all the better. Cut them crosswise instead of lengthwise so you have a green circle with a red center. If you like the fishy idea but not caviar, you can use bits of anchovy.

A big thank-you to my husband Norm Smith for taking these photos!

Peggy is giving away a copy of her book, Knit One, Die Two! To enter, please leave a comment with your email address so we can find you! Sorry, US only, please.

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Around the Kitchen Table: Summer Picnic Food + 4-Book #Giveaway

 

 

LESLIE KARST: "Official" summer doesn't arrive for a few more weeks, but since Memorial Day has passed, we can now wear white gloves and declare that the summer "season" is upon us. Which means lots of outdoor dining--be it picnics, BBQs, potlucks, or simply buying a hotdog from a street-side vendor and enjoying it on a convenient bench.  

So the question in the Kitchen today is, what is your favorite picnic or finger-food? (Napkins will be provided for those with white gloves.)

For me, it's gotta be deviled eggs. (Have you ever noticed that they're always the first thing to disappear at potlucks?) And other than peeling the darn things, which always seems to be a pain, whether the eggs are fresh or a month old, they're so easy to make! Here's one of my favorite recipes for deviled eggs, with cumin and chutney.

 

Fellow MLKers, what picnic foods do you look forward to come summertime?

Readers: Comment below for a chance to win 4 fabulous books from our Mystery Lovers' Kitchen authors!

 

🌿 🍳 🌱

LESLIE BUDEWITZ:  I'm with you on the deviled eggs, and your variation sounds delish. Now, if this hypothetical meal is a picnic, I'd bring a huge bowl of this Tortellini Salad. It's my reconstruction of one I often got as takeout in a deli on the ground floor of the building where I worked in Seattle--readers of my Spice Shop mysteries will recognize it as Ripe, the deli run by Pepper's good friend Laurel. It was one of the first dishes I figured out how to recreate from something I'd loved, when I didn't have a recipe, and that's still big food fun in our house. 

If we're staying home, or we're coming to your house and you've got the grill on, I'd bring these Grilled Caprese Skewers, what my hunny aptly calls Summer on a Stick.

Curiously, both recipes originally appeared in Treble at the Jam Fest, in my Food Lovers' Village series. It's great fun to give the characters I love the food I love!

📚 📚 📚

Libby Klein I go to a lot of picnics away from home. Having several food intolerances, I have to be careful with what I choose, but my main rule after gluten is avoid mayonnaise. Those deviled eggs are at the top of my must-have list when the barbecue is at my house. And I bet all the cooks in the Mystery Lovers' Kitchen make amazing deviled eggs. But If I'm going to an all day outdoor event in the summer at ninety plus degrees, I prefer not to get food poisoning. My Gluten-free Pasta Salad is a great choice since everything is safe in the heat. Plus all those fresh vegetables and a really good olive oil is such a healthy choice that you can splurge on one of my gluten-free strawberry hand pies!

🍅🌞

MADDIE DAY: I love summer picnics. And I'm with Libby on no picnic mayo away from home when it's warm out. I included a mayo-free Avocado Deviled Eggs recipe in Murder at the Taffy Shop, which would be a perfect picnic food.

Olive oil in a salad is a great picnic choice, but so is sesame oil. The Asian Noodle Salad recipe I shared as a Mystery Lovers' Kitchen guest before I was a regular blogger here is a perfect room temperature picnic food.

Robbie Jordan served the dish in her country store restaurant back in Death Over Easy, which takes place in July.

🌿 🥚 🌱

PEG COCHRAN/MARGARET LOUDON: You need dessert at a picnic, right?  After you've polished off the deviled eggs, chips and dips and pasta salad.  Cookies are a natural.  They are a "finger food" dessert--delicious and easy to eat.  They're easy to pass around and can be made to accommodate any size crowd.  I'd bring a plate of these white chocolate cranberry orange cookies that Monica Albertson baked in Berried Motives, book #6 in my Cranberry Cove Series.

 

KORINA MOSS: My favorite finger food for any occasion is... (surprise, surprise) cheese! This was just one of several cheeseboards for the outdoor launch party of my first book, Cheddar Off Dead. But what I like about cheese is that you can get as elaborate as you want or you can have just one or two kinds, even without accompaniments. It's easy to pack, easy to eat, great for a crowd, and always delicious. 

VMBURNS: My favorite picnic food is roasted corn. I love corn in pretty much all of it's variations (boiled, fried, roasted, etc.), but there is something extra yummy about roasting corn on a grill. 

 

MAYA CORRIGAN: I wish I could go to a picnic where each us brought the dishes we're describing here. Watermelon is the food I associate with summer and picnics. When I was growing up, eating outdoors meant we could spit the big black seeds on the ground. Now that we have (mostly) seedless watermelon available for much of the year, I eat it more often, sometimes in combination with other fruit, as in the recipe I shared for watermelon berry salad. 

☕ 🌻 ☕

CLEO COYLE: I think of picnic food as comfort food, and I’m always up for fried chicken and potato salad. Last summer, I shared my recipe for Mock Potato Salad, which is a nice option for anyone watching carbs. The recipe is delicious with standard potatoes, too, and I use baby reds and baby Yukon golds when I make it that way. 

As for the "mock" version, which subs cauliflower for the taters, there are some tricks to getting the best results, and I shared what I've learned in this recipe. Does it taste exactly like the real thing? No. But it's close. And if you or your loved ones are looking for a creamy, crunchy, low-carb side for a picnic, this one is worth a try. Have a delicious summer, everyone! ~ Cleo 

My Mock Potato Salad. Chilly. Crunchy. Creamy.
And good for you, too. Click here for the recipe
& downloadable PDF.

B O O K  
G I V E A W A Y!

Readers: What are your favorite foods of summer (white gloves not required)? Include your email address in case you win our fabulous giveaway!

Two Parts Sugar, One Part Murder by Valerie Burns

Death Over Easy by Maddie Day (aka Edith Maxwell)

Treble at the Jam Fest by Leslie Budewitz

Molten Death by Leslie Karst

Olive deviled eggs! (Get it? I love deviled eggs) LOL!

When I decided to make deviled eggs
for egg week, I made a major error.
I neglected to check the date on my
mayonaise jar!
Expired by a month -- EEP!
I did not have Julie's fabulous mayonaise
recipe (darn it) and so I had to scratch
my head and figure out how to punt.

What could I use in place of mayonaise?
I dug through my frig all the way to the
back. Ranch dressing? Hub gave me
bad face. Ricotta cheese? It just didn't
seem right. Then I found it! Eureka!
Cream cheese!




Knowing the cream cheese would be too thick, I knew I'd have to
add milk. Deviled eggs are sacred in my house, so this was a
big gamble. But I have to say, they turned out fabulously!

Ingredients
12 eggs
1/4 cup milk
1/2 (8 ounce) package cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup finely chopped onion
Sliced jalapeno stuffed olives
Paprika

Directions
Place eggs in a large saucepan and cover with cold water.
Bring water to a boil and immediately remove from heat.
Cover and let eggs stand for 10 to 12 minutes. Place eggs
in ice water (helps to make the shells easy to remove).
When peeled, slice eggs in half lengthwise and remove yolks.
Place yolks in a medium bowl. Mash with fork and add milk.
Mix in the cream cheese then the onion. Fill the hollowed egg
whites generously with the egg yolk mixture. Sprinkle with
paprika and place a sliced olive on top.


As you can see, there are less
deviled eggs here than there
should be. This is because
as I was cooking, I had to taste
test, and when we discovered
that the cream cheese was delish,
the dudes all began to snitch.
I was lucky to get a picture at all!

HAVE AN EGGCELLENT WEEK!

www.jennmckinlay.com

Jennifer McKinlay
SPRINKLE WITH MURDER
March 2010
(Available for pre-order now)

aka Lucy Lawrence
CUT TO THE CORPSE
April 2010
(Available for pre-order now)

STUCK ON MURDER
Sept 2009 (Available NOW)

Deviled Eggs: ready to party! #picnic #partyfood

FROM: MARY JANE MAFFINI

At Edith’s recent fun Around the Kitchen Table discussion about picnics and the like, my number one choice was Deviled Eggs. I find them perfect for this time of year, when we are starting get together outside and have fun again. Like every family, we have our traditions.  We almost never have a party without that old standby, Deviled Eggs.  Sure they have slipped in and out of fashion over the years, but they’re always in style in our gang, regardless of your age and whether you’re in the backyard or at picnic table by a river.  Face it: we party like it’s 1956! These eggs made an appearance at our uncle’s 91^st birthday last weekend,  a relaxed outdoor event by the river. and then again when a friend came for lunch this week. They are portable (if you play your cards right) and easy to make. They may be cheap and cheerful but we never have any left. 

INGREDIENTS:

For two dozen deviled eggs.

1 dozen large eggs (I know there are 16 here. I always add a few in case some of them look mangled after they’re shelled)

1 cup good quality mayonnaise (more if you like them creamier)

1 tbsp Dijon mustard

½ tsp half-sharp paprika (or 1/8 tsp cayenne) You can add more or less depending on whether you like things spicy – or a bit of tabasco or whatever flavoring sounds good to you.

3 tablespoons snipped chives (I use kitchen scissors) and more for garnish

1 – 2 trays of ice cubes to cool the eggs.

DIRECTIONS:

Set timer for 20 minutes. In a pot big enough to have just one layer of eggs, bring eggs to a boil and cook until timer goes.  Add the ice cubes to a large bowl of water. Drain the eggs and plunge them into the  ice water immediately. 

This will cool them quickly and make them easier to peel (on a good day). I am betting that many of you swear by different cooking times or methods for hard-boiled eggs and for making them easy to peel, so please drop in and share your secrets. I promise to try out every one. 

Peel the cooled eggs (this is the only boring part) and slice in half.  

Scoop out yolks and place in bowl of food processor.

Set up egg whites on a plate or deviled egg holder.

Add Dijon, mayo, paprika/cayenne and 3 tablespoons chopped chives. 

Blend until very creamy.  

Return to egg white bases using a heaping teaspoon of filling for each. If you like things creamier, add more mayo.  One of my friends pipes the filling into the white base and it looks very pretty but strikes me as too much like work. Perhaps in another life …  But I hope you will wade in on this issue too!

Sprinkle extra snipped chives on top. Sometimes I sprinkle a bit of paprika too …   Party on!

 Mary Jane Maffini is the award-winning author of three and a half mystery series: the Camilla Maffini mysteries, the Fiona Silk capers and the Charlotte Adams organizer mysteries – number six coming soon! With her daughter Victoria Maffini, MJ collaborated on The Book Collector Mysteries as Victoria Abbott. Victoria Abbott spent several happy years on Mystery Lovers Kitchen. MJ  is very glad to be back and Victoria is waving at you all!

The first five Charlotte Adams are being reissued by Beyond the Page Publishing. Recipes have been added and of course, the organizing tips continue! The Charlotte Adams books have recently been optioned for television films.

Organize Your Corpses was re-released as an e-book and a trade paper on May 18. There's a great deal for the e-book.   You can order it HERE!

The Cluttered Corpse was reissued on June 15th and Death Loves a Messy Desk is coming July 13th. 

Coming in July:

Jordan Bingham has a tough time: she's the first person in her large family to go straight. She has learned some useful skills from her crooked relatives but she's trying to hang on to a legit job working for a curmudgeonly book collector. But of course, the bodies keep piling up.  There's lots of fun in the book collector series from Victoria Abbott.

Don't forget to check out MJ's Canadian books:  Camilla MacPhee features a fortyish widowed lawyer who runs an advocacy agency for victims of violent crime, in Ottawa, Canada's capital city. Life would be easier if she didn't have the world's worst office assistant, the world's bossiest sisters and, arguably, the world's greatest stubborn streak. If you like your mysteries a bit edgy with a side order of humor, these could be for you.  

Keep up on the news!  You can sign up for updates about MJ and Victoria plus fun and prizes through our newsletter HERE