Egg Salad

I like egg salad, it is one of my favorite breakfast foods, and even part of a fast lunch.  When I came to these shores in 1962, I soon learned to enjoy it with mayonnaise as opposed to my mother’s spartan combination of chopped hard boiled eggs with small amounts of salt, pepper, and a bit of olive oil. Egg salad comes in many variations, but, David Lebovitz‘ recipe is superb:

Enough for 2 or 3 sandwiches

My uncle once told me a funny story: about forty years ago, he once set out to make a recipe that called for capers and he thought that he would use fresh, rather than something from a jar. He looked and looked and looked and couldn’t find fresh. He could only find the pickled ones, which he later realized were how capers were prepared and sold. And now, every time I open a jar I think of his story. I like a little bit of chopped capers in my egg salad, or something a bit vinegary. You could also use some chopped cornichons or pickles – and their juice – in place of the capers.

You can use any kind of pepper powder that you want. Note that if you use a red one, it will turn the color of the egg salad a somewhat fiery shade of red.

6 hard-boiled eggs
1/3 (70g) cup mayonnaise
1 1/2 teaspoon Dijon mustard
1 tablespoon (drained) capers, chopped
1 1/2 teaspoons caper juice
3/4 teaspoon pepper, such as Isot (Urfa), black pepper or red pepper powder
sea salt
optional: 3 tablespoons sunflower seeds

1. Peel the eggs and chop them into pieces.
2. Mix the eggs in a bowl with the mayonnaise, mustard, capers, caper juice, pepper, and a good sprinkle salt. If desired, add the sunflower seeds.

To serve, spread on toasted grainy bread, then garnish with additional salt, pepper, and some chopped chives.

Enjoy, gentle reader, enjoy!

CS