September 1. Deviled Eggs

Woke up early enough to get eggs boiled and chilled before biking with Robin to meet Linda for 11 am showing of AiWeiWei documentary at the Monica 4.  It was terrific, and I'll take this opportunity to recommend it to all. I left  Linda and Robin as they headed towards a Chinese lunch (I could have sworn I smelled food cooking while we were in the theater, but that was just a trick of the movie mind). I biked home to make these deviled eggs

30 Deviled Eggs

All my preparations paid off.  Once I understood how to use the pastry bag with star attachment -- these elegant piping was as easy as can be. Here's the recipe for 30 eggs!  That's two and one half dozen, adapted from the Gourmet Cookbook.
INGREDIENTS
30 large eggs
1 1/4 cups mayonnaise
5 teaspoons Dijon mustard
1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
Salt and Pepper
Chopped Chives
Smoked Paprika..and as a special bonus, a pastry bag with a on-half inch star tip

Using so many eggs, I was worried they might shatter if I crammed too many into a pots, so I used four pots, one for each burner.  I covered the eggs with cold water--two inches above egg level, partially covered each pan and bring to a rolling boil.  Reduce heat to low, cover completely and cook for 30 seconds.  (I aimed for this precision--but with those four boiling pots--I suspect these seconds varied considerably).  In any case, soon after the 30 seconds, remove all pots from heat, cover and let sit for 15 minutes.  

When the eggs are well chilled, they should peel easily (I'd say 28 of my thirty egg shells leaped from the whites, while only two took a tad longer).

Cut the eggs in half.  Scoop out the yolks and mash with the mayo, mustard, cayenne, salt and pepper.  The internet had all kinds of hints about food processors etc., but the fork mashing worked fine with me.  Well, perhaps the fork works especially well in connection with the pastry bag.  Having learned at my return visit to Sur La Table that I did not need the plastic connector, I slipped the star attachment into the pastry bag (below)  and made these lovely squiggles seen above.  I am not going to reveal how messy this was.  I couldn't manage to keep the egg mixture from squeezing out the top and onto my hands, but repeated washings and good luck kept the eggs looking as lovely as can be.  Once the squiggles were in place, I sprinkled the eggs with smoked paprika and finely chopped chives and carted them to Kate's where they joined many other delicious items on the groaning board.

Pastry Bag with Star Attachment