Made my egg salad Friday night. Sandwich bread loaf, too. It's all completely Foose-inspired. I want to call her Fosse for some reason. Suppose it's that I'm more familiar with that name.
Foose's egg salad includes olives, something I like on their own, but not mixed in much except that dressing slathered on a mufaletta. And she called for onions or scallions, too. But I had none of those on hand.
Normally with protein/mayo salad-type dishes I stick to my own rather than try new ones. It's silly, I know. But I'm so particular when it comes to protein salads. Like ham salad? Oh, I'd never try that. When we visit Ian's relative in Canton, OH there's usually talk of picking up a ham salad from and my mind shrinks back from the very thought of that. It sounds wrong. It's likely quite good. What do I know?
The other thing about me and protein salads is that I made them different each time, rarely keeping track of ingredient amounts. I'd rather taste my way to protein salad perfection. This time though, I wrote it down. Here's this month's egg salad recipe:
12 eggs, boiled and de-shelled
4T Hellman's mayonnaise
1T vinegar
2 tsp. sweet relish
2 tsp. sugar
1tsp. mustard powder
1tsp. garlic powder
1 tsp. salt
1tsp. ground pepper
I texted Ian to ask how he boils eggs, because they usually come out well and he's naturally takes charge of any egg cooking in the house especially if it's for deviled eggs. He said, and I'm fleshing it out a bit, "Put the eggs in the pot and let them warm as the water does. Let them boil for ten minutes." I'm notorious for cooking eggs like 20 minutes or so, but I don't think it damages them.
After peeling them I throw them in a medium sized bowl and add the ingredients random-like. When I got most everything in there, I tasted and found it lacking. That's when I added the vinegar and sweet relish. Since I'm supposed to cut down on my salt intake (my blood pressure was elevated for me, but still in normal range at my last OB appointment) I went lighter on that than normal. And I'm supposed to watch my sugar, too, just not to over do it. But then, the egg salad wasn't sweet enough and that's when I thought of the sweet relish. I think my mom used to put that in her egg salad until she went olive on me. She does the olives and olive juice in deviled eggs, too, and frankly ruins it for me.
The sandwich loaf bread? Oh, how I wish I'd read the recipe thorough. I'm bad to not read ahead with recipes and knitting patterns and sewing instructions. I started on it around 5 o'clock, after getting home from work Friday night. First couple of steps are easy and take no time at all. Then I have to cover for 10 minutes. Then work some salt into it. Then cover for an hour. Then fold it a certain way and let it rise for 11 1/2 to 2 hours. Then do something else to it and let it rise another hour. Surely the bread would be in the oven by 9 o'clock, right?
But no, the bread came out of the oven around 11 o'clock. I let it cool and ate a few slices for breakfast Saturday morning. Then Ian arrived home and sampled both eggs salad and bread. He didn't mind the burnt bottom. Yeah, the bottom was burned. I was bummed about that. Foose's directions said to remove the bread from it's loaf pan and set it directly on the rack. The bottom rack. Bread set on bottom rack equals burned bottom.
I have never made egg salad - which is surprising considering the YoungOne is such an egg junkie. I always assumed that it was kind of like smushed up deviled eggs - but always wondered how you smuched 'em but still had some texture...
Sandwich bread looks lovely - and I can't see the burned bottom. I like your picture of the fold...
Hard Boiled Eggs - my cardinal rule is NO GREEN RING. I'm kind of fanatical about that. I'm sure you don't remember because it was AGES ago (back when I actually updated my blog?) but once wrote a really long post about how to avoid the dreaded egg ring. It's so TypeA, but it works:
http://badfortunecookie.blogspot.com/2006/08/in-praise-of-humble-deviled-egg.html
Posted by: lla | Monday, 19 May 2008 at 03:52 PM