by Clay Alexander

A while back I was going to a St. Patrick’s Day Parade party, and being the southern boy that I am, I brought some devilled eggs.

I boiled over a dozen eggs, and saved some for the Egg Curry (actually, the ones that I broke while peeling were saved for the Egg Curry … I’m awful at peeling boiled eggs).

Every egg that you devil makes 2 bite sized servings, so don’t worry if you only have 9 eggs, that’s 18 servings. If you think 2 dozen eggs will be enough, don’t be surprised when you can’t find a plate to fit 48 servings of devilled eggs.

Devilled eggs are simple. Boil eggs. With a sharp knife cut them in half and with a finger scoop out the dry yellow stuff that people like to call a yoke (we’ll save this for later and make it actually tasty). Looks like I did about 9 eggs. Don’t worry if you miss some yoke … I missed some.

Remember the dry yellow stuff that nobody likes? Lets make it the tastiest part of the dish now. Add some mayonnaise so it won’t be so dry.

Mayo is interesting chemically. It’s an emulsion of an oil and water. Tiny oil droplets are suspended in water. Wanna make it? You need some help from lecithin, present in raw egg yolks. I plan on making it one day, but for now, I use something called Lemonaise (from The Ojai Cook). It’s a Lemon flavored mayonnaise that I get at Whole Foods. It always adds a nice flavor to the party.

I wanted some celery for some crunchy texture and refreshing taste, so I took a small stalk and diced it very small.

Then I took a spoon and mashed then slightly at the side of a bowl. You can use the back of a knife on the cutting board or whatever. I just wanted to crunch it a little, so it doesn’t add too much crunch to the creamy yoke.

I added some mayo spoon by spoon until I got the creaminess I wanted. You can add as little or as much as you want. It’s all up to you. If you wanna through in some salt, pepper, pineapples, rocks, snakes, or whatever, now’s the time to do it.

Mix and spoon it into a plastic ziplock or sandwich bag. Cut off a corner. How much? I dunno, however much you want. If it’s too small, the celery may clog it.

Now squeeze it into the eggs one by one.

Mmmmmm. Devilled eggs. Reminds me of the Alexander Family Christmas parties since there are at least 5 dishes of devilled eggs every year.

Sprinkle on some paprika to add some flavor and color.

You can always make things interesting. Dyeing the egg white with green food coloring, and putting blue into the yoke would have made it more St. Patricksy.