The Egg May Be Hard, But The Meal Is Not
Like Thanksgiving and turkey, Easter would simply not be Easter without the Egg. First there is the Easter bunny, who stealthily hops around your house while you sleep, depositing plastic versions of the egg filled with candy into nooks and crannies waiting to be found on Easter morning. Then there are the all-day egg dying sessions, where hardboiled eggs are dipped and soaked in food coloring and thus transformed into jewel colored artistic masterpieces. And sometimes on Easter, we even eat the egg.
If you manage to make it through Easter without eating more than the candy-filled version of the egg, come Monday you can be assured that eggs, at least the hardboiled kind, will be on the menu for several days to come. Something must be done with those baskets of brightly colored hardboiled eggs and that usually means egg salad sandwiches for lunch every day that week. The good news is that there is more to the hardboiled egg than the salad sandwich. Think outside the shell and those eggs can actually be a time saving tool in making several protein-rich, unique meals in the days following Easter.
Bits of hardboiled egg are a common addition to a spinach salad. But if one were to rethink how the ingredients of the classic salad come together, the egg can be the jumping off point for a different sort of salad. When the hardboiled yolk is mashed, it can be the rich base for the salad dressing (save the whites to add back into the salad at the end). The yolk can substitute for some of the oil because of both its richness and its properties as a thickening agent. Take a couple of mashed yolks, a little less oil than you would normally use for a vinaigrette, some mustard, vinegar, salt and pepper and you have a new use for those hard boiled eggs in a dressing that can find its way onto a variety of salad greens.
Around the world, particularly in Spanish and Latin cultures, hardboiled eggs are found in a variety of unexpected dishes, particularly versions of meat pies. The Spanish meat pie called hornazo traditionally eaten around Easter uses ground meats and spices mixed in with chopped hardboiled egg to fill yeast dough that is then baked. A little more common in this part of the world are the small meat pies called empanadas. Again, ground meat is sautéed with spices such as paprika and cumin and used to fill 3-inch round circles of dough that are sometimes layered with sliced hardboiled egg in the filling before they are sealed and then baked or deep fried. For a quick home version, use frozen pie crusts or refrigerated biscuit dough in lieu of making the dough yourself.
The French certainly have affection for hardboiled eggs, as seen in many a French bistro where a stand specifically for holding hard boiled eggs often sits at the bar for patrons to nibble on. The egg then makes its way into a few classic French dishes such as the tuna nicoise salad. This salad consists of tuna, tomatoes, boiled potatoes, green beans, black olives, and of course, hardboiled eggs. Tweaking this salad to make it suitable for a sandwich is an easy-to-transport, unique alternative to the classic egg salad sandwich. Leave out the potatoes, mix all the ingredients together with a red wine vinaigrette and some chopped herbs and capers for a zesty, flavor-filled lunch on the go.
The egg is our friend every Easter Sunday and can keep on being our friend in the days that follow. Those hardboiled eggs are not just a canvas for food color creativity, but a healthy, protein-filled jumping off point for some egg-cellent weekday meals.
Made with Dijon mustard, salt and pepper, tarragon, red wine vinegar, olive oil, eggs, Roma tomatoes, kalamata olives, red onion, capers
Serves/Makes: 4
- 1/2 pound green beans
- 3/4 cup water
- 1/2 cup distilled white vinegar
- 1/4 cup sugar
- 1 teaspoon salt (plus additional)
- 2 thin French baquettes
- 2 packages (7 ounce size) tuna in water, water drained
- 3 tablespoons capers, rinsed and drained
- 1/2 red onion, finely chopped
- 1/4 cup pitted kalamata olives, roughly chopped
- 4 Roma tomatoes, seeds squeezed out and discarded, chopped
- 4 hard-boiled eggs, roughly chopped
- 6 tablespoons olive oil
- 3 tablespoons red wine vinegar
- 1/4 cup chopped fresh tarragon
- salt and pepper
- Dijon mustard
- mayonnaise
Preheat oven to 450 degrees F. Slice baguettes in half horizontally lengthwise and place on a baking sheet.
Meanwhile, trim green beans and place in a small pot. Add water just to cover green beans, along with about a tablespoon of Kosher salt. Bring green beans to a boil, then drain immediately.
While green beans are cooking, bring water, vinegar, sugar, and 1 tsp of salt to a simmer in small pan. Stir to dissolve sugar and salt, then turn off heat immediately.
Place green beans in a small bowl and pour vinegar mixture over. Let sit while you prepare the rest of the sandwich.
Place baguettes in oven and let toast for a few minutes until barely browned. Remove from oven and set aside.
In a medium bowl, combine tuna, capers, onion, olives, tomatoes and eggs. Stir to combine.
In a small bowl, mix red wine vinegar, olive oil, tarragon, and salt and pepper to taste. Add vinaigrette to tuna mixture and adjust seasoning if necessary with salt and pepper.
Remove green beans from liquid after about 15 minutes and slice each in half lengthwise.
To assemble sandwiches, spread Dijon mustard on one half of the baguette and mayonnaise on the other to lightly coat. Divide tuna mixture to evenly cover two baguette halves. Top tuna with pickled green beans then top with the matching baguette half.
Slice each sandwich in half crosswise and serve.
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