Sorry Jean. But first there’s the boiling of them, actually, I steam them not boil them and the results are far more uniform, but then there’s the peeling of them. Good Christ I hate that (If I had my worm farm I’d at least be able to feed them the shells, yes, really, and feel somewhat better about the struggle to get the damn shells off but I don’t have that implemented yet). And so book club, we read A Gentleman of Moscow or some damn thing, and I made a Russian meal. Starting with hard boiled eggs…deviled eggs anyway. I bought this infuser contraption in Belgium a few years ago and it seemed like a great way to decoratively fill the hard boiled whites. But A, you need both hands to squeeze the filling out. B, the egg whites do not stay in one place as you do this. C, the filling did not like to let go of itself to make the decorative swirl on the top, you know, a pretty swirly top on each one. To be honest, I was afraid that my book club would think I was insane if I had presented a platter of swirl topped deviled eggs. I mean, I’m freaking fruity enough as it is.
So I ended up opening the damn contraption up and filling the eggs with a spatula. It was not as Martha Stewart as I’d hoped and they looked a little messy, but well, Russia, if you take my point. I solved the messiness of it by just haphazardly scattering them with dill, green onions, capers, paprika, I dunno, whatever. It looked lovely and good enough to serve in the Metropole, if only by the Bishop, at any rate.
