Smoked egg salad with green onion & cheddar soda bread.

Smoked egg salad.

Makes 2 traditional sandwiches or 4 open faced sandwiches.

Ingredients:

* 3 large eggs, hard boiled and peeled

* 1/2 of a small red onion, chopped

*1 tablespoon of capers, chopped

*2-3 sprigs fresh dill, chopped

*1 handful fresh cilantro, chopped

*1 tablespoon of mayo (I used kewpie mayo here.)

*Apple wood chips or other smoke element

*2 teaspoons Gochujang chili flakes

*1 teaspoon white pepper

*Salt to taste

Steps:

1. Cover eggs with cold water in saucepan and set stovetop burner to high heat. Once the water is at a rolling boil, turn off the heat, cover, and let sit for 6-7 minutes. This is the most reliable method I’ve found for making hard boiled eggs. 4-5 minutes nets a perfect jammy egg for ramen, 6-7 minutes produces a more cooked through yolk ideal for deviled eggs or egg salad. Older eggs are much easier to peel than fresh eggs.

2. Remove eggs from hot water and place in an ice bath until cool. Dry, peel and place in a sealable bag like a Ziploc.

3. Apply cold smoke to eggs for 3-5 minutes. There are a few ways to do this- I tend to use my Polyscience smoking gun, but there are quite a number of ways to cheaply build a cold smoker at home. A dedicated smoker, electric, pellet or charcoal, will also work, but the goal is to apply smoke without applying heat, so I would avoid something like a charcoal grill. Cold smoking does not deeply penetrate the food, so slicing the eggs into quarters for more surface area should lead to a more pronounced smoke flavor.

4. Split the eggs, put the yolks in a mixing bowl, and set the whites aside for now. Combine yolks with red onion, capers, chili flakes, white pepper, salt, and mayo. I almost always do a different combination of allium and pickle in my egg salad, often rotating between capers, cornichons and diced deli pickles. Add just enough mayo to make a loose spread- too much will overpower the delicate smoke flavor.

5. Add egg whites, stir, then add dill and chopped cilantro right before serving. Adding the herbs at the end is really just so they don’t lose their color. I’ve chopped the egg whites before, but now find I prefer pretty big pieces of egg so I pull them apart in chunks with my hands.

6. Stir one final time then smear egg salad on toast. Works great on any kind of bread, but I like something with a strong flavor like rye, pumpernickel, or the below recipe for soda bread.

Green Onion & Cheddar Soda Bread.

Once again I am going to list everything in grams and recommend using a kitchen scale to measure everything out. Feel free to use the Kerrygold recipe with cups and ounces listed, which my version is based on- though I recommend baking 5-10 minutes longer than listed on their website, as the first time I made it following their instructions it was still a little doughy in the middle.

Ingredients:

*400g all purpose flour, sifted

*350g buttermilk

*100g shredded sharp cheddar (I used Tillamook extra sharp)

*50g chopped green onion (about 4 stalks)

*5g baking soda

*5g kosher salt

Steps:

1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees.

2. Sift flour, salt and baking soda into large mixing bowl. Add shredded cheese and green onion and mix with hands or a wooden spoon. I strongly recommend grating the cheese rather than using pre-shredded. The recipe should work either way, but it saves money and the anti-caking agents on pre-shredded cheese can cause havoc in all sorts of recipes - I haven’t personally tested it with this one, so I can’t say.

3. Add buttermilk and mix into a loose dough. Turn out onto a floured surface and knead until it is smooth and no longer sticky. I always end up needing to use quite a few extra sprinkles of flour to make the dough come together, but it always eventually gets there.

4. Place dough in a parchment lined baking pan or dutch oven and score top of bread. The more rustic round loaf seems to be having a moment with all the quarantine bakers, but I still prefer the humble rectangule. To each their own.

5. Bake for 15 minutes at 450 degrees, then lower heat to 400 and bake for 25-30 minutes. I’m terrible at judging when bread is cooked through- I became a lot less nervous, though, when I learned that it is perfectly okay to return a bread with a doughy middle to the oven to finish baking.

6. Remove from oven and let rest for 20 minutes on a wire rack. Cut into thick slices- I have never had much luck cutting soda bread thinly. The bread has enough flavor to be enjoyed on its own with a little butter, or it can be toasted and serve as the base for the above egg salad, or any kind of open faced sandwich. I am planning to use a few slices this evening to make a delicious but tragically named Kentucky Hot Brown and then I’ll probably put a fried egg on top of a slice tomorrow.

Notes:

1. Thank you to everyone who has gotten us to almost a thousand sign-ups! We are both still having a lot of fun with this little side project of ours and hope that if you make any of our recipes you’ll let us know about it.

2. I first tried cold smoking eggs for deviled eggs and the smoke flavor came through more prominently, presumably because there is less flavor from other elements to dilute the smoke flavor. Some does still come through in the egg salad, but it’s subtle, so I think it’s a fine idea to use a punchy wood like hickory or even mesquite.

3. I’m still not much of a baker, so I love straightforward and simple dough recipes like pretzel buns, soda bread, and cornbread. Maybe at some point I will feel a strong desire to buy a stand mixer and get way into sourdough starters and multi-tiered cakes, but I don’t think it will happen any time soon.