Beet pickled stuffed eggs (and how to boil hard boiled egg)

 

I am a huge fan of eggs and egg based meals. What I do not like and run away screaming when I see it is this disgusting grey ring around the yolk. “Can you cook hard boiled eggs?” seems like a silly question to ask yourself, even worst to ask somebody else.  However I found out that you can boil hard boiled egg for too long or too rapidly and it turns out not nice at all. I read Roux brothers and you have to admit the eggs have no secrets for them; I also read some blogs and realised that there are probably two best ways to cook hard boiled egg. 

First. Suitable for those cooking on the hobs. 

Put the eggs in a pan and cover with cold water. Add some salt and place on the hob. Bring to the boil and then immediately turn the heat off. Leave on the hob for 10 minutes. As soon 10 minutes go off, place the eggs under cold running water, cover with cold water and let them cool down. 

Second way. 

Place the egg into boiling, salted water and when it starts to boil again, set the timer for 6 minutes. Again, after this time, remove from a hot water, cool down in cold water. 

I prefer first way (longer, but less energy is used). 

So when you have your perfect hard boiled egg you can dress it pink. I love this colour, and idea of pickling eggs seems to be quite popular in UK and USA, however this beet pickled eggs are so much prettier! And they taste nicer. You can obviously make your own brine by cooking some fresh beets in vinegar with spices and sugar, or alternatively you can take a shortcut and use ready brine from shop – bough pickled beets. 

I took shortcut. These eggs are fantastic! They would look gorgeous on Easter table and should be very good as a finger food.

3 hard boiled eggs, peeled  

about 2  cups of brine from pickled beetroots

about 1/3 cup of red wine vinegar

about ¼ cup of soft brown sugar

tsp of whole black peppercorns

Mix the brine, vinegar, sugar and peppercorn in a large jar. Lower the eggs into it, seal and keep in the fridge. The longer you will keep them the more intense the colours and pickled flavour will be. You can keep them up to 3 days, I kept mine 14 hours. 

Carefully remove the eggs from a brine and set on a paper kitchen towel. Then cut them in half and scoop out the yolks.

Prepare the filling.

yolks from pickled eggs

1 tbsp of mayonnaise

½ tsp English mustard

1 tsp white wine vinegar

1 tbsp olive oil (I used EV)

2 pinches of chilli powder

1 pinch of turmeric

salt

freshly ground black pepper

Mix all the above and working with a fork mash them very finely, until smooth. Place in a piping bag and fill the pickled egg halves.

Sprinkle with some chives before serving.