Devilled Eggs Archives - Retro Food For Modern Times

Category: Devilled Eggs

01
Dec
2024

Sardine Toadstools

categories: 1970's recipes, Devilled Eggs, Eggs, Fish, Sardines

Hello friends and retro food lovers. These little sardine toadstools may just be the most wonderfully whimsical vintage things I’ve ever made here! They are as cute as a button! A button mushroom, that is! The recipe for the Sardine Toadstools comes from what is fast becoming a favourite around these parts: Marguerite Patten’s 500 Recipes for Quick Meals (1972).

Imagine serving around a little tray of these at your next Halloween party. Or an Alice in Wonderland-inspired children’s party. I showed photos of these to one of my work colleagues. He loved them so much he is going to make them for his nieces on Christmas morning. Another colleague heard him talking about them and has also asked for the recipe to make for his daughters for weekend breakfasts!

Sardine Toadstools are a dish for any occasion where you want to add a touch of magic, which could also just be lunch! Your guests will be delighted and, by the way, these taste pretty good too!

Variations on The Theme of Sardine Toadstools

Now, I know that some of you, bizarrely, in my opinion, hate sardines. I feel the same way about cooked carrots. And beetroot. So there’s no judgement here. But please don’t discount this recipe if you do. You could swap in some tuna. Or leave out the fish altogether and just add mayo and mustard for a classic deviled egg.

If you want to get fancy and don’t mind the fiddliness of trying to coax the yolks out of boiled quail eggs, think how spectacular a miniature version of these would be! Use quail eggs and cherry tomatoes, and voila, not only are you magical, but you are also sophisticated!

Caterpillar took the hookah out of its mouth and yawned once or twice, and shook itself. Then it got down off the mushroom, and crawled away in the grass, merely remarking as it went, ‘One side will make you grow taller, and the other side will make you grow shorter.’

‘One side of what? The other side of what?’ thought Alice to herself.

‘Of the mushroom,’ said the Caterpillar, just as if she had asked it aloud; and in another moment it was out of sight.

Lewis Carroll – Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland

The Recipe – Sardine Toadstools

As you can see, I’ve not bothered with the rounds of bread and butter, but you do you!

Please let me know if you make these! With Christmas just around the corner, many people may be wondering what to serve guests as fun finger food or a starter. These sardine toadstools could be just the thing for your entertaining needs! And if you do make them, please tag me on Instagram if you post them or ping me a photo. I would absolutely love to see how your creations turn out.

Have a great week!

18
Feb
2024

Neviled Eggs – Towards Zero

categories: Devilled Eggs, Eggs, Superintendent Battle

Hello crime readers and food lovers. Let me start right off with an apology for the atrocious pun. I am so sorry. But…I was racking my brains to think of what to cook for Towards Zero and, as is my want, I started searching for a pun. “What rhymes with Audrey..tawdry…no cancel that one. Battle rhymes with cattle…maybe a beef Wellington?” And then I got to Nevile and “eh voila” as Poirot would say, the idea of Neviled Eggs was born. And once it was in my head…there was no going back.

I adored “Towards Zero,” so please don’t mistake my playful recipe title for any disrespect towards this brilliant novel. Usually, I read these books twice: once for the initial experience, and then again to glean details for these posts. My first read of Towards Zero left me utterly bewildered about the culprit, right until the big reveal. On my second read, however, I was astounded by the sheer number of cleverly hidden clues scattered throughout.

The plotting here is simply masterful! What seemed like passing chatter on the first go-round all converged beautifully towards the killer’s identity. To any aspiring mystery writer, I wholeheartedly recommend “Towards Zero” as a masterclass in artful clue placement. But even if you’re simply seeking a meticulously crafted detective story, this is a must-read.

Towards Zero – The Plot

“I like a good detective story,’ he said. ‘But, you know, they begin in the wrong place! They begin with the murder. But the murder is the end. The story begins long before that—years before sometimes—with all the causes and events that bring certain people to a certain place at a certain time on a certain day.”.”

Agatha Christie – Towards Zero

We start with four seemingly disparate vignettes.

A group of London lawyers are speaking of the latest case and Mr Treves, a highly esteemed and elderly solicitor makes the above quote about murders being the end of a series of events that can bring a group of very different people together, all as they move towards zero hour.
Angus MacWhirter is recovering in a hospital after a failed suicide. He is bitterly disappointed still to be alive but his nurse tells him that he was saved because God may need him in the future
We next take a peek at a very disturbed person who is meticulously planning a murder
Superintendent Battle’s daughter is intimidated into confessing that she stole things when she is innocent

Could these four seemingly unconnected events, be somehow related as they all move towards zero?

Our Cast:

Nevile Strange is a tennis player, known for his good sportsmanship on the court. Neville was raised by Matthew and Camilla Tressilian at their home Gull’s Point. Sir Matthew has now passed and Lady Tressilian is bedridden but Neville visits her each year. (Incidentally, I did my first “reading” of this on audio via YouTube and the reader kept referring to Nevile as Ne-vile and not Neville. For me, Ne-vile Strange sounded like the name of a Harry Potter villain.
Kay Strange is Nevile’s second (trophy) wife. She finds the visits to Gull’s Point boring and would prefer to be having fun with her friends, one of whom is Ted Latimer, a very handsome but somewhat louche young man. Whilst not staying at Gull’s Point, Ted has taken up residence at Easterhead Bay, a short distance across the bay from Gull’s Point.
Audrey Strange, Nevile’s first wife. Normally Audrey and Neville stagger their visits to Lady Tressilian however this year their trips converge. And no one seems happy about it. Except Nevile who seems to be trying to rekindle his old flame.
Mary Aldin, Lady Tressilian’s companion
Thomas Royde. Audrey’s cousin who is visiting from Malaysia
Mr Treves, who was an old friend of Sir Matthews is holidaying in the vicinity and is invited to dinner one fateful evening.

We have:

Mr Treves killed by staircase (ingenious!)
Lady Tressilian beaten to death with a golf club and,
Superintendent Battle virtually pushing someone off a boat to confirm that really can’t swim!
Rank odours, MacWhirter asking odd things of Mary
Something significant in the attic
And many, many people being lying liars who lie

Battle also channels his inner Poirot to bring the killer to justice.

Battle rubbed his chin and frowned. “I wish I knew what keeps putting Hercule Poirot into my head.”

“You mean that old chap – the Belgian – comic little guy?” asked Leach.

“Comic my foot,: sais Superintendent Battle. “About as dangerous as a black mamba and a she-leopard – that’s what he is. I wish he were here – this sort of thing would be right up his street.”

Towards Zero – Agatha Christie

If only Battle had used a Boomslang (as per Death in the Coulds) as his snake analogy!

Towards Zero – The Covers

So many great (and non-English) covers here. My three favourites are Audrey on the cliff (top row second from left), a theatre bill, second row first from left showing Gull’s Point and of course, top row, first on the left, Tennis racquet head! So clever and cluey!

And it’s not the first tennis racquet head we’ve had either! Murder at the Vicarage also has one of these!

Tennis Racquet Heads (1)

The Recipe Neviled Eggs

Print

Neviled Eggs – Towards Zero

Print Recipe

A lovely elegant appetizer, inspired by one of the characters in Agatha Christie’s Towards Zero

Author: Taryn Nicole

Ingredients

Scale

12 quail eggs

1 tsp lemon juice

1 tsp Dijon mustard

Dash of Tabasco (optional)

2 tsp mayonnaise

sprigs of dill to garnish

Salmon roe to garnish

Cook Mode Prevent your screen from going dark

Instructions

Place the eggs in a pan filled with enough water to cover them. Bring the water to boil then cover with a lid, remove from the heat and let the eggs sit for 2 minutes.

Drain and cool the eggs in cold water with some ice cubes in it.

Peel the eggs, cut them in half and scoop out the yolks.

Mash the yolks with the lemon juice, mustard, Tabasco and mayonnaise until the mixture is smooth.

Fill a piping bag with the mashed yolks and pipe back into the egg whites.

Garnish with a little sprig of dill and a salmon egg.

Enjoy!

Notes

I found it easier to place the dill sprigs and salmon roe on the eggs with a pair of tweezers because I have massive man hands that are not great for delicate tasks like this!

Did you make this recipe?

Tag @tarynnicole198 on Instagram and hashtag it ##retrofoodformoderntimes

Links To The Christieverse

Battle mentions Poirot a few times but does not refer to any specific cases. The other Superintendent Battle books are:

Other Food & Drinks Mentioned in Towards Zero

Lemonade
Kidneys, Mushrooms, Rolls of Bacon
Port
Coffee (twice)
Whisky Soda (twice)
Vegetables
Tea

Our March read is The Hollow.

Have a great week!

31
May
2023

Food For Lovers Redux

categories: Devilled Eggs, Food For Lovers, Prunes, Rice, Salad, Soup

Hello friends, and welcome to a special series I will be running over the next 12 months. A while ago, I realised I had totally missed the 10th birthday of this blog. In fact, I was thinking about how to celebrate this and wanted to check the exact date of the first post which I thought was in 2013. Nope. It was 17 May 2012! There didn’t seem much point in celebrating eleven years but twelve sounds impressive. So in the 12 months leading up to my 12th birthday I will be featuring one of the old books I blogged about in the early years. Those old posts are mostly dire but the books are quirky and fun or just plain good. Sometimes all three. To get this party started I am revisiting one of the most bonkers books I own – Kelly Brodsky’s Food for Lovers from 1971.

Food For Lovers – The Book

Food for Lovers is broken into 15 chapters, each of which is devoted to a particular type of man and the food that their beloved should cook to keep them interested. As the old adage goes, the way to a man’s heart is through his stomach! This may make it sound like this is a very conservative, conventional cookbook – the type of book you might have seen in the 1950’s on how to please your husband. But this my friends was not the conservative 50s, this was the 1970s and the birth of women’s liberation so the tone is definitely tongue in cheek. At least I hope it is because each of the men mentioned sounds awful (although also somewhat recognisable). To introduce you to the book and its characters I thought it might be fun to do a little speed dating with the gents of Food for Lovers!

Bachelor #1 Come on down!

Freddy Finikin

“Freddys who dislike food are an asexual lot who seem to get a perverse kick from driving the women in their lives to a frenzy in search of something to tempt their appetite…the woman who falls for such a man is either unaware of his finickiness, or trapped, or mad, or maybe she prefers to read in bed”

Kelly Brodsky – Food for Lovers

Should you find either the picture of Freddy or his blurb attractive, or you are mad, trapped, or prefer to read in bed here is a recipe to keep your Freddy happy!

Zakusi

You’ll notice I have changed the recipe so that rather than filling the egg whites “liberally” with caviar, I have made a more traditional and certainly more economically viable devilled egg. These were AMAZING. So tasty!!!!

Let’s move on to Bachelor #2

If fussy eaters aren’t your style, maybe this likely lad is more your speed!

Joe De Go

A man with the Midas touch, Joe usually has his fingers in many pies. Often in the guise of pop star, P.R, ad-man, disc jockey, TV star or such, he wizzes from one assignment, luncheon or deal to another with a slick show of competence that belies his lingering adolescence. Bright and on the ball he mostly shoes away from anything that smacks of more than superficial know-how, for he hates to be caught out of his depth

Kelly Brodsky – Food for Lovers

Intrigued by the sound of Joe? Why not tempt his palate with some

Creamed Leek and Potato Soup

This soup was delicious!

Still not found your ideal man? Let’s take a look at Bachelor #3

Champers Chas

With the carefully cultivated air of an educated debauchee and a fascinating, if largely fabricated family history to back it, Champers provides an inexhaustible supply of gossip. Whether on or off the boards, he delights in titillating his ever present audience with spicy, often malicious anecdotes and ribaldry

Kelly Brodsky – Food for Lovers

Fancy chatting with Chas? Tempt his tastebuds with some

Pistachio Nut Pilau

This was really nice, the rice was light and fluffy and went perfectly with last week’s Chilli Crab!

Still not found the love of your life? Maybe you like your men a little more sleazy and possibly criminal? Bachelor #4 may be more your style!

Professor Repressor

If the name doesn’t say it all, here’s Kelly’s description

Repressor exudes the coldness of a tree frog, his sang-froid masking some Lucifer-like leanings. One kinky chink in his armour is his obsession with the Lolita-type nubiles on his campus – who usually run for their sweet lives when they see the kind of red-hot light they inspire in his eyes. Inevitably, he is forced to turn his attentions to any neglected wives of his colleagues

Kelly Brodsky – Food for Lovers

Ok. We might need a palate cleanser after that so how about some

Watercress and Orange Salad

This was great and just the refreshing hit I needed after writing about the pervy professor! Let’s swiftly move to Bachelor #5!

Gad About Guy

Gad about Guys come in all shapes and sizes with ages and egos to match. They usually hover round fellow Gads with a few of the uninitiated thrown in as audience. “Remember that night in Singapore when we strolled along Bugis Street – and those fantastic little roadside stalls with the delicious Satay? ….”Lord, yes! And will you ever forget that Lamb Solanka in Moscow last winter.”…And on and on it goes, the name dropping, the reminiscences and regurgitations of past splendours”

Kelly Brodsky – Food For Lovers

If the well-travelled man is your bag, why not whip up a lovely breakfast for him with some

Wine and Song Prunes

I LOVED these. I feel so bad that prunes have such a bad rap! This was so delicious. And what a fabulous name! I served mine with a little bit of labneh, some orange zest and some pistachios left over from the pilaf and it made a heavenly breakfast!

And because all good things must come to an end, we come to our lucky last Bachelor…who out there fancies

Jack Snack

He’s strictly a non-event up to his neck in dreary day to day existence, blissfully unaware of anything outside his tight little domain…his every move as predictable as the plainness of his sitting-room with it’s enormous brick veneered fireplace above which some gypsy flamencoes wildy within a heavy gilt frame

Kelly Brodsky – Food For Lovers

I laughed out loud when I read this because growing up, we had possibly that very same flamenco dancer painting on our wall at home! I thought it was incredibly beautiful and have always wanted to learn to flamenco as a result of it!

Now, I have also not made Jack’s Snack, mostly because I quite like my life and don’t fancy being taken down by a premature heart attack any time soon. But should you wish to share your life with this homebody and are not afraid of death by overindulgence, here is the recipe for a Veal Scallopine Sandwich that will melt Jack’s heart whilst simultaneously clogging his arteries!

Okay, food lovers, I hope you have enjoyed my second journey into Food For Lovers…I LOVED revisiting this book!!! And there are so many more delicious-sounding recipes and terrible men in it that we may have to take a third look somewhere down the track!

I have searched online for other books by Kelly Brodsky and Kelly Brodsky herself and have drawn a big flat blank! At the moment there also appear to be no other copies of Food for Lovers for sale so, sadly you cannot share my delight in this book. Kelly, if you are out there, and I hope you are, I hope you read this and know that fifty-two years after the publishing of your book, you have a number one fan in me!

Have a wonderful week friends and please let me know if you make that Veal Scallopini Sandwich! Or any of the other recipes!

29
Aug
2021

Devilled Egg Pie

categories: Devilled Eggs, Eggs

I had a little moment recently of coincidence or prescience depending on what you believe. I was thinking “Better start looking for recipes for Pieathalon – that will be coming up soon”. I found a copy of Mollie Katzen’s recipe for Devilled Egg Pie from The Enchanted Broccoli Forest. Could there be a more perfect Pieathalon pie? Devilled eggs are such a stalwart of retro cooking and I’m pretty sure that no one has yet cooked from this classic of vegetarian cooking! Then I realised that the recipe calls for a mashed potato pie crust. Which I had not copied. Without a recipe for the crust, I could not send it to someone else to cook. But I could cook it myself and invent my own mashed potato crust!

And it’s only proper after all. Do you think any of those athletes you just watched in the Olympics came in cold? No way! They practiced! So, consider this one of my warm-up heats to get myself rmatch ready for Pieathalon!

The Mashed Potato Crust

Let’s start with that mashed potato pie crust I needed to invent. I had some leftover mashed potato. Which I pressed into the bottom and sides of some little pie dishes. Oh yes, I decided to make individual devilled egg pies.

I then brushed these with a little bit of melted butter and popped them into the oven at 180C until the edges started to go brown and crispy, around 15 minutes.

Crust done!

Next up was the sauce that drew me to this recipe in the first place. It is a white sauce with horseradish, mustard and dill. I know there is no Scandinavian blood in my veins but these flavours absolutely sing to me. I used the very last of the horseradish I had harvested from our garden. The mustard and dill came from the supermarket and greengrocer respectively. I spooned the sauce into the bottom of the pie dishes:

I added some halved hard-boiled eggs.

And I spooned some more of the sauce over the top and popped the pies into the oven until the sauce was golden brown on top!

Devilled Egg Pie – The Recipe

Mollie Katzen gives two versions of this dish. I made the hard-boiled egg version but I am also keen to try the fresh egg version. I also think she missed a bit of a trick here – why not make a devilled egg, devilled egg pie? I am going to make MY version very soon – stay tuned!

Devilled Egg Pie – The Verdict

These weren’t devilled eggs as we know them but the flavours were certainly devilled egg adjacent. The mix of the mashed potatoes, the sauce and the eggs was delicious and just about the most comforting thing I have eaten all year! The hardest thing about making them was actually having leftover mashed potatoes! I’ll certainly be making these again!

Oh, and the exact same night I made these, I got an email from Yinzerella about Pieathalon 2021. It’s coming…

06
Jan
2020

Sriracha Deviled Eggs

categories: Devilled Eggs, Eggs, Starters

Happy New Year Everyone!!!! Let’s hope it is wonderful for all of us. And speaking of wonderful – let’s talk deviled eggs! Specifically, let’s talk Sriracha deviled eggs. For Christmas Day, I wanted an appetiser that could stave off hunger pangs while the main meal and sides finished cooking. Ideally, I also wanted something that I could cook the day before so there was one less thing to worry about on the big day. This recipe for Sriracha Deviled Eggs fitted the bill perfectly! Plus, I got to use my gorgeous deviled egg plate!! That’s a definite win-win situation!

I tell you, cooking Christmas lunch was hard work, By the end, my plan looked like one of those walls you see in murder mysteries, with scribbled notes and arrows linking timelines all over the place. At best, timing is my bête noire so trying to ensure 3 appetisers, 4 different kinds of meat, two sides and a dessert all arrived at the table at the right time required a lot of planning and, let’s be truthful, a little bit of luck! Here’s a facsimile of my plan!

So, it was a massive relief that the Sriracha Deviled eggs could be made the day before. And, despite my wonky piping, they looked so pretty on the plate! The recipe I had for these eggs had a garlic breadcrumb topping which, to be honest, I did not like the sound of. They would have also been one more thing that would have needed cooking on what was already a mad schedule. Instead, I topped my eggs with a slice of fried shallot (bought at the Asian grocery), a sliver of red chilli and about a third of a coriander leaf. A sprinkle of smoked paprika and voila, the eggs were done. And the colours not only matched the plate but the red chilli and green coriander were also very festive.

The gorgeous plate was a birthday present from my dear friend Ali a few years ago. I love it but do not use it nearly enough. This year may well become the year of the deviled egg just so I can use it more often!

The eggs went down a treat and were the perfect start to our Christmas festivities. I was, at the time unaware that the great, great granddaddy of the deviled eggs we serve today were served way back in Roman times to the wealthy patricians as a first course called gustatio. (Which is, I guess where we get the word gustation)

Well, if you would like to have a gustatio of your own, here’s the recipe!

A disclaimer on the recipe. Usually, when I clip a recipe I write on the back the details from whence it came so I can give credit where credit is due. This clipping has no reference so maybe someone gave it to me or it might be from before I started blogging and just clipped things because I liked the sound of them! The font of the clipping makes me think it might be from a Delicious magazine but I cannot find a recipe online to confirm or deny. If the recipe seems familiar to anyone, please let me know so I can reference it properly. The eggs are basically that recipe with a few tweaks, the garnishes are my idea.

Sriracha Deviled Eggs

Print Recipe

A delicious appetiser, perfect for a festive celebration

Author: Taryn Fryer

Ingredients

Scale

For the Eggs!
6 hard boiled eggs, shelled and halved
2 tbsp Sriracha chilli sauce
2 –3 tbsp Mayonnaise
4 Chives, finely chopped
For the Garnish!
Crispy fried shallots
Red Chilli, finely sliced
Coriander leaves
Smoked Paprika / Cayenne Pepper

Cook Mode Prevent your screen from going dark

Instructions

Remove the yolks from the eggs with a teaspoon. Tip into a bowl.
Add the Sriracha and mayonnaise and mash until smooth.
Stir through the chives.
If you want to be fancy, put the yolk mixture into a piping bag and pipe the mixture back into the egg halves using a star nozzle.
Otherwise, just spoon the mixture back into the egg halves.
Eitherway, garnish with a slice of crispy fried shallot, a thin slice of red chilli and a small piece of coriander leaf.
Sprinkle with smoked paprika, or if you are feeling brave enough for a triple dose of chilli, some cayenne.

Notes

Please try to use free range eggs for this!

Have a fabulous week!