DIY Network

Use Up Those Leftover Holiday Eggs with These Recipes

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By Betsy Kline
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

The simple egg in all its symbolism plays a starring role at both the Passover meal and the Easter holiday. Hard-cooked eggs turn up in abundance on the Seder plate and in Easter baskets and table centerpieces. That means there will be lots of cooks wondering what to do with their bounty of cooked eggs.

As long as the eggs have not been left at room temperature for more than two hours -- bacteria love protein-rich foods -- and have been promptly refrigerated after the Easter egg hunt, you can turn them into a scrumptious lunch or sandwich filling. Or just crack them and eat them out of hand plain or with salt.

Egg salad and deviled eggs immediately come to mind. If the eggs have been colored and some of the dye has tinged the solid whites, all the better -- it makes for a very festive-looking egg dish. We found a recipe for deviled eggs with fresh tarragon and chopped green onions and capers that truly tastes like a mouthful of springtime.

Served as an appetizer or alongside the leftovers of the Easter ham, the eggs make a lovely study in pastels. Eggs are always a welcome addition to leafy green salads. Think chef's salad (again sneaking in some of the leftover ham) with meat and cheese and wedges of tomato and egg. Or a salad Nicoise: greens topped with steamed spring green beans, canned albacore tuna, egg wedges, grape tomatoes, olives and a tangy vinaigrette (anchovies optional).

Hungry for a quick hot lunch? You can turn leftover chicken or canned tuna into a very '50s a la king feast. Open a can of cream of mushroom soup, add your chicken or tuna and big chunks of hard-cooked eggs and pour it over toast points or English muffins.

Maybe you have a family recipe for pickled eggs. Here's your chance to pickle your little heart out. Red beet eggs, for example, are simple to make but require patience. Start two days ahead: Drain and reserve the liquid from two 1-pound cans of small whole beets; add enough water to liquid to make 1 cup. Boil the beet liquid, 1 cup cider vinegar, 1/2 cup sugar and 1 teaspoon salt; pour back over the beets in a large jar and refrigerate, tightly covered, for 24 hours. The next day, remove and refrigerate the beets; then put 6 peeled hard-cooked eggs in the liquid and refrigerate again for 24 hours. Slice both the beets and eggs over greens and you have a colorful, piquant salad.

Before your cache of hard-cooked eggs disappears, try a surprise meatloaf. Whole eggs in a juicy meatloaf make a nice appearance when the loaf is sliced. Argentinean Steakloaf is loaded with veggies and may be a bit bland for some palates, but that's what salt and/or ketchup are for. We actually found it tastier the second time around.

We can't stress enough the safe handling of eggs. Just because they're cooked doesn't mean they're safe for consumption at any temperature. Here are some tips from the Partnership for Food Safety Education to make sure your recycled eggs don't hatch tummy aches or worse the second time around:

• Before preparing holiday dishes, remember that clean hands are key. Always wash hands with soap and water before and after food preparation, especially when handling raw animal products such as lamb and eggs.

• When decorating, be sure to use food-grade dyes, such as commercial egg dyes, liquid food coloring and fruit drink powders. When handling eggs, be sure not to crack them. Otherwise, bacteria could enter the egg through cracks in the shell.

• Remember the two-hour rule: Don't leave perishables, including eggs, out at room temperature for more than two hours. Keep hard-cooked Easter eggs fully chilled by storing them on a shelf inside the refrigerator, not in the refrigerator door.

• After the Easter egg hunt, place eggs back in the refrigerator until it's time to eat them. Discard any eggs that are cracked or dirty, or that children didn't find within two hours. Consider buying one set of eggs for eating and another set for decorating.

Ingredients:

1 can condensed cream of mushroom soup
1/2 cup milk (skim, 2 percent or whole)
1-1/2 cups cooked chicken, cubed
2 to 3 hard-cooked eggs, chunked
1 to 2 Tbs. dry sherry, optional
3 English muffins, split and toasted

Preparation:

In a medium saucepan, combine the soup and milk, and stir. Heat until it starts to steam; add the cubed chicken and eggs. Bring to a low simmer and heat through, about 10 minutes. Remove from heat; stir in sherry, if using.

Toast split English muffins. Arrange halves on three plates and ladle the soup-chicken mixture over it. Serve hot.

Note: This makes a hot and filling lunch, served by itself or with a salad.

Serves: 3


Deviled Eggs with Tarragon and Capers

Recipe from Bon Appetit, June 2000.

Ingredients:

Preparation:

6 hard-cooked eggs, peeled, halved lengthwise
3 Tbs. sour cream
2 Tbs. mayonnaise
2 tsp. fresh lemon juice
1/4 tsp. dry mustard
2 Tbs. minced green onion
4 tsp. drained capers
1 tsp. minced fresh tarragon

Preparation:

Spoon yolks from egg halves into small bowl; mash egg yolks to smooth paste. Add sour cream, mayonnaise, lemon juice and mustard; blend well. Mix in green onion, capers and tarragon. Season with salt and pepper.

Spoon yolk mixture back into whites, mounding in center. (Can be made 8 hours ahead. Cover; refrigerate.)

Note: The fresh tarragon is what makes this deviled egg so special. If you can't get fresh, don't bother.

Serves: 6 appetizers


Argentinean Steakloak

Recipe from Everybody Loves Meatloaf by Melanie Barnard

Ingredients:

1 Tbs. olive oil
1 onion, chopped
1/2 red bell pepper, chopped
1/2 yellow bell pepper, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 tsp. dried hot pepper flakes
1-1/2 lbs. ground sirloin or lean ground chuck
One10 oz. pkg. frozen chopped spinach, thawed and squeezed of all excess moisture
1 cup firm fresh white bread crumbs
1/4 cup milk
1 egg
1 Tbs. grated orange zest
1 Tbs. chopped fresh oregano or 1 tsp. dried
1/2 tsp. hot pepper sauce
4 hard-cooked eggs, peeled

Preparation:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

In a large skillet, heat the oil and cook the onion and both bell peppers over medium-low heat, stirring occasionally, until the vegetables are just softened, about 4 minutes. Add the garlic and pepper flakes and cook 1 minute.

In a large mixing bowl, use your hands to gently but thoroughly combine the meat, spinach, bread crumbs, milk, egg, orange zest, oregano, pepper sauce and cooked vegetables. Pat half of the meatloaf mixture into a 9-by-5-inch loaf pan. Arrange eggs in a lengthwise row down the center, then pat the rest of the meatloaf mixture around and over the eggs.

Bake until the loaf is firm, the top is nicely browned and a meat thermometer inserted into the center of the loaf registers 155 degrees, about 1 hour. Let the meatloaf stand for 10 minutes in the pan before slicing to serve hot.

Note: The loaf slices prettily to show hard-cooked eggs that have been encased and insulated by the meat mixture during baking.

Serves: 6


(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, www.shns.com"target=0>here.)

RESOURCES :
Everybody Loves Meatloaf: More Than 100 Recipes for Loaves and Fixin's
Model: 0060952199
Author: Melanie Barnard
(November, 1997)

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