Egg Salad with Kalamata Olives

 

I have no doubt mentioned before that I am an olive lover. I have quite the collection, and incorporate them into as many dishes as possible. It occurred to me that I hadn’t yet added them to egg salad, so that’s what I did. Basically I just added tasty Kalamata olives to my usual recipe for egg salad, and boy did it kick it up a notch! My guess is that I’m never going to make egg salad again without adding olives.

Egg Salad with Kalamata Olives

4 hard-boiled eggs.
½ c. chopped Kalamata olives*
½ c. finely chopped celery
1 T. capers
1 heaping t. Dijon mustard
1 heaping T. Duke’s mayonnaise
1 heaping T. sour cream
1 t. dill pickle juice
Salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste

These are, essentially, the measurements that I used. When I’m making egg salad, I just throw things together. Generally speaking, here I used an equal portion of chopped eggs, olives, and celery, and then added the rest of the ingredients to get the flavor and the texture that I wanted. By no means consider this carved in stone. Do what you like here.

*I chopped my olives by throwing them into a little mini high-speed blender, and pulsing it a couple of times. That made it super easy to do.

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Southern Pimiento Cheese

Believe it or not, I found yet another recipe for pimiento cheese, this one is southern style. I have been singing the praises of pimiento cheese for a long while. I grew up on this stuff; as a girl I had it as a filling for sandwiches, as an adult I find the benefit of enjoying it with fruits and vegetables. I mentioned a couple of posts ago that I’m trying to cut back on carbs, so instead of enjoying this as I usually would on crackers or a crusty roll, I am enjoying it with celery, grapes, and apple slices.  It is a delicious and satisfying snack.

Southern Pimiento Cheese

Slightly adapted from mash.com

  ⅓ c. Duke’s mayonnaise

2 oz. cream cheese, softened

1 t. grated onion

¼ t. black pepper

¼ t. garlic powder

¼ t. Creole seasoning

2 t. Worcestershire sauce

1 t. dill pickle juice

4 oz. diced Melissa’s Roasted red peppers

2 c. shredded sharp cheddar cheese

 In a bowl, mix together mayonnaise and cream cheese until well blended. Stir in the onion, salt, pepper, garlic powder, Worcestershire sauce, and pickle juice. Fold in the pimento and cheddar cheese.

 Serve immediately, or store in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 1 week.

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Irish Pimiento Cheese

I am Irish and I love pimiento cheese, and, in thinking about these two facts, I decided it was time to make an Irish version of pimiento cheese. There’s nothing wrong with being a purist, but this is really delicious. Considering it contains whiskey, I would say this is for adults only. As with all pimiento cheese, this is excellent on crackers, with crudites, or mounded on top of a burger.

Irish Pimiento Cheese

 8 oz. extra-sharp cheddar cheese, grated

¼ c. cream cheese (2 ounces), softened, diced

1/3 c. finely diced Melissa’s roasted red peppers

3 T. Duke’s mayonnaise

2 T. Irish whiskey

2 T. minced scallions, green parts only (natch)

¼ t. smoked paprika

Salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste

Place all ingredients into a large mixing bowl. Using a spatula, fold and mix until it is smooth and spreadable, about one and a half minutes. Transfer to a plastic or glass container, cover tightly, and store in the refrigerator for up to one week.

 

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Jacques Pépin-Inspired Fresh Herb Egg Salad

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If you haven’t read last week’s blog post featuring the recipe for Jacques Pépin’s Herbed Potato Salad, you may want to give that a look. This egg salad was inspired by that recipe, and I think it is one of the most flavorful egg salads that I have ever eaten.

My hankering for egg salad had me hard-boiling eggs. I also had a refrigerator full of fresh herbs, a stalk of celery with a frozen exterior needing seeing to, and had just eagerly picked my first bunch of homegrown scallions. I chopped everything up, tossed it into a bowl, and then as I was about to reach for the mustard, mayonnaise, and other ingredients I generally use in dressing egg salad, I spotted the remaining dressing that I’d used in the potato salad and thought, why not? So I grabbed the jar, unscrewed the lid, and poured what remained of the dressing over all. It turned out to be the perfect amount for these ingredients, blended in as smooth as silk, and was absolutely wonderful. This is my first time making a mayonnaise dressing in a mason jar, but it will not be my last. Much experimenting is in my future, stay tuned. Meanwhile, you must try this egg salad.

Jacques Pépin-Inspired Fresh Herb Egg Salad

3 extra large eggs, hard boiled, chopped
1/3 c. chopped celery
1/4 c. chopped scallions
1/4 c. chopped flat leaf parsley
1 T. chopped fresh dill
Freshly ground black pepper
Pinch of salt

Combine egg salad ingredients in a large bowl. Pour half of the dressing on top of the egg mixture, and fold to combine. Store remaining dressing in the refrigerator to use on lettuce, potato, or other salads. Keeps for up to a week.

Dressing

2 T. mayonnaise
2 T. Dijon mustard
2 T. water
¼ c. olive oil
1 t. sugar
½ T. cider vinegar
Copious amounts of salt and freshly ground black pepper

Place all ingredients into a jar, screw on the lid, and shake for all you’re worth.

Spicy Mustard Ham Salad

Today I am going to share a delicious recipe for ham salad. I know what you’re thinking, enough with the ham already! We get it! You bought too much ham. To which I would respond, well at least you’re not living it. My life has become a porcine nightmare. Seriously, I am beginning to oink. But, you can relax now; this is the last ham-related recipe that I’m going to share for a long, long time. You can trust me on that.

This is a wonderful recipe because it has so many uses. You can put it in a dish and serve it with crackers as a snack or pre-meal appetizer, you can enjoy it on a sandwich as I did here, you can make a lettuce wrap out of it (that is really delicious by the way), or use it as a dip with tortilla chips (or even Fritos, and I cannot tell you how yummy that is). At any rate, this is a good recipe to keep on hand, because there always seems to be a bit of ham left over no matter your good intentions, and this is a great way to make use of it. 

Spicy Mustard Ham Salad

10 ounces ham
3 kosher dill pickle spears (I used Clausen)
1 tablespoon brown sugar, loosely packed
1/4 cup mayonnaise
1/4 cup spicy brown mustard
1 tablespoon instant minced onion
1/2 teaspoon dried dill weed

Toss all ingredients into the food processor and pulse until it reaches desired consistency. If you want to thin it a bit, add a bit of pickle juice and pulse again.

PRINT RECIPE

 If you like your ham spread with a bit more kick, you might try Ham Spread Diablo. Zesty!

This post is linked to:

Full Plate Thursday

Thursday Favorite Things
Feathered Nest Friday
Funtastic Friday
 Snickerdoodle Create Bake & Create

Grace at Home

Create, Bake, Grow and Gather

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