Egg Salad Sandwich

Another day… another lunchtime request.  What do we have to eat for lunch, Mom?

A family favorite and another example of comfort food is an Egg Salad Sandwich.  

Legend has it, that John Montagu, the 4^th Earl of Sandwich, is the originator of this sandwich.  I beg to differ!  Credit goes to resourceful Moms everywhere, who use simple ingredients we already have at hand (or in our fridge and pantry): bread, eggs, some herbs, mayo…  Here we go:

Ingredients:

• Sliced bread, we prefer untoasted white bread (2 slices per sandwich)
• 2-4 eggs, hard-boiled and peeled
• Mayonnaise -  when we are in the US or Canada, I only use Kraft Miracle Whip. However, traveling in Mexico or Europe, you cannot find this, so any good local mayonnaise will have to do.
• Finely minced sweet pickles
• Fresh parsley, snipped
• Fresh chives or the tops of spring onion
• Finely minced celery, or snipped celery greens
• Freshly ground pepper

How to prepare:

Start out by bringing a pot of water to a boil.  In the meantime, pierce a tiny hole in the bottom of each egg with an egg piercer.

While traveling, I do not have one, so I carefully use the point of a small pair of scissors to pierce the shell:

Once the cooking water comes to a boil, using a slotted spoon, gently place the eggs in the boiling water and cook for 12 minutes.  Do not reduce the setting of your burner, keep the water boiling. 

The reason for piercing the egg is to prevent the eggshell from cracking when placing the eggs in the boiling water.  (Note, there is a different method of making boiled eggs when you place the eggs in room temperature water and then bring the water to a boil.  But for me, it takes way too long! And I always ended up with runny eggs.  No thank you!)

Meanwhile, fill a large bowl or cooking pot with cold water (add ice if necessary). Once the 12 minute cooking time for the eggs is reached, fish the eggs out of the boiling cooking water with the slotted spoon, and place the eggs in the cold (ice) water.  In German, we call this step “abschrecken”, which literally translated means to “scare off” – You know that feeling when someone gives you the ice bucket challenge and dumps ice water over your head!  Scream!  -  Actually, this step results in the thin membrane that is around the egg (just beneath the shell) to separate from the shell and also the egg white, and it makes the egg easy to peel.

Let the eggs sit in the cold water for a couple of minutes, to cool off so they are easier to handle.

Meanwhile, mince the pickles:

Finely mince the parsley

Mince the chives.  I only had Spring Onions today, so I snipped the greens with my kitchen scissors

Put all your herbs into a mixing bowl, and add a couple spoonfuls of mayonnaise

Next, tap your eggs on the countertop or your cutting board, to crack the shell, see how easily you can now peel the eggs?  Then finely dice the eggs.

Add the diced eggs to your bowl with the other ingredients, and mix them together using a fork.  Make sure that you smash the egg yolks so everything becomes nice, yellow, and creamy.

Add salt and freshly ground pepper to taste, then spoon evenly onto your bread:

Notice, today I did not have any celery (as listed in the ingredients above).  No matter, it still tasted good.

For my husband and son, I place another slice of bread on top and then wrap it in a paper towel so it is not too messy to eat.  I eat mine the European way: open faced but with knife and fork.

Bon Appetit!

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