Le Petite Chef: Egg Salad

Grace loves egg salad.

Really loves it, as in she would eat it every day most likely.

So it was no real surprise that one of the things she wanted to learn to make during our cooking sessions together was egg salad.

So that is what we did.

There are about as many ways to do egg salad as there are condiments and spices and herbs in the world. So there is endless variety when it comes to flavor, which I happen to think is awesome.

This is our basic recipe.

Supplies: 

• Eggs
• Mayo
• Mustard

Step One: Grace filled a saucepan a little over halfway with water and then gently set the eggs in the pan. Make sure there is enough water to cover the eggs with a little room to spare. Put the pan on High heat, we want the water to boil. When the water reaches a boil, turn off burner. Let eggs sit in the hot water for 8-10 minutes.

Step two: While the eggs rest in the hot water, fill a medium bowl with ice and just enough water to come to the top layer of ice. (We used a large bowl because it was clean and within reach.)

Step Three: An adult should drain the hot water from the pan. 

Step Four: Grace used tongs to transfer the hot eggs into the ice bath. Then allow eggs to rest in ice bath for 10 minutes. This makes the eggs cool enough to be handled by little hands, keeps the yolk from turning green, and helps make the eggs easier to peel.

Step Five: Drain the water from ice bath. We set the eggs on a towel for simplicty of work space.

Step Six: Peel eggs. (Note: Fresh eggs are actually kind of a pain to peel. To learn why check out this cool post!)

Step Seven: Cut eggs into pieces. We don't have a potato masher, which is how I did it as a kid, so we just use a fork and a knife, which is great motor and utensil practice anyway.

Step Eight: Add desired amount of mayo. We don't really measure it, but it probably is about half a cup for eight eggs.

Step Nine: Add mustard. Again, we don't measure, we add and taste. But we probably use about 1/8 cup for eight eggs.

Step Ten: Add any other desired herbs, spices and ingredients. This time we didn't add anymore. We were out of both sweet and dill relish, which we usually add one to the eggs depending on our moods that day. 

Step Eleven: Devour! Spread on bread for sandwiches. Serve on crackers. Or grab a spoon and eat as is, which is one of Grace's favorite ways to chow down on this dish!

How do you like your egg salad? Share with us and we'll try out your recipes!