Eggs - Extra Helpings

The Bell’s Restaurant Egg Salad Sandwich Will Soothe Your Soul

Blue Apron is teaming up with chefs across the country to support Feeding America®. To participate, head over to our social media channels. Share our Facebook post or tag a friend on Instagram, and Blue Apron will donate $5 to Feeding America, up to $50,000. Thanks to Daisy and Gregory Ryan for sharing the hearty and comforting Bell’s egg salad sandwich recipe.

egg salad sandwich recipe — Buttery, eggy, delicious

The story of Bell’s Restaurant is a homecoming. Chef and Owner Daisy Ryan grew up in the Santa Ynez Valley in California. As an adult, she spent several years in New York. She first attended culinary school at the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde park, and then cooked in a handful of New York’s best restaurants: Per se, Chef’s Table Brooklyn Fare, Gramercy Tavern. When it came time to open a restaurant of her own, Daisy and her husband Gregory Ryan relocated to Los Alamos, and together they opened Bell’s.

Bell’s is both elegant and welcoming. The Ryan’s menu features French classics and comfort food. It’s the type of place where drinking a glass of organic wine alongside a bag of Utz potato chips makes perfect sense.

Even though the restaurant has temporarily closed in response to the COVID-19 epidemic, the Ryans are still hard at work feeding people and supporting their community. They quickly realized that one of the standouts on their lunch menu, an egg salad sandwich with savory tomato jam, would be easy to deconstruct and repackage as an at home “egg salad survival kit.”

Those in Los Alamos can order a kit with loaf of buttery bread, a quart of egg salad, and homemade pickles. It’s enough food to keep you assembling egg salad sandwiches all week. For those not in California, here’s your chance: recreate this rich and savory egg salad sandwich with tomato jam at home using the recipe below.

Recipe: Bell’s Egg Salad Sandwich

For the egg salad

15 large eggs
¼ cup mayonnaise
3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
2 tablespoons chives
2 tablespoons fine sea salt
1 tablespoon fresh cracked pepper

For the tomato jam

16 Oz canned whole tomatoes
2 cups medium yellow onions, chopped
2 tablespoons butter
¼ cup olive oil
3 tablespoons fine sea salt
1 tablespoon fresh cracked pepper
2 tablespoons sugar

Make the egg salad

1. Fill a large pot halfway with water. The pot should be large enough to fit all the eggs in one layer on the bottom, with water deep enough to cover the eggs by an inch.

2. Add a tablespoon of salt to the water and bring to a boil on the stovetop over high heat.

3. Meanwhile fill a large bowl with ice water.

4. Once the water is boiling, add all of the eggs. Lower them with a strainer, spider, or spoon, so they don’t hit the bottom of the pot and crack open.

5. Boil eggs for 8 minutes and then plunge them into the ice water to stop the cooking.

6. Allow to cool completely and then peel and quarter.

Make the tomato jam
1. Preheat the oven to 375 °F.

2. In a large heavy bottomed pot melt the butter and olive oil.

3. Add onions and cook over medium heat until they become translucent.

4. Add salt, sugar and pepper and stir.

5. Add tomatoes, including juice, and cook over high heat until liquid has reduced by half.

6. Put the pot in the oven uncovered. Stir every 20 minutes, the surface should start to blacken a little bit, and the consistency should be similar to tomato paste. This will take approximately 3 hours.

7. After the mixture has reached the consistency of tomato paste, approximately three hours, transfer to a food processor and process until smooth.

Assemble the Sandwich

1. Preheat the oven to 400°F. Heat a cookie sheet or sheet tray in the oven.

2. Butter two sides of the bread, and spread the tomato jam on the inside of one piece.

3. Toast the bread butter side down for about 7 minutes, or until the bread appears to be turning golden.

4. Spread your desired amount of egg salad on one slice of bread, add a pinch more salt, top with the other slice and serve.

Tortilla Española Is Comfort Food for Carb Lovers

Chef Lili Dagan is finding comfort in carbs this week. Here’s her recipe for Tortilla Española, a classic Spanish dish that works for breakfast, lunch, or dinner.

Growing up, every morning my mom would send me to the bus stop with a microwaved russet potato. Every morning! Maybe it wasn’t a traditional snack, but I always enjoyed gnawing on an 8oz spud on the way to go learn about civics. To this day, I love pure, unfussy carbs.

the finished tortilla espanola — Asparagus, ramps, eggs

For the past few weeks, I’ve been revisiting my love for potatoes. I’ve changed the menu a bit, but this Tortilla Española is still anything but fussy: it’s hearty, it can stay in the fridge for days, and you can make it with just about anything in your fridge. It’s elegant enough to make a lovely dinner, but still makes me nostalgic for the microwaved potatoes of my past. Best of all, it’s good hot or cold, which means the leftovers make a perfect lunch.

Recipe: Tortilla Española

½ cup Olive oil + extra
6 eggs
1 lb waxy potatoes
1 large onion
1 cup asparagus or greens

A few notes to start: I love making a big tortilla, but sometimes it’s easier to start with smaller ones (I often make 2 small tortillas and bring one to my neighbors, because that’s what my mechanic told me to do.) As a general rule, I use 4 eggs to every pound of stuff in my tortilla. For this particular tortilla, I used 6 eggs and made two tortillas in a 6” non-stick.

1. First, sweat the onions in ½ cup of olive oil. Add about a pound of thinly sliced waxy potatoes. Keep the heat on medium low, and stir it around until the potatoes are cooked, about 20 minutes. When the potatoes are cooked, add in whatever else is going in your tortilla. For mine, I leftover asparagus, a few stray ramps, and some sorrel.

tortilla espanola filling — Strain the filling

2. After the greens have softened, strain the filling through a sieve, and set it aside in a bowl. Be sure to reserve the strained oil, it’s delicious. If I’m making toast to go with my tortilla, I’ll use this oil to fry it up. You could also use it for your next tortilla! Let it speak to you.

3. Next, crack and whisk your eggs in a big bowl. Fold in your potato mixture.

4. Drizzle a bit of oil into your non-stick frying pan. On low-medium heat, ladle in half the mixture. Cook until when you push the mixture away from the edge the bottom is starting to brown, about 3-5 minutes.

5. The next bit takes a bit of boldness—flip your tortilla onto a large plate, and then slide it back into the pan to set the top (which is now the bottom, isn’t it funny how life works). Let the bottom set for another 2-4 minutes.

flipping the tortilla — It just takes a plate and a little confidence

6. Slide it out and allow it to cool. Enjoy it with aioli, toast, a combination of both, or alone.

I Tie-Dyed Easter Eggs to Match My Sweatsuit

Chef Ashely Giddens has been spending more time than usual at home over the past few weeks. When she isn’t cooking, she’s keeping busy with crafts. Her latest project? Tie-dyed Easter eggs. Here’s Ashley:

tie-dyed easter eggs — Isn’t she lovely?

Being cooped up at home leaves plenty of time for crafty experiments. Last week I tie-dyed a sweatsuit, and I loved the results. With Easter around the corner, I wondered if I could apply the same methods to dying Easter eggs.

tie-dyed easter egg inspiration — The Easter egg inspiration

I discovered ice dying when I was researching tie-dye techniques for my matching set. Basically you surround whatever you’re dying with a little wall, top it with crushed ice, and then drop random bits of dye directly onto the ice. When the ice melts, the dye falls onto the item and creates a watercolor effect. It worked so well on my clothing, that I wanted to see if the process could work on other projects: Enter, eggs.

For dye to adhere to eggshells, you need to add an acid. To adapt the ice dying process for eggs, I just doused the ice in a splash of vinegar before dotting the dye over the cubes.

For variety, I also dyed a few eggs with my tried and true practice of dying: wrapping eggs in various objects from my craft bin (string, wire, stickers, rubber bands, etc) and soaking in dye baths. I also colored a few with a food safe marker.

General Tips:

Make sure your eggs are hard-boiled, it makes it easier to handle them without cracking.
I used both white and brown eggs, the brown had less color but were still pretty.
Protect your work surface, I covered my countertops with some parchment paper.
If they’re available, use gloves.
Have fun! There’s no need to stress about perfect results this year. Consider this a fun time to be creative, either on your own, or with loved ones.
If you want to be able to eat the eggs, stick to food safe dyes and edible glitter. Other than that, go wild!

A Shakshuka Recipe to Use up Whatever Is in Your Fridge

Shakshuka recipe in the sun — Savory egg and tomato shakshuka

What are we cooking while we’re staying home? Today, Chef Kristen Merris-Huffman found a shakshuka recipe that can work with whatever produce you have on hand.

Shakshuka is one of the most comforting, versatile dishes out there. This recipe always sparks excitement and lifts me out of my usual cooking routine. Shakshuka can be served for breakfast, lunch, or even dinner. If you need to serve a larger group, you can easily bulk it up by adding another can of tomatoes and more eggs. It’s also a one-pan wonder, so in my eyes, it’s perfect.

This particular recipe is meant to be incredibly versatile. If you don’t have all the listed ingredients, don’t worry! This is just what I happened to have on hand. If you don’t have a red bell pepper, now is the time to reach into the back corner of your produce drawer to use that zucchini you bought in desperation last week. Diced eggplant, or even a few cremini mushrooms, would be nice additions in place of the cherry tomatoes.

Shakshuka recipe ingredients — Peppers, onions, garlic, and tomatoes

Same goes for the spices. Feel free to experiment with cinnamon or a little cayenne instead of smoked paprika. Now is the time to be resourceful and to use up whatever you have.

Simple Shakshuka Recipe

Adapted from the New York Times

Ingredients:
2 tbsp olive oil
1 medium onion, diced
1 red bell pepper, roughly chopped
1 cup of cherry tomatoes, halved
2 cloves of garlic, minced
1 can of whole or crushed tomatoes
1 tsp ground cumin
½ tsp smoked paprika
A pinch of red pepper flakes
1 can of tomatoes, lightly crushed
4 eggs
Optional garnishes:
¼ cup feta, crumbled
Parsley, finely chopped

Preheat the oven to 375°F. Heat olive oil in a large skillet over medium-low heat. Add the onion and bell pepper (or any vegetable that needs to be cooked), and cook for 15 minutes stirring occasionally. Add tomatoes and cook until they begin to soften.
Add garlic and warming spices to the pan of sautéed vegetables allowing the aromatics to cook for 2-3 minutes until they become fragrant. Pour in the can of tomatoes. If you’re using whole tomatoes, crush them gently with the back of a spoon. Cook for an additional 2-3 minutes until the sauce thickens.
Using the back of a spoon, create four wells in the sauce and crack an eggs directly into each well. Top with cheese and place in the oven for 7-10 minutes until the eggs are just set and the yolks are still runny.
Serve with tortillas, a hunk of bread, or toasted pitas for dipping and scooping.

shakshuka with tortillas — Serve with tortillas

In the mood for dessert? Try this sweet and savory shortbread recipe.

Red, White and Blueberries: Celebrate the 4th with This Sumptuous Berry Dessert

The sight of farmers’ market tables and roadside stands, laden with ripe produce—smooth-skinned squash in the winter giving way to bright, plump and deeply fragrant fruits in spring and early summer—is one of our favorite ways to mark the changing seasons. Now, as summer begins to heat up, we’ve set our sights on those characteristic green lattice baskets filled with soft, jewel-toned strawberries, raspberries, blackberries and blueberries.

The most flavorful berries come from local farms during their peak growing seasons, where crops can be harvested and delivered to nearby farmers’ markets and produce stands in just a day or two (or in some cases, mere hours). With just a quick stop to pick up a pint or two in the morning, you’ll get fruits bursting with sun-ripened flavor that deserve to be eaten immediately and with great abandon.

If you can hold out on devouring the gorgeous, juicy berries right when they land on your kitchen counter (but we don’t blame you if you can’t), we recommend whipping up this festive red, white and blue Eton mess. It’s a seasonal showstopper fit for your 4th of July gathering.

We’re also working on a few more easy recipes featuring summer’s best berries, so stay tuned for more ways to use the abundance of seasonal fruits in the coming weeks.

Mixed Berry Eton Mess with Meringues

With its swirls of whipped cream, sweet meringue crumbles and a pile of seasonal strawberries, there’s a reason Eton mess (named for the boys boarding school where it’s said to have been invented) is a beloved British treat. Here, we’ve updated the classic dessert with 4th of July colors, but don’t be afraid to mix and match berries depending on what’s best near you!

INGREDIENTS
3 Large Egg Whites
⅔ Cup White Sugar
4 Ounces Mixed Berries (or Berry of your choice)
1 Teaspoon Balsamic Vinegar
½ Cup Heavy Whipping Cream
2 Tablespoons Confectioner’s Sugar (or White)

COOKING INSTRUCTIONS

1. Make the meringue batter

Preheat the oven to 225°F. In a large bowl, using a hand mixer, beat the egg whites on medium-high speed until stiff peaks form. Slowly add all but 1 tablespoon of the white sugar and continue beating 7 to 8 minutes, or until glossy peaks form.

2. Bake the meringues

Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper. Transfer the meringue batter to a piping bag and pipe about 30 mounds, each about 1 inch in diameter, onto the lined baking sheets. Bake 1 hour and 10 minutes, or until crispy. Leaving the meringues inside, turn off the oven and let cool 1 hour and 30 minutes.

Chef’s Tip: If you don’t have a piping bag, you can use a resealable plastic bag with one corner snipped off. If your parchment is being unruly, use the meringue batter to “”glue” it down in the 4 corners of the baking sheet.

3. Macerate the berries

While the meringues bake, hull and halve the strawberries. Halve the blueberries. In a small bowl, stir together the berries, vinegar and remaining white sugar. Let stand to marinate, stirring occasionally, until the meringues have cooled.

4. Make the whipped cream & assemble

In a large bowl, vigorously whisk the heavy cream until soft peaks form. Add the confectioner’s sugar and whisk until thickened. Divide the baked meringues between 4 bowls. Top each with a dollop of the whipped cream and the macerated berries.

Happy Fourth!

A Recipe for the Classic Breakfast Frittata

The frittata serves a whole lot of purposes. First and foremost, the baked egg skillet counts as an excellent breakfast. But secondarily, here are some things that the frittata might become to you: lunch; a way to use up extra veggies from the farmers’ market; a brunch centerpiece for friends; an excellent vessel for getting your daily dose of bacon; dinner; a way to eat more summer tomatoes; and your favorite meal to customize to your tastes.

Yes, the frittata is amazing.

What is a frittata? It’s an Italian egg specialty that most resembles a baked version of the omelet. You’ll find that there is a greater proportion of filling to egg in the frittata. The fillings, which range from meats like ham (or bacon) to vegetables like the chard, mushrooms, and tomatoes used here, are sautéed on the stove in a skillet before being mixed up with eggs and goat cheese and baked until the eggs are set.

After prepping all the vegetables, we fry up slices of bacon.

To the pan go the vegetables…

Meanwhile, in a separate bowl, we whip up eggs with tomatoes and broken-up goat cheese.

Everything goes into the skillet and gets baked. And that’s it! You can serve wedges of the frittata with toast. Save leftovers for lunch the next day–frittatas are great both cold and room temperature.

Get the whole recipe below.

Perfect Scrambled Eggs

If you’ve got eggs, you’ve got breakfast. Well, throw in a whisk, some butter, a handful of chives, a little cream, some good toast, and then you’ve really got breakfast. Though there are many ways to serve an egg, for breakfast, we love ours scrambled.

The key to great scrambled eggs is the cooking technique. What differentiates perfect scrambled eggs from decent diner scrambled eggs? Cooking them low and slow, stirring all the while to form tiny, delicate curds.

We’ve also got a few other tricks up our sleeves. We garnish with a ton of chives to brighten the dish. We finish the scramble with a splash of cream, to lighten everything up–and, more importantly, to stop the cooking, which the cold cream does with a bang. Without it, you’d had to race to scrape the eggs out of the pan, out of fear that they’d go from perfect to over-cooked in mere seconds.

We like to have toast, bacon, and coffee ready to go when our eggs are done, so the perfect eggs don’t risk getting chilled.

Love breakfast? You’ll probably also love the first post in our breakfast series: the bodega-style egg sandwich.

Get the whole recipe below.
Continue reading “Perfect Scrambled Eggs”

How to Dye All-Natural Easter Eggs

What do turmeric, blueberries, grape juice, and spinach all have in common? They’re each a key ingredient in our-all natural Easter egg dyes.

Using vegetables, fruits, herbs, and juices as natural dye for easter eggs is a fun adventure in kitchen chemistry–and a way to avoid having synthetic dyes in close contact with your food. After you’ve used natural dyes, you’ll find the inside of your eggs completely untouched and practically begging to be turned into deviled eggs.

Instructions for Dying Easter Eggs Naturally

1) Soft boil your eggs. Bring a pot of water to a full roiling boil, plunge in those eggs, and wait for about 6 minutes before removing them.

2) Place eggs in bowls or jars, separated by how many you’d like in various colors.

3) Make your natural dyes by combining any of the ingredients below with 1 quart water and 2 tablespoons of white vinegar in a pot. Boil the natural dye ingredients for 5-7 minutes to get the colors out.

4) Pour your all-natural easter egg dyes into your various bowls and jars with your eggs, and allow them to sit for 4 to 6 hours, checking occasionally to see if colors are as saturated as you’d like.

5) Remove your beautiful eggs and place them on a rack, or on paper towels, to dry.

Watch how this went down with various ingredients in the Blue Apron Test Kitchen!

List of Natural Dyes

Turmeric

Quantity: 3 or more tablespoons of turmeric
Color your egg will turn: Yellowish orange
Things to note: The spice will turn your fingers yellow! Embrace it, or wear gloves.

Paprika

Quantity: 3-4 tablespoons of paprika
Color your egg will turn: A soft orange-ish pink

Red Cabbage

Quantity: 4 cups, chopped and boiled in water and vinegar
Color your egg will turn: Robin’s egg blue
Things to note: The cabbage plus vinegar will smell a bit strong but don’t worry! It’s for a good reason.

Grape Juice

Quantity: 2 cups grape juice to 2 cups water, plus 2 tablespoons vinegar
Color your egg will turn: Dark gray-ish blue
Things to note: Because the grape juice is pretty concentrated, this dye produced the most saturated egg color.

Spinach

Quantity: 4 cups of raw spinach
Color your egg will turn: Extremely pale mint green
Things to note: Unless you’re obsessed with subtlety, consider skipping the spinach dye. It’s really, really pale.

Blueberries

Quantity: two handfuls of fresh blueberries
Color your egg will turn: ‘Blue Apron‘ blue
Things to note: Mash the blueberries in the pot as they heat to bring out the colors. They’ll turn sort of jelly-like as they sit, but don’t worry, that’s normal!

That’s it. Let us know what you think if you try it. And look how perfect the interiors of the eggs stay? Here’s to all-natural eggs! Happy Easter!

P.S. If you’re feeling all-natural AND lazy, here’s a tip. Run to the farmers’ market and pick up eggs in a few different colors (white, brown, blue, and green). You’ve got Easter eggs–no dye needed!

Beyond Dinner: The Homemade “Bodega” Egg Sandwich

Now that we’ve tempted you with delicious desserts and upped your cocktail-mixing game, we’d like to introduce you to our breakfast series. Good morning.

All week, we’re with you at dinner. But on weekend mornings, when time seems to slow down and bacon is an important ingredient in whatever you decide to eat. On those Saturdays and Sundays, why not take a moment to prepare a great breakfast at home? Our homemade bodega-style egg sandwich uses just a few ingredients and takes 10 minutes to make.

Here’s what you’ll need for each sandwich: a spoonful each of mustard and mayo, a challah or brioche roll, an egg, half an avocado, and some slices of cheddar cheese.

First, prep your ingredients: cut open your avocado and slice up half of it (here’s how). Pull out some cheddar cheese. Heat a little olive oil or butter in a frying pan, over medium-high heat. Lightly toast your bun. Crack the egg into the frying pan and cook until yolk is set to your liking, flipping once if over-easy is your thing.

What’s your favorite weekend breakfast? Tell us in the comments!

Here’s How: Make Perfect Soft-Boiled Eggs

A gooey yolk adds the right about of gooey richness to just about any meal. Best of all, it does so without making that meal unhealthful at all! That’s a win.

We love how a soft-boiled egg makes our ribollita just about the most delicious thing you could dig into on a winter’s day. But how do you get the egg just right–a cooked white and gooey yolk? The trick, friends, is in the timing. Watch how we soft boil our eggs in the video below, and stay tuned for a delicious idea for serving at the end.

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