Day 16: Pan-Crisped Deviled Eggs, Warm White Bean Salad, Rainbow and nut Macaroons

When you need to catch up on your cooking blog, just have a big party and it will force you to make a whole bunch of food.

Pan-Crisped Deviled Eggs on French Lettuces
Warm White Bean Salad with Fragrant Garlic and Rosemary
Rainbow Macaroons
Coconut Nut Macaroons

I haven't cooked much in the last few days. We have been building a new deck off our new kitchen and that was keeping us pretty busy and so the solution was to have a big potluck to celebrate the new deck. I wanted to make items that could be easily snacked upon.

We tried the Pan-Crisped Deviled Eggs at the Splendid Table party that inspired me to do this project and let me say these babies do not disappoint. This is a very basic deviled egg recipe--hard cooked eggs stuffed with the yolks mixed with mayo, white wine vinegar, milk, garlic, and mustard--but the twist is that you brown the tops of them by throwing them face down in olive and sauteing them. It is a little nerve-wracking at first because you think they are going to fall apart in the pan and ruin all of your hard work. But if you pack the stuffing well into the eggs they do not fall apart at all. Also, I chilled them for a couple hours before browning them and that seemed to help them stay in one piece. Then you serve them with a sauce you make with half of the yolk stuffing mixed with olive oil, mustard, vinegar, and milk. These disappeared from the buffet table almost instantaneously. Everyone was surprised that they were pan-fried. You are supposed to serve them on lettuces mixed with the dressing but I just put the dressing on the side and guests could put a dollop of it directly on the eggs.

The warm white bean salad was not quite as impressive as the eggs, but it was tasty as well. The salad is extremely simple. Crush five cloves of garlic with 1/2 teaspoon of salt and then chop fine. Saute the garlic in 1/4 cup of olive oil over low heat so you don't burn it. This smells fabulous. I just stood over the stove, inhaling deeply at this point. Stir in the rosemary and then add the white beans. You have to cook this gently because you can smash up the beans pretty easily if you aren't careful. Add some mixed greens and just wilt them before taking off the heat.
The finale of this dish is the topping which you make in adavance. Take one piece of whole-grain bread and pulverize it in the food processor. Toast this in a saute pan, no oil, turning constantly until you have nice cooked bread crumbs. Then mix that with grated parmigiano and black pepper. Spread out on top of beans. Yummy.

I made a double batch of macaroons and made the coconut nut variation--just add chopped almonds--and the rainbow variation--just add food coloring. The nut macaroons were delicious as expected. I used almond extract instead of vanilla which added to the chopped almond taste. But I have to say the rainbow macaroons looked pretty disgusting. I am not sure if the authors actually made this variation or they just thought it was a good idea. Nobody ate any of the weird, colored ones and there were a lot of kids at the party too!

On a side note, my friend Karen showed up with a plate of ribs and stole the show. They were tasty and disappeared as fast as the alcohol.

Refreshing drink: Mix one part Pimm's with two parts lime-ade. Serve over ice with a lime and a sprig of rosemary.32 recipes down in How To Eat Supper.