What to do with all those EGGS?!

Okay, so Easter is over, and you're left with a bunch of beautifully decorated hard boiled eggs.  If you can only stand to eat so many plain eggs (we love 'em as snacks and lunch items!), here are a couple recipes to help you use them up!  These are my two favorite recipes that utilize hard boiled eggs.  It's a good idea to just pick up these ingredients when you buy your eggs to color, so you'll be ready to use them up after Easter! (which I forgot to do this year...time to run to the grocery store!)

Scotch Eggs

This is a recipe that I got from my mom. (Moms are the best people to get recipes from, right?!)  It's one of those recipes I always loved as a kid, and was afraid to try for my husband when we were newly married for a couple reasons...1) he's a picky eater, and  2) he claimed to "hate" hard boiled eggs.  He was skeptical when he first tried this, but it immediately became one of his favorite meals!

Ingredients:
8 hard boiled eggs, peeled & cooled
1 lb pork sausage
2 raw eggs
6 Tbsp bread crumbs
Can of 8 crescent rolls

Directions:
1) Set oven to 450 degrees.  Mix sausage, raw eggs, and bread crumbs.  Wrap eggs with sausage mixture, covering each egg.  (Covering a slippery egg with slippery meat takes practice to perfect. I sortof mash the egg into a ball of sausage and cup it all in my hands, putting equal pressure around the whole thing so the sausage evenly distributes itself around the egg. Make them a bunch of times and you'll get the hang of it!)

2) Bake meat-wrapped eggs in a 450 degree oven for 15 minutes on a cookie sheet.  Drain.  Cool 10 minutes. Lower oven temp to 375 for next step...

 3) Open package of crescent rolls and separate.  Stretch/flatten each triangle (use rolling pin if you need).  Wrap the cooked egg/sausage ball and seal.

4) Bake in 375 degree oven for 12-15 minutes until light brown.  Makes 8; serve warm. I like to sprinkle a little salt on them.  My husband loves to add hot sauce.  The kids love them as-is!

Son-In-Law Eggs

This is one of our favorite recipes from one of my Thai cookbooks.  (We are big fans of Thai food)  Again, it is one of my (formerly self proclaimed hard-boiled-egg-hater) hubby's favorites! But, I'm most proud that my already-set-in-his-ways father-in-law ate this up and took another helping, much to the surprise of his wife who also was certain he HATED hard boiled eggs! This one is a bit time consuming so I save it for more "special" occasions or when I have more time to cook.  I usually serve this along side another Thai recipe, like Chicken Satay.  But, we love it so much, it could be it's own main dish. If you don't ever make Thai food, there will be a couple ingredients you may not have on hand.  Check out your local Asian grocery store for tamarind liquid/sauce/concentrate.  Fish sauce you can usually find at your regular grocery store in the "ethnic" aisle, but like most "ethnic" ingredients, you can get them WAY cheaper at the specialty stores! (Plus they are VERY fun to shop around in!) I get a big tub of dried red chili flakes really cheap there too.  We use it in a lot of dishes!  Anyway, you may Google some substitutes for tamarind, like lime juice or orange juice or whatever, but don't do it.  The real thing is worth getting because it is an important ingredient to get the REAL flavor of many Thai foods.  I use it in my chicken pad thai too.


Ingredients:

Rice:
1 C uncooked rice (however much you'd like to make...we like jasmine rice. If you don't have it on hand, just make some instant rice and it'll be yummy too!)

Tamarind Sauce:
3/4 C tamarind liquid
1/4 C palm sugar (brown sugar works)
1/4 C fish sauce (cut some with soy sauce if fish sauce grosses you out)
1/4 C water
2 tsp coarsely chopped dried red chili flakes
3 Tbsp coarsely chopped fresh cilantro leaves

Eggs & Crispy Shallots:
Vegetable Oil to fry eggs
6 hard boiled eggs, peeled
1/4 C thinly sliced shallots

Directions:
Prepare rice: I just kindof wing it with rice.  I'll start maybe 2 cups of water boiling, then add 1 or 1 1/2 cups rice, and let it cook.  If the water is evaporating and your rice is still not fully cooked, just add a little more at a time until it's to your desired consistency.  Make as much as you want for the people you're feeding...the tamarind sauce on the rice makes it good by itself even without the eggs! The general 1,2,3 rule is that 1 cup dry rice + 2 cups water = 3 cups cooked rice. I love to use jasmine rice...it smells soooo good, and we get a good deal on a huge bag (25 lbs!) at the Asian grocery stores.  If you don't want to fuss with cooking rice, use the instant stuff...it's okay, likely nobody will notice! ;-)

To prepare sauce: Combine ingredients in medium saucepan and bring to a gentle boil over medium heat.  Lower heat to maintain lively simmer and cook 4-5 minutes.  Transfer to a small bowl to cool.

To fry eggs & crispy shallots: Heat about 3 inches of vegetable oil in a medium skillet or wok over medium heat to frying temperatures.  Carefully lower eggs into oil and fry until golden brown and crisp all over, 5-7 minutes.  Removed and drain on paper towels.  Scatter shallots into the skillet and fry 1-2 minutes, until browned but not burned.  Remove and drain on paper towels.

To serve: halve eggs lengthwise and arrange on a serving platter of cooked rice (Something with sides works best to contain the sauce, but large enough to spread out the eggs so they look pretty!).  Pour sauce over eggs and sprinkle with crispy shallots, chili flakes, and cilantro, and serve warm or at room temperature.