Today’s dish is the result of a little fortuitous and highly successful recipe matchmaking. There is a really fantastic cookbook called Come In, We’re Closed that is a behind-the-scenes collection of favorite staff meals from popular restaurants all over the world. Great stuff. While flipping through it a couple of years ago, we stumbled on a recipe for pressure cooked, “caramelized” eggs, that as fate would have it was from a restaurant in Portland, Maine called “Grace”. Obviously, we had to try them. Duh. With the pressure-cooking and extended cooking time, the eggs actually brown and develop an unexpected nuttiness. It’s pretty cool.
While we normally use the pressure cooker to save time—seriously, risotto in under 10 minutes—this seemed worth the extra cooking time for such unconventional results. The recipe suggested using them for deviled eggs—which we did—and they were wonderful and interesting. They disappeared like they were part of a magic trick, rather than a cooking experiment. Even at that, we haven’t made them since because of the time element.
Fast forward to today. We revisited the recipe, but really wanted to make something even more unique that played up the nutty flavor of the eggs. A little internet surfing turned up a recipe for Thai deviled eggs (hat tip to The Wannabe Chef) that used conventional hard-boiled eggs, but the filling was the fun part. With ingredients like peanut butter, rice vinegar, and ginger (In deviled eggs? Whaaat?), it was too unique not to try, and we could already picture the two recipes signing “You complete me” to one another.
Kyle tweaked the ingredient list a little, adding Sriracha and sesame oil to give them a little more heat and round out the flavors, and the results are out of this world. They were practically inhaled. I can’t believe he actually managed to get pictures of them. They’re like the deviled egg version of Thai sesame noodles, and would probably be fantastic served on a little nest of them. Get it? Eggs…nest…is this thing on?
They’re garnished with crushed peanuts and cilantro to “Thai” the flavors together (ba-dum-bump tchhhh), and give a little added crunch and texture. Now this is a recipe that’s worth the extra time, especially considering that once the eggs are cooked, the rest is a piece of cake.
Caramelized Eggs adapted from Come In, We’re Closed.
Thai Deviled Eggs adapted from The Wannabe Chef.
- 12 eggs
- 3 tbsp. kosher salt
- ¼ cup peanut butter
- ¾ teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon honey
- 1 tablespoon rice vinegar
- ½ teaspoon chili powder
- ½ teaspoon Sriracha
- ¼ teaspoon fresh grated ginger
- ½ teaspoon sesame oil
- Crushed peanuts and chopped cilantro for garnish (about 2 tablespoons each)
- Place eggs in pressure cooker and fill with enough water to just cover the eggs. Add the kosher salt. Bring to a boil over high heat, remove from heat, and secure the pressure cooker lid closed and locked.
- Place sealed pressure cooker back over high heat and bring to high pressure. Lower the heat to medium, and cook the eggs for 40 minutes.
- Remove pressure cooker from heat, and without releasing any steam or unlocking the lid, let the pot rest for 1 hour.
- After resting, release any remaining steam according to your cooker’s directions, unlock, and remove the lid. Drain the eggs and plunge them into an ice bath. When cold enough to handle (about 5 minutes or so), peel the eggs and slice in half lengthwise. Scoop out the yolks.
- Combine the yolks, peanut butter, salt, honey, vinegar, chili powder, Sriracha, ginger and sesame oil in a food processor and blend until smooth.
- Either scoop the filling directly into the egg whites or, if you’re feeling fancy, use a pastry bag to fill them.
- Garnish with peanuts and cilantro. Serve at room temperature.
Jenny says
Made these for a Labor Day party and they were a hit! I had to add a little water when blending in the food processor because the filling seemed a little dry but other than that the recipe was great!
Savannah says
thank you