I want to like Creole cuisine as I had when visiting New Orleans. I even bought Suzanne Ormond, Mary Irvine, and Denyse Cantin’s book Favorite New Orleans Recipes as a souvenir to make it myself in Iowa. The trouble is I became vegetarian since then, and none of the 119 recipes is a fit. Every once in a while I make my version of red beans and rice–using the holy trinity–but the available vegetarian sausages are not the same and by the time I finish, it isn’t really Creole.
Before sending the cookbook to the public library used book sale I reviewed the recipes again. The only thing remotely doable was some version of egg salad. I set the recipe aside and took pen to paper and made my own Creole-inspired egg salad starting with three hard-cooked eggs.
Trinity Egg Salad
I prepared the eggs as per usual: placing them in cold water in a saucepan, bringing it to a boil, turning it off, letting them sit in the hot water for 12-15 minutes, then dunking them in an ice water bath for 5-10 minutes.
Egg salad is sauce and diced ingredients mixed together. For the sauce, I put the egg yolks in a bowl, and added about three tablespoons Duke’s Mayonnaise, one teaspoon stone ground mustard, two tablespoons finely diced homemade sweet pickles, one teaspoon of pickle juice, one half teaspoon garlic puree, a teaspoon of home made apple cider vinegar, and a few dashes of my hot pepper powder. I mixed until incorporated.
Next I added the dice: 1 tbs red onion, 1 tbs red bell pepper, and 1-2 tbs celery, along with the whites of the eggs. Fold everything together with salt and black pepper to taste. Refrigerate until ready to use, at least 15 minutes.
Except for the holy trinity, there is not much to make this a Creole recipe.
I do know the flavor was take off your hat and sit down good. I hope you will try it.
Journey Home 