My fixation with egg salad started when I was just a little girl. My family would go on long road trips (say, to the mountains up north, or to the seaside) and my mom would prepare a variety of sandwiches for the ride. The egg salad was my favorite.
I remember savoring each small square (she would slice each sandwich into two), biting a bit at a time, chewing slowly, pausing between bites, attempting to make it last as long as possible. My mom would pack a lot, but I dared not eat too many for fear I would receive one of those stern looks she reserved for when I overstepped my food boundaries (ah, childhood food issues…let’s not traverse that dark road for O, that way madness lies!). My father however, knew no food boundaries (and still continues to be unaware of such) and would dip his hand into the sandwich bag many times on one trip. I would sit and hope that, when the proper amount of time since my last sandwich passed, and I reached for another, there would still be an egg salad left. There usually was, owing to my dad’s penchant for cheese pimiento, but it was always a dodgy moment, that second when I would rummage through those neat squares of white bread.
That little girl has since grown up, and now makes her own egg salad – which she happily consumes whenever, and in whatever quantity, she wishes. AND she does it with bacon :)
My Favorite Egg Salad
- 6 hard boiled eggs (prepared as your preferred hardboiled egg procedure dictates – I know there is much debate on this)
- 60 grams bacon
- 2 tablespoons chopped green/spring onion
- 1 1/2 teaspoon chopped fresh dill
- 4 tablespoons mayonnaise
- Sea salt and freshly cracked black pepper
- Chop the bacon and fry in a dry non-stick pan until crisp and golden. Drain cooked bacon on a plate lined with a paper towel (fold it into two for double thickness and extra oil-absorbency).
- While the bacon is cooking, chop the hard boiled eggs into chunks, no need to be exact, and place in a bowl.
- Add green/spring onion and dill to the bowl with the eggs. Add bacon (well drained of residual oil) and mayonnaise.
- Sprinkle with salt and freshly cracked black pepper to taste. Toss gently (Gently now…the eggs will break, there’s no avoiding this, but you don’t want to pulverize them) to mix. Taste and adjust seasoning.
- Store in a jar in the refrigerator.
This egg salad is based on the egg salads of my childhood, perked up with some fresh herbs, and tailored to suit my love for bacon. Bacon and eggs go together so well don’t you think? :) I like my eggs in not-too-small chunks and the mayonnaise to coat every piece…not too much but not too little either because, as horrible as this makes me sound, I love mayonnaise (trust me; I have tried to cure myself of this affliction to no avail). Pile onto a greens-lined slice of wheat bread…I love this with either arugula or alfalfa sprouts, but all I had was the romaine you see in the photo.
My mom doesn’t make much egg salad anymore. If we go on a long road trip together we are more likely to stop for coffee somewhere along the way (now that coffee shops abound and her daughter can drink it with her) than take along a bag of sandwiches. I think however, that the time is ripe to bring back this old tradition. We will now have a little non-coffee drinker on our trips after all. And I can make the egg salad :)