When I was 14 on my first trip to France, I ate oeufs durs mayonnaise, two hard-boiled egg ovals coated with fresh mayonnaise. Oeufs mayo for short was a revelation, slightly tangy mayonnaise and hard cooked eggs, like a deconstructed egg salad.
I find any excuse to make it including at breakfast or at lunch with roasted beets vinaigrette and other garnishes.
On my maiden trip to France, I looked for oeufs mayo on menus where I was soon introduced to hors d’oeuvres variées, the French version of Italian antipasti. HDV consists of many things, usually all served in small rectangular porcelain dishes nestled on a wicker tray like what’s pictured at the top of this post. Typical items you’ll find in France are grated carrot salad, beet salad, lentils in vinegary cream, pungent julienne of celery root with sharp mustard, sliced mushrooms and ripe tomatoes in shallot vinaigrette. The chariot of these delights at La Colombe d’Or in St Paul de Vence is a showstopper – pristine celery stalks and other fresh primeurs to dip into mayo or vinaigrette along with a dozen small salads all served by waiters from a rolling cart.
Hors d’oeuvres variées is my desert island meal because it satisfies my desire to try everything on a menu. The course is crammed with creative vegetable dishes and tastes delicious too.
When I serve hors d’oeuvres variées at home, I often include oeufs mayo.
Making Oeufs Mayo
David Brown, a friend and local artist, raises chickens that produce flavorful eggs with yolks the color of van Gogh’s sunflowers. They inspire me to make egg dish where they can shine. For this dish, you need a good home made mayonnaise discussed here.
It needs to have a relatively flowing consistency to coat the eggs like this.
I like a nice fresh salted anchovy filet draped on top of the mayo-coated egg. (Buy the anchovies packed in jars so you can judge their freshness. Look for bright red fillets.) Strips of roasted red pepper or minced fresh chives are other go-to garnishes as are capers. When I have the time or remember, I’ll fry the capers in a small pan of hot olive oil and scatter those on top. Of course, bread is a necessary accompaniment and crusty baguettes are best.
And I also adore deviled eggs comme ceux-ci.
Kitchen Notebook
When I served hors d’oeuvre variées to Dorie and Michael Greenspan in the spring, I inadvertently became a mayonnaise making machine. (The tray I served that night is pictured at the beginning of this post.) The Oeufs durs Mayonnaise struck Dorie as a subject for a column, which appeared in the NY Times.
You can read my recipe and tips for making mayonnaise here.
For those who read the NY Times article and have questions, I made the mayonnaise I served Dorie and Michael using a hand held immersion blender. Because not every home cook owns one, I chose to make the recipe in a traditional blender for the recipe I shared with Dorie. The eggs for both the mayo and hard cooking were refrigerator temperature. The eggs cook to a perfect slightly underdone hard boil texture as cooked according to this recipe. What Dorie calls “jammy.” (If you have your own method, please use it.)
Sometimes I put cayenne pepper in my mayonnaise. Rarely black pepper because specks might be visible. And rarely white pepper because I find its slightly musky odor troubling. But I do use white pepper in my cure for gravlax.
David Brown, a friend and local artist, raises chickens that produce flavorful eggs with yolks the color of van Gough’s sunflowers. These eggs inspire me to make Oeufs Mayo.
I like to serve a nice fresh salted anchovy filet draped on top of the mayo-coated egg. (Buy the anchovies packed in jars so you can judge their freshness. Look for bright red filets.) Strips of roasted red pepper or minced fresh chives are other go-to garnishes as are capers. When I have the time or remember, I’ll fry the capers in a small pan of hot olive oil and scatter those on top. Of course, bread is a necessary accompaniment and crusty baguettes are best.
Ingredients
½ to ¾ cups Whole Egg Mayonnaise or other mayo preferably home made
4 eggs, refrigerator temperature
Crisp leaves of lettuce, as needed
Anchovy fillets, capers, roasted red pepper cut into strips, chopped chives, to taste
Directions
- Place enough water in a small saucepan to cover the eggs with one-inch of water. Place the eggs in the pan. Bring the water to boil, reduce the heat to a strong simmer and cook the eggs for 7 minutes. Immediately drain the eggs then run them under cold water to cool.
- Pour off all the water but leave the eggs in the pan. Shake the pan vigorously to crack the shells and make them easy to peel.
- Peel the eggs. Rinse them of any shell fragments. Store covered in the refrigerator until ready to use the preferably within 24 hours.
- To serve, thin the mayonnaise, if necessary, with a little hot water to a pourable consistency. For each serving, place a few lettuce leaves on each plate. Then place two cut halves of the hard cooked eggs cut side down on the lettuce. Pour one or two generous tablespoons of mayonnaise over each egg half. Garnish with anchovy filets, capers, roasted red pepper cut into strips or chopped chives before serving.