Avocado Egg Salad

The creamy avocado lets you use less mayonnaise.

Ingredients:

6 large hard-boiled eggs, chopped
1 avocado, scooped out and mashed up
1/3 cup mayonnaise (reduced fat type is fine)
1 1/2 teaspoons lemon juice
2 tablespoons parsley, chopped
3 or 4 basil leaves, chopped
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
1 teaspoon celery salt
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
1/2 teaspoon paprika

It's funny how a simple thing like cooking eggs in the shell until the yolk is firmly cooked can damned near require a degree from a major cooking school, but there are different ideas of how to do it. I leave the eggs out for a little while to lessen the chill from the refrigerator (some people from various parts of the world do NOT refrigerate eggs, however), or if I'm in a hurry, I put them into some lukewarm water while I heat the cooking water. I heat the water (with a little salt) to a boil, then I put the eggs into the hot water using a large spoon, with a long handle. You want to gently put the eggs into the pan, you don't want to "drop" them into the water. "Supposedly" this causes the egg white to immediately begin to firm up and not stick to the shell, making it easier to peel the eggs later. It works for me and now you've earned your degree!* Anyway, so now we have the eggs in boiling water... Turn the heat so that the water keeps a steady light boil. Cook the eggs for about 10 to 12 minutes, remove them from the heat, drain the hot water off and run some cool water over them to submerge them. For this recipe, you can then drain off that water and fill the pan with cold water, or even add some ice cubes to cool the eggs to the point where they can be handled. Crack and peel the shells from the eggs and then chop the eggs and put them into a bowl. Halve the avocado, remove the large seed and scoop out the flesh and mash it. To the avocado add the mayonnaise, the lemon juice, Dijon mustard, parsley, basil, celery salt, black pepper and paprika, mix very well until nice and creamy. Then gradually fold the mixture into the chopped eggs. Important: the lemon juice is necessary to prevent the avocado from turning dark (oxidizing). You can serve it immediately, or you can put it into the refrigerator to chill for an hour. It is probably best if you use this within about 24 hours or so, as even with the lemon juice (or you could use lime juice), it may start to darken somewhat).     

* Other folks put the eggs into cold water and then put the pan over the heat and bring the water to a boil. Some add vinegar to the water instead of salt. Over the years I've heard or read a couple of reasons why vinegar or salt is added to the water: in the past, water was not always "safe," and it may still not be in some countries or some areas. Salt or vinegar was "supposedly" used to keep bacteria from contaminating any eggs that cracked during cooking. Others say that salt or vinegar was used to keep any egg from going out into the water from cracked eggs. The same idea applies to using vinegar in water to poach eggs; it makes the egg stay together more and not spread out. Both of these things make some sense, and it might be that BOTH are correct, but I don't know... No degree for me.   

Avocado Egg Salad sandwich on toast with sliced tomato and mild dill pickles (German Barrel. 

WORD HISTORY:
Lung-This word is related to "light" (the adjective meaning, "not heavy"). It goes back to Indo European "lengwh," which meant, "not of much weight, not heavy." This gave Old Germanic "lunganjo," and meant, "organ for breathing in many living creatures," from the notion of animal lungs floating when being cooked; thus, "light in weight." This gave Old English "lungen," a plural, since there were two. Later the singular developed, initially as "lunge," then finally as "lung." The other Germanic languages all have similar: German "Lunge" (plural: "Lungen"), Low German "Lung" (plural: "Lungen"), West Frisian "long" (plural: "longen"), Dutch "long" (plural: "longen") Danish "lunge" (plural: "lunger"), Norwegian "lunge" (plural: "lunger"), Icelandic "lunga" (plural: "lungum"), Swedish "lunga" (plural: "lungor").