Recipe: Evan’s Pickled Eggs with Beets

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Apparently I’m not just a suggestible eater, but I’m a suggestible cook as well.  Last week I answered an Ask Evan question about what to do with pickled eggs.  I became so intrigued with the idea of pickled eggs that I decided to make some myself.  The impetus was an upcoming meal former Angeli chef Kathy Ternay and I were making to celebrate the life of a dear friend who passed.  We had decided to make a poached salmon salad.  Knowing that our friend’s wife valued food with lots of color I thought that pickled eggs tinted with beet juice would be the perfect garnish for Kathy’s salmon salad.  They were super easy to make.

Beet Pickled Eggs

1 dozen xlrg or jumbo eggs
1 red beet, peeled and cut into 8ths
2 ¼ cups white vinegar
2 cups water
2 tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons mustard seeds
1 tablespoon coriander seeds

Make hardboiled eggs.  I put the eggs in cold water to cover and bring to a boil.  Then cover the pan and turn heat off.  Let eggs sit in the hot water for 10 minutes.  Drain water and bathe in cold running water until they are cool enough to peel.  Don’t use really fresh from the farmer eggs.  They will be very hard to peel.

While the eggs are cooking, put the beet slices together with all the pickling ingredients in a non reactive saucepan and bring to a simmer.  Cook until beets are just soft when pierced with a knife.  Let the beet pickling mixture cool down. When eggs and pickling juice are at about the same temperature pack the eggs into a wide mouthed canning jar, adding the beet slices here and there.   Strain the pickling juice from the saucepan into a bowl.  Reserve juices and spices.  Put spices in the jar with the eggs and beet.  Pour enough pickling juices over to cover the eggs.  Put the lid and ring onto the jar and store the eggs in the refrigerator for a few days.  The eggs start to pick up the color immediately but it will take at least a week for them to taste pickled.

Use as you would any hard-boiled egg.