Recipe: Green Eggs & Ham Devilled Eggs

Welcome to the Easter recipe I meant to post last year before I was foiled by lockdown #1’s egg shortage: Green Eggs & Ham, in devilled egg form. Inspired in part by the devilled eggs in the late, great Anthony Bourdain’s book Appetites (ad), and the Green Eggs & Ham breakfast dish I adapted from something I ate years ago at The Huckleberry Cafe in Santa Monica.

I also will not apologise that this is the fourth recipe for devilled eggs on this site. I just love me some good devilled eggs, and judging by how many of you have printed out the recipe for my Devilled Eggs Royale in the past week, around Easter I’m not the only one!

Okay, so these devilled eggs. The green element comes from pesto, which gets mixed into the yolks along with some light mayonnaise for richness, and natural yogurt for lightness. I used wild garlic pesto here which adds an extra bit of seasonal pizazz (my recipe is on the BBC Food website) but honestly, use whatever you’ve got open. I’ve also added some fresh chives from the garden, but if you don’t have any don’t go out to buy any, they’re more for visual effect than anything else!

The ham element is obvious. It’s, well, ham. Or, parma ham to be precise, torn into little ribbons and curled into roses. You’ll only need one sheet here, so be sure to plan something – like the aforementioned Green Eggs & Ham brunch dish – to use up the rest of the pack. Parma ham, prosciutto, any other thin cured ham, buy what you prefer and you know you’ll use up. These are freestyle devilled eggs.

Obviously these are the ultimate Easter canapé / starter for a holiday gathering if you’re reading this post sometimes after 2021 and the world has improved / if the rules have indeed been relaxed as planned and you’re planning a feast in the garden (currently the plan is to sit on my parents patio and eat the Christmas ham that never got cooked as we were split into two households for the big day!) – but they’re also great for snacking, which is what happened to all of these beauties after they were photographed.

Tips for Devilled Egg Success

I’ve made a lot of devilled eggs in my time, so I’ve learned a few troubleshooting tips along the way to help you make the perfect batch of devilled eggs each time!

Always use large eggs. Devilled eggs are really easy, but depending on your eggs they can be really fiddly. Using large eggs just increases your chances of success!

Always make one extra. It is sometimes impossible to make a tidy devilled egg out of an egg that has cracked while cooking, so if you need a certain amount of eggs because you’re feeding them to guests, you’ll thank yourself later for adding an extra egg in case something goes wrong. Also, use room temperature eggs. Then there will be less chance they’ll crack when they hit the hot water.

Less is more when you’re removing the yolks. Sometimes, removing the yolks can be hard and especially if there is a very thin about of white at the bottom of the egg this is where you’re most likely to break the eggs. It is better to be safe and leave a little yolk in the egg if you think it is going to get stuck – you’re going to be piping filling over those bits anyway and no one will see, and you’ll still have enough yolk to make a rich and creamy filling, because you’re adding mayonnaise.

Place the eggs bottom down. Once the eggs are out of their shells the bottoms will flatten a little, so be careful once you’ve put them down to halve them so that the bottom they were sitting on becomes a bottom of a devilled egg half, because otherwise they won’t sit flat on the serving platter.

Mash with a spoon. Mash the yolks with a dessert spoon not a fork, which will still leave lumps and prevent you from getting a silky smooth filling. If you’re scaling this recipe (or any devilled egg recipe) up on a much bigger scale, consider using a mini chopper or food processor instead.

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