Sephardic Marbled Eggs

Holidays:  Courses:  /  Cuisines:  /  
My friend (and colleague) Rabbi Cory Weiss loves to cook as much as I do. Several years ago, we decided to co-host a pre-Passover program at his synagogue, Temple Har Zion (Thornhill, Ontario): Iron Chef Rabbi. We decided rather than make this an actual competition, we would each present our favorite Passover dishes. One of the dishes Cory cooked was this beautiful Sephardic Marbled Eggs. It is visually stunning! His version takes hours and hours to cook, and is imbued with the subtle flavor of onions. I adapted his recipe to suit my own taste. I decided that I am only interested in the "visual appeal" of the egg, and wasn't concerned with the slight onion taste. Because his eggs cooked for so long, the yolks became a deep gray color. I wanted to see if I could achieve the marble-affect while maintaining the yolk's yellow integrity. (My usual method of cooking hard-boiled eggs provides smooth and creamy yellow yolks always: cover a pot of eggs with cold water and cover the pot with a lid. Bring the pot to a boil and boil for exactly 2 minutes. Remove the covered pot from the heat source, keep covered and let the eggs sit for exactly 12 minutes. Then immediately shock them in cold water and ice cubes. Voila! Perfectly yellow creamy yolks every time!) With this recipe, however, the whites of the egg need to become dyed and colored. The color needs to permeate the membrane that lies underneath the shell. The eggs need to cook for a longer time than I would normally cook a hard-boiled egg. So it is impossible to get perfectly yellow yolks, but I was able to keep the layer of gray to only the outer edges. I usually make 1 egg per person, plus extras to have on hand during the week. You can either choose to serve with lemon wedges and salt (as is the traditional method) or I like it serve it as an appetizer with homemade guacamole (I make my guac by just mashing ripe avocados with lime juice, garlic, salt and pepper to taste) and crudites. Enjoy!

Sharon’s Sweet and Spicy Mixed Nuts

Courses:  
Sometimes you just need a something that's a little sweet, a little salty and a little spicy to have with drinks before dinner. Or to add a little zest to a salad. Or to nibble on for a snack while you are watching the game on TV. Many of the recipes I saw used corn syrup. So I developed my own recipe, using one single beaten egg white, and a combination of flavours and spices. Feel free to use your own spice combination.