My earliest memories of Easter Sunday are of my Paw Paw Ed preparing the barbeque on a handmade barrel-type pit in South Louisiana. The day was filled with the smell of hickory smoke, hard boiled eggs, and wild Easter Lilies. The Cajun tradition of egg pocking was in full force with Paw Paw winning most of the pocks with his Banty hen eggs, supposedly the hardest shells of all the hens.
For those of you unfamiliar with the tradition, it’s a little game of egg cracking. One person holds their egg and allows another person to try to crack the shell with their egg. The egg with the strongest shell wins, and it’s owner collects the cracked egg as the prize. Everyone continues to play until all their eggs are cracked. The winner is the one with the last remaining unbroken egg.
Grandma made potato salad with a dozen of the eggs. And the two dozen left? Well, they became egg and sweet pea salad on Monday, egg sandwiches on Tuesday, and whatever was left, Grandma threw them in a pot of Gumbo. This week I plan to share a few of the leftover egg recipes my family enjoyed the week after the egg pocking. The first one is potato salad that was inspired by my Grandma Book, Bobby Flay, and a recipe I saw on Grilling Wino.com. It’s tangy, chunky, sweet, spicy, and delicious!
It was a great addition to our Easter dinner, no longer in Louisiana, but still remembering family traditions.
- ½ medium red onion, sliced in thin strips
- 1 cup rice vinegar
- 1 teaspoon of mustard seed
- 1 ½ tablespoons of light agave sweetener
- ½ teaspoon of celery salt
- 1 ½ teaspoons of salt for the pickling
- 3 lbs of potatoes red potatoes
- 6 eggs, soft boiled, chopped with a fork
- ¾ cup mayonnaise
- 5 tablespoons honey Dijon mustard
- 1 large roasted red bell pepper, diced
- ½ cup parsley, chopped
- Place vinegar, mustard seed, celery salt, salt, sweetener in a bowl and mix thoroughly.
- Add the sliced onions and cover. Let sit overnight to create pickled red onions.
- The next day, boil the potatoes with desired salt. When potatoes are soft enough to push through with a fork, remove from heat and let cool. Quarter the potatoes or more if the potatoes are large.
- While potatoes are boiling, finely dice a red pepper, saute in a skillet with olive oil or roast in an oven. Set aside.
- Strain the pickled onions. Set aside to use a small amount for dressing.
- In a medium bowl, add potatoes, boiled eggs, roasted red bell pepper, and strained onions. Roughly stir.
- For the dressing, mix mayonnaise, Dijon Mustard, a tablespoon of the pickling vinegar. Add to the potato mixture. Stir until blended.
- Stir in the chopped parsley. Salt and pepper to your desired taste. I like a little Cayenne for the Cajun in me.
- Serve with your favorite barbeque.
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