Appetizers and Hors d’oeuvres

Macro Deviled "Eggs"

Recipe from Mirea Ellis

Makes 16 or more, according to how much filling you use in each

To prepare “egg yolks”

Equipment:

•A pressure cooker or heavy pot with lid
•Vegetable knife
•Food processor

Ingredients:

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•1/2 lb Lotus seeds (about 65 seeds)
•4 teaspoons Eden brand yellow mustard
•2 tablespoons dill pickle juice (used organic un-pasteurized if you can find it.)
•2 tablespoon rice syrup
•2 tablespoons rice vinegar
•2 tablespoons very finely minced raw onion (from excess pieces of onions in the “egg white” recipe below)
•1 teaspoon paprika

Instructions:

•Soak lotus seed for at least 6 hours.
•Retaining soaking water, strain seeds and place in a bowl.
•Check for and remove green sprouts inside the seeds. (The sprouts are extremely bitter and will interfere  with the taste and color of the final product.) To check for sprouts, pull seeds a bit apart at the slit on the  dark end of the seed and look inside. You will only have to pull a seed completely apart if you see a sprout,  in order to remove it. This de-sprouting procedure takes about 8 minutes.
•Place lotus seeds and soaking water in a pressure cooker, adding water if necessary to make water level 1  inch higher than the seeds. Bring to pressure and cook for 1/2 hour. Or you can boil the seeds in a regular  pot for about an hour, until very soft, adding water as necessary to keep the seeds covered. If you are using  the boiling method, keep the lid a bit tilted off the pot so the liquid does not foam over.
•While the seeds are cooking, prepare egg “whites” (see the section below)
•When the seeds are done cooking, remove the seeds from cooking liquid with a strainer or colander and  place in a bowl to cool, making sure you don’t have any of the cooking liquid with the seeds. Retain the  cooking liquid for use in another dish, it makes a nice soup or gravy stock.
•When seeds are cool enough, place in a food processor with all other above ingredients except the minced onions and paprika. Blend until smooth. Adjust seasonings to taste.
•Remove from food processor and stir in minced raw onion from the “egg white” recipe below

To prepare “Egg whites”

Equipment:

•A steamer pot (or regular pot with lid that you can use a steamer basket in)
•A small, sharp tipped knife, like a paring knife.
•A broader tipped “butter” type knife

Ingredients:

•8 small to medium size onions. The size of each onion is ideally about 1/2 inch wider than an egg. If you can  only find larger onions, you can always use them and make them smaller by removing some outer layers until  they are the right size.

Instructions:

•Bring water to a boil in the steamer pan
•Remove onion skin, trying to keep ends as intact as possible, then cut in half lengthwise
•You need to make a hollow in each half onion by scooping out some of the middle of the onion as follows:
  •Using the thin point knife, cut two lines on the flat side of an onion piece, each about 1 half inch or less an   end, and not cutting through the outside few layers or going all the way through. (You want to have enough   layers left to hold the round shape well after they have been steamed. Do the same cut on the other end.)
  •Using the wider tipped knife, carefully pry the inside section out. Once you get the feel of this it goes   pretty fast.
  •Reserve the scooped out part and mince 1/4 cup for the “egg yolk” recipe. Additional left over onion can   be used in any other recipe.
•After you have prepared 3 onions, place the six onion halves flat side down on the steamer pan and steam  for about 15 minutes. If you have a large steamer pan you can place more than 6 at one time, but only place  one layer of onions at one time. Piling them up on top of each other will distort the shape of the lower  ones. Remove onions as they are done steaming to a plate, still keeping them flat side down as they are  cooling. Continue preparing and steaming the onions until they are all done. While the onions are finishing  steaming, very finely mince some of the onion layers you pried out, until you have 2 tablespoons minced  onions. Left over onion layers can be used in other dishes.

To Put Together

•Using a round tablespoon, scoop a rounded spoonful of the lotus seed mixture into one of the onion hollows,  adding more if necessary to fill the hollow. Try and keep the filling in the hollow and not get on the edges of  the onion layers. If some does get on the edge just wipe off. Put on a plate and repeat until all are filled.
•For the traditional look with paprika, put about 1/2 teaspoon paprika in a very fine mesh sieve (like a small  sieve style tea strainer), hold above one of the “eggs”, and tap the side of the sieve lightly so a light dusting  falls on the filling. Repeat with the rest, adding more paprika to the sieve if necessary.
•If you are not serving within a couple of hours, place the deviled “eggs” in a tightly covered dish and place  in the refrigerator. You can take them out of the refrigerator about an hour prior to serving so they are not  too cold. They will keep in the refrigerator for a couple of days.

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