What to do with Easter Leftovers

By Sandy Hu

It was fun to color all those eggs. But now, the naked whites are a sorry sight, tinged with bits of dye, destined for a mosaic egg salad.

If you’d like to do something a bit more interesting with those Easter eggs, try the ideas below. And for good measure, I’ve added ways to use that leftover Easter ham. Some of the recipes come from previous posts by our Special Fork bloggers.

For Easter eggs:

• Simmer thick slices of hard-cooked eggs in a curry sauce, garnish with toasted almonds and sliced green onion; serve with chutney. See recipe below.
• Make Lori Powell’s tasty Scotch Eggs, encasing the hard-cooked eggs in sausage meat, then frying. Lori blogs every Wednesday about cooking for one or two people on Special Fork.
• Make open-faced sandwiches on flatbread with sliced hard-cooked eggs, bay shrimp, mayo and garnish with dill and lemon slices.
• Cut eggs into wedges and toss them into a chef’s salad.
• Make a delicious herbed German green sauce, Frankfurter Grüne Sauce, a recipe from Katie Barreira, to serve with the eggs. Katie is our cooking newbie blogger and she blogs on Tuesday.

Now for the Easter ham:

• Make quesadillas, following tips from Andrew Hunter, who blogs about cooking for families every Thursday.
• Or make the French sandwich, Croque Monsieur, from Andrew’s wife and co-blogger, Marilyn Hunter. While it’s not the kind of ham the French would use, why not take some liberties?
• Try a takeoff on a Cuban sandwich: Split a baguette lengthwise, spread with yellow mustard, fill with ham slices, Swiss cheese slices, dill pickles and grill in a buttered pan with a weight on top (such as a heavy skillet) to compress the sandwich and heat through.
• Dice ham and add to mac and cheese, or to chef’s salads.
• If the ham has a bone, simmer the bone for broth and make corn chowder or jook, Chinese rice soup. You can use this recipe for turkey jook and substitute a ham bone for the turkey carcass.

Growing up, my mom used to make curried eggs when she didn’t have anything pre-planned for dinner. It was always popular in my family and it’s a great way to use lots of eggs and once. While I’ve allowed two eggs per serving, you could add more for heartier appetites.

Curried Eggs
4 tablespoons butter
1/3 cup flour
2 teaspoons curry powder
1 ½ cups reduced-sodium chicken broth
2 cups milk
¼ teaspoon salt
8 hard-cooked eggs, sliced half-inch thick
1/3 cup sliced or slivered almonds, toasted
¼ cup sliced green onions
Mango or other fruit chutney

Melt butter in a large saucepan over medium heat. When foam subsides, add flour and curry powder and whisk until butter and flour are fully incorporated and foam has subsided, about 1 minute. Gradually add chicken broth, whisking vigorously to prevent lumps. Add milk and continue to whisk until sauce comes to a simmer and is smooth and thickened about 5 minutes. Stir in salt. Gently add the eggs to the sauce and heat over low heat until eggs are heated through, about 2 or 3 minutes more.

Serve eggs sprinkled with almonds and green onion slices on top, and pass the chutney. Curried eggs are great over toast or rice.

Makes 4 servings

Note: To toast almonds, place them in a small, dry skillet and set pan over medium heat. Cook 3 to 5 minutes, until almonds are golden brown, shaking the pan frequently to prevent burning.

Special Fork bloggers blog Monday through Friday. For more recipes and ideas on your smartphone, check us out at www.specialfork.com. Join the conversation on Facebook and follow us on Twitter @specialforksndy.