For the big singing party last weekend, the plan was to make lots of picnic food, including deviled eggs. Dad decided it would be festive to use huevos jaminados, and he made some real beauties.  Here’s what you do:

First, head to Food 4 Less or any produce market with bountiful onion bins.  Rummage through the mounded onions collecting the wispy, crackling skins.  Don’t be shy; you want to fill a produce bag with skins.  (In the interest of scientific curiosity, I like to weigh the bag in one of the hanging produce scales.  This is optional.)  Breeze through the check-out line, explaining to the bemused clerk that “they don’t usually charge me for these.”  Make off with your booty.

Once home, you want to boil the eggs in a big pot with the onion skins for a loooong time.  After about the first hour, lift the eggs out and (useful tip from Dad) gently tap each one with a spoon to crack (but not obliterate) the shell.  You want an eggshell that still has structural integrity but now shows a web of cracks.  Set the eggs back in with the seething onion skins and boil them another hour or so.  They will turn a pleasing color in the red-to-magenta family.

huevos jaminados

 

When you tire of this, it is time to take the eggs out, let them cool enough to handle, and then peel off the shells.  Enjoy the drama of the great unveiling.  Ooh and aah over each glistening, marble-veined egg.  (It is tempting to lick one but if you do, you should probably eat that one.)

huevos jaminados revealed

 

Now you devil them.  Cut the eggs gingerly in half.  Scoop the yolks out into a bowl and mash them with whatever you like in your deviled eggs: mustard, a wee bit of mayo, chopped pickle, vinegar, paprika.  Scoop the yellow yum back into the egg halves.  Arrange them prettily in serving dishes.  Voila!

deviled huevos jaminados

 

Now that I think of it, they might best be displayed in a glass dish that would allow you to appreciate their glorious hides.  The thing about deviled eggs is that people approach them with such voracious lust they rather fail to admire their artistic qualities before inhaling them.  Maybe you can hand them out one by one, possibly from overhead, for maximum artistic appreciation.