In the previous version of this recipe I tried to use natural ingredients to get the pink hue… the results were ok, but didn’t pop. This updated recipe uses distilled white vinegar and neon food dye. The results pop…
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While with Erinn in Brooklyn, she took me to one of her local haunts – the Krupa Grocery where I had two food epiphanies: the shrimp burger and a dish called Chicken & Egg – chicken liver parfait, devilled egg and candied cocoa nibs.
The Chicken and Egg impressed me so much I went back for seconds. I love old school dishes brought up to date and made exceptional. The stand out element of this dish is the beet pickled egg.
In the spirit of openness, I’ve had a bitch of a time getting the brine for this recipe right. Pickles are personal, some like vinegary, some like sweet. Me? I like it in between.
The below, although simple, took several consultations with Erinn, several experimentations and a bloody age to get right for my taste… hence the odd measurements (thanks again to Erinn). So here goes, Brooklyn Beet Eggs.
Music to listen to while preparing this dish: ‘Help me make it through the night‘ by Sammi Smith
Ingredients
- 12 large eggs
- 600ml Distilled white vinegar
- 15g tube Dr Oetker Extra Strong Pink Food Colouring Gel
- Large handful of sea salt
- Regular handful sugar
Method
- Put your eggs in a pan – they should be cosy without too much space to rattle around.
- You have two choices – you can add the eggs to boiling for 7 minutes and then put in ice cold water or once they’ve reached a rolling boil remove from the heat and let sit for 12 mins. Once the time is up, put in ice cold water.
- In a pan add the vinegar, salt and sugar and warm gently till all the sugar and salt are dissolved.
- Add the food dye to the vinegar and whisk till dissolved,
- Shell your cooled eggs and put in a large jar and cover with the pickling liquor.
- Rotate the eggs every day to get even colouring on the outside. After a week you will have a light hue, after two a neon pop.
For a great starter; halve an egg, scoop and discard the yolk and fill the cavity with parfait (your choice but duck, salmon and veggie all work). Then reassemble the egg and serve on a bed of lambs lettuce.
Serve with another revelation/throwback thanks to Krupa – Lambrusco di Sorbara Radice Paltrinieri
Pug's Kitchen 