Christmas Tree Deviled Eggs Recipe
An Original Recipe by Lorraine Elliott
Recipe Overview
Preparation time: 30 minutes plus 1 hour refrigeration
Cooking time: 15 minutes
Makes: 12 deviled eggs
Ingredients Needed
For Eggs
- 6 eggs, boiled (see directions above)
- 100g/3.5ozs peas, frozen
- 75g/2.7ozs grated parmesan cheese
- 60g/2ozs basil pesto
- 50g/1.7ozs cream cheese
- 50g/1.7ozs mayonnaise
- Green chilli Sriracha or hot sauce to taste (optional)
- A few drops leaf green colouring (optional)
To decorate
- 2 tablespoons red capsicum, finely diced for baubles
- Slice of cheese for stars
- Parmesan or pecorino cheese for snow
Step-By-Step Instructions
Step 1 PEAS - Cook the peas until until bright green and cooked through, about 2 minutes. Drain and place in ice water.
Step 2 BLEND - Drain peas well and blend with parmesan cheese, pesto, cream cheese, mayonnaise, green hot sauce and green colouring (if using) until smooth. Thermomix: 45 seconds, speed #4. Slice eggs in half and scoop out the yolks. Add yolks to the mixture in the food processor or Thermomix and blend again until smooth. Thermomix: 60 seconds, speed #4, scrape and repeat. Tip: make sure that the mixture is a smooth puree. Refrigerate for 1 hour minimum. Mixture should be firm and pipeable like mashed potato. Troubleshooting: if the mixture is still too soft, refrigerate for longer, around 4 hours.
Step 3 SLICE - Place a half egg on the chopping board. Place your fingers flat above the cut side of the egg and slide the knife along the base cutting a flat bottom for the egg.
Step 4 PIPE - Place mixture in a piping bag fitted with a 845 or 1M tip. Start with piping more filling at the base and then moving the piping bag upwards and keeping it vertical. The tip (especially the 845) will flute out a nice Christmas tree pattern.
Step 5 DECORATE - Add 3-4 tiny pieces of red capsicum per tree as baubles. Punch out little cheese stars with cutter and place on top. Grate parmesan or pecorino on top as snow.
Personal Note
As Christmas edges closer, the weather is getting warmer. I made these on a really, sweltering hot day. I was boiling the eggs and getting some ice from the ice dispenser in the fridge for the egg ice bath when the ice maker started to seize up. It had happened once before and we had to remove the unit from the freezer because there was basically a massive chunk of ice blocking everything. It's messy because ice does tend to fall out of the bottom and go all over the floor.
Last time Mr NQN helped but that day he seemed really busy so I thought I would do it myself. Really, how hard could it be? I unclipped the unit on both sides and then picked up the ice dispenser. And about two dozen ice cubes fell out of the bottom of the unit, most falling down the top of my dress and between my dress and my apron!
The ice was freezing cold and I let out a scream. Mr NQN heard me, "Are you ok?" he asked. While I was surprised when it happened, the heat and the cold ice sort of combined and the ice melted the ice quickly and cooled me down. "I'm....good?" I answered. It was far from a catatrophe and just what I needed to cool down!
So tell me Dear Reader, are you having a hot or cold Christmas where you are? Do you like deviled eggs?