Pickled Eggs By Mark Bittman -- They're So Easy, And You Can't Get Enough Magenta Eggs

One thing that impressed me about Mark Bittman is that you barely have to shop for even his most-interesting recipes.

Hard boiled eggs?  Got them.  Cider vinegar?  In the pantry.  Thin-sliced onion.  Check.  Grated beets and horseradish?  Okay, maybe grab those at the store.

I cooked a dinner party recently where one guest was newly vegan and one gets sick from gluten.  (And one just doesn't like the taste of cheese, but that was a footnote.)  An antipasto plate seemed like the perfect way to let people take whatever food worked for them, so I flipped through cookbooks looking for items that would be tasty, beautiful and could be cooked ahead.

Enter Bittman's pickled eggs from How To Cook Everything Vegetarian.  You basically peel your eggs and put them in a large jar or bowl -- something that can take the heat of boiling water, but preferably has a tight-fitting lid.  Then you cook a mixture of vegetables, vinegar, water, salt and sugar until the onions are soft.  Pour that over the eggs and refrigerate for two days to a week.

So easy, and you get magenta eggs.  Slice them in quarters, and the yellow yolk contrasts with the beet-stained whites.  They're a little more firm than regular eggs with a taste from the vinegar and horseradish.  Great on the antipasto plate.  Great sliced on salads.  Delicious enough to just eat in our lunches.

These eggs ended up on a plate with some cut vegetables, eggplant dip, and sliced chorizo from Roots.  For the beets, I used the huge storage beets from Super Grand in Laurel or one of the other Korean supermarkets.  You can get one beet -- all you need for this recipe -- for less than a bunch of the tiny beets with their greens at a regular store.

Pickled Eggs
from How To Cook Everything Vegetarian by Mark Bittman

6 hard-cooked eggs, peeled
1 1/2 cups cider vinegar
2 medium beets, grated
1/4 c. fresh horseradish, grated
(or 2 Tbl prepared horseradish from a jar)
2 tsp salt
1 Tbl sugar
1 large onion, halves and thinly sliced

1) Put the eggs in a roomy glass or crockery bowl or jar, preferably with a tight-fitting lid.  (I actually used a leftover quart plastic container from Whole Foods.)

2) Put the other ingrediens in a non-reactive pot with 1 1/2 c. water and bring to a boil.  Lower the heat so the mixture bubbles gently and cook until the onion is soft.  About 10 minutes.

3) Carefully pout the hot mixture over the eggs and let sit at room temperature for an hour or so until cool.  Cover, then refrigerate at least 24 hours.  They'll keep in the fridge for about a week.

After we ate my first batch, I put the mixture back in a pot and boiled it for a few minutes.  I added maybe a half cup more vinegar and a handful of grated horseradish.  Then I used it again.  It seemed okay to me.