On July 19, 2008, I was first introduced to the concept of Huevos Haminados. I know it was this date because I went around and bookmarked three different sites/recipes.
Huevos Haminados, which means "baked eggs" in Ladino, a Judeo-Spanish language spoken by Sephardic Jews, are served primarily on Pesach, when eggs are so important to the meal. But because of their long, slow cooking time, they work for any Jewish holiday because of all the prohibitions on cooking/lighting fire.
There are various recipes available, all of them use onion skins and some use coffee grounds. I used this recipe from the Kitchn blog which had the coolest illustrations. I went to the grocery store and asked for onion skins...voila, they gave them to me! And so we proceeded....
First we sorted out some pretty cilantro leaves and David helped me to press them onto the eggs.
and then tie them into old pantyhose, tightly. (Tight is key, I've learned, and skip the seams if you can.)
Put all the onion skins into a pot, add water to cover, and bring to a boil. That was the longest and hardest part....waiting.
After it comes to a boil, add peppercorns and salt, a few glugs of white vinegar, and the eggs. Drop to a simmer. Cover the water with a few glugs of olive oil. Cover and cook for HOURS. We started with one or two and it ended up being three hours before we turned off the stove (I would have left it longer but we were going out) and then I left them sit there while we went out for dinner. When we came back, I couldn't wait any longer - I was hoping they'd be cooled off but they weren't really. It didn't matter....
This is what it looked like:
And this is what came out of that mess:
Tomorrow we're going to taste. I was given advice to serve them with lemon.
I think they might be the coolest looking thing I've ever made.
Pesach is here tomorrow!
May this celebration of freedom bring joy and peace to you and your family...and to the whole world.
9 comments:
I am so glad I didn't see this yesterday, because I would have done it for sure.
The leaf prints are beautiful. I made these a couple of weeks ago for a cooking program at the synagogue but did not do the leaf prints, although I did tell people about them. Yours are a beautiful color. Enjoy them!! Some Sephardic traditions are just so cool!!
chag sameach!!
Those look pretty cool. Chag sameach.
Those eggs were as gorgeous close up as they are on the blog. (And your kids were adorable and it was good seeing you.)
those are awesome! :) nice job.
I was very amused about this blog entry because I know this style of egg-decoration from here. In Germany it is a typical Easter custom to decorate eggs.
hi, phyllis -- i've been making huevoes haminados for years and years. i never heard of using vinegar. do you have any idea what that adds to the process? i'm wondering if it comes from the traditional easter egg coloring recipe of liquid food coloring and vinegar. i started adding the karpas prints about 10 years ago, and now i do an assortment of plain and karpas and pack them as pesach gifts. i start saving egg cartons early in the year, and i print out the directions to include with the eggs. one year i left them in the onion bath so long, they looked exactly like dark chocolate. lynne
These are beautiful. Bookmarking this!
These are so cool! I made them a few weeks ago from "Israeli Kitchen" blog, and they tasted great, but they look amazing with the leaves on - we have to do this over Pesach!
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