Deviled Eggs with Sun Dried Tomatoes and Fresh Dill

My husband and I are originally from India but our backgrounds are quite contrasting because we were brought up in families that followed two different religions. When we got married, rather than choose one religion over the other, we chose to follow no organized religion. Our kids were brought in a completely non-religious household but since they grew up in the US, over the course of their childhood, we were forced to follow at least some religious customs. So although we didn’t go for midnight mass, we used to trim a Christmas tree every year and we’d buy them some Christmas presents; or if we were invited to an Indian family’s place for the Hindu festival of Diwali, they get dressed up in the traditional Indian clothes, or if we were invited to a friend’s place for Passover, we’d sit at the Seder table and follow all their customs. For a while, when my daughter was about ten years old, she even took to regularly attending a Unitarian Church with a friend’s family. As a teenager my son dated a Catholic girl and sometimes he’d attend the Sunday mass with her.  Sometimes, people don’t understand how we can be a non-religious family and ask me to my face what kind of kids I could have brought up in a non-religious atmosphere.  I always reply “I brought them up to be good people, with a strong grounding in morality, tolerance and kindness towards other human beings.”  For my family, religious occasions are less about following rituals and more about sharing love and kindness towards one and another.  Of course, since food plays such a huge role in our lives, most of our traditions surrounding religious festivals have now devolved down to associating certain dishes with certain festivals. So on Christmas Eve, I usually bake a ham, or for Diwali I make an elaborate Indian meal, or for Eid I make some of the dishes I learnt from my mother-in-law and for Easter I make Deviled Eggs.   Now that both my kids are at college and just my husband and I are left at home even these elaborate dinners have dwindled down to mere tokens.
This morning, for Easter brunch I made just four deviled eggs. It feels strange to be cooking for just two people but over the past year, I have been forced to learn to cook for just the two of us. In contrast with previous years when we’d have some friends and their kids over for an Easter Egg Hunt and then follow that with a substantial brunch, this morning I made a small helping of Deviled Eggs for my husband and I. I flavored the eggs with some sundried tomatoes and fresh dill. The idea for this combination came to me just this morning and they came out really good! I will have to make these for the kids the next time they come home from college!

Ingredients:

1.    Four hard-boiled eggs
2.    1.5 tablespoons of mayonnaise
3.    6-8 sundried tomatoes
4.    One tablespoon of BLT cream cheese (I found this at Whole Foods but you can also use just plain cream cheese and increase the amount of sundried tomatoes to compensate for the flavor).
5.    A bunch of fresh dill weed
6.    1 teaspoon of sharp Dijon Mustard
7.    A pinch of salt
8.    A pinch of freshly ground black pepper

Directions:

1.    Peel the eggs and cut them in halves.

2.    Using a small spoon, scoop out the yolks from the eggs.

3.    In a medium sized bowl, mix the following ingredients – mayonnaise, Dijon mustard, cream cheese, cooked egg yolks, salt and pepper.

4.    Finely chop the sundried tomatoes and add them to the bowl.

5.    Finely chop the dill weed (keep some leaves aside for garnishing) – the chopped leaves should be close to two tablespoons.

6.    Using a spoon, mix all the ingredients of bowl. Mash all the egg yolks and mix everything thoroughly to make the yolk filling.

7.    Using a spoon scoop out the yolk filling and place enough of it the hollowed out egg whites to make a little ball. If you are good at piping out of pastry bag, you can do this process with a pastry bag instead. My pastry decorations skills suck, so I just used a spoon to fill out the egg whites.
8.    Garnish each egg half with a small sprig of dill weed on top.
9.    Serve cold or at room temperature. I enjoyed mine with a frothy cup of espresso!
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