Gabrielle’s Deviled Pickled Eggs

Many of us are familiar with hard-cooked eggs pickled in sweet and tangy brine, sometimes tinted magenta with pickled beet brine. That’s the idea here but instead of beets, food culture preservationist Gabrielle E.W. Carter colors and flavors the brine with beautiful dried hibiscus blossoms like those used to make herbal tea. They are available in stores and markets that carry groceries from around the world. 

Although the pickled eggs are plenty good on their own, Gabrielle takes them a step further by using them in place of plain eggs when making deviled eggs. The results are delicious and stunning. 

It’s all in the timing: The hibiscus pickled eggs must spend several days in the brine before they’re ready to become deviled eggs. Cooks once used pickling as a way to preserve eggs, and we still appreciate that they keep in the fridge for weeks. 

Makes 12 halves

Ingredients

• 1 batch hibiscus pickled eggs (recipe below)
• 2 tablespoons sweet pickle relish
• 1 tablespoon yellow ballpark mustard
• 1 teaspoon hot sauce, or to taste
• 3 to 6 tablespoons mayonnaise, as needed
• Kosher salt
• Ground black pepper
• Chopped Calabrian chiles, for drizzling
• Smoked paprika, for dusting

Directions

Split the eggs lengthwise. Place the yolks in a medium bowl. Arrange the whites on a serving plate. 

Mash the yolks with a fork. Stir in the relish, mustard and hot sauce. Add enough mayonnaise to make a creamy, thick filling that will hold its shape in the egg whites. Season with salt and pepper. Taste to ensure the flavors are balanced and suit you. 

Spoon the filling into the whites. Top each with a little drizzle of chopped Calabrian chiles and their oil. Dust the tops with smoked paprika. Garnish with some of the shallot and/or peppers from the pickling brine, if you like. Serve at room temperature or lightly chilled.

Hibiscus Pickled Eggs

Ingredients

• 2 cups water, divided
• 1/2 cup dried hibiscus flowers
• 1 cup apple cider vinegar
• 2 chiles, such as red jalapeño or serrano, cut into rounds or quartered lengthwise
• 1 shallot, cut into thin rounds or slivers
• 2 tablespoons pickling spice
• 2 large bay leaves
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1/2 cup sugar, or to taste
• 6 large eggs, hard-cooked and peeled

Directions

Bring the water to a boil in a small saucepan over high heat. Stir in the hibiscus flowers. Remove from the heat, cover and let steep for 20 minutes. Drain and discard the solids. Return the liquid to the saucepan. 

Stir in the vinegar, chiles, shallot, pickling spices, bay leaves and salt. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Reduce the heat and let simmer for 5 minutes. 

Add the sugar and stir until dissolved. Taste for balanced flavor, and add more salt, sugar and/or vinegar, if needed. 

Pour half of the liquid into a large sterilized jar with a tight-fitting lid. Add the eggs to jar, and then fill the jar with the remaining liquid, including the solids, making sure the eggs are submerged. 

Cover and refrigerate at least one week before serving. Store refrigerated for up to one month.

Gabrielle E.W. Carter is a multi-disciplinary artist and cultural preservationist who uses Diasporic and local food as a vehicle to reimagine wealth, marginalized food systems and inheritance. Her work uses material culture to engage audiences both on screen and around the table. 

Carter created and directed “The Seeds We Keep,” a short film commissioned by Oxford American that explores the questions that ground her work and explore her Rural Imagination. In 2018, she returned to her family’s homeplace in Eastern North Carolina, where she is archiving her own familial foodways. Carter’s recipes and storytelling have been featured in “The New York Times,” “Wall Street Journal,” “The Washington Post” and “The Smithsonian.” 

She also co-founded the North Carolina based Black farmer CSA, Tall Grass Food Box, a platform to support and encourage the sustainability of Black farmers, by increasing their visibility and securing space for them in the local marketplace.

Sheri Castle, award-winning food writer and cooking teacher, is known for melding culinary expertise, storytelling and humor, so she can tell a tale while making a memorable meal. Her creative, well-crafted recipes and practical advice inspire people to cook with confidence and enthusiasm. She's written a tall stack of cookbooks and her work appears in dozens of magazines. In 2019, the Southern Foodways Alliance named Sheri among Twenty Living Legends of Southern Food, calling her The Storyteller.

Sheri says that she's fueled by great ingredients and the endless pursuit of intriguing stories, usually about the role that food plays in our lives, families, communities and culture.

When she steps away from the kitchen or a local farm, Sheri enjoys spending quiet time at her home near Chapel Hill. She hails from the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina.