Elegant Egg Salad With Cashews And Curry

I grew up in Great Neck, Long Island, a suburb of New York City. When I lived there Great Neck was a small village with a dairy and a charming railroad station that looked like something from a toy train set. Many television personalities, including Perry Como, lived there because it was so close to the city.

Our house did not have air conditioning and sometimes the nights were unbearably hot. Yet I remember the steamy Long Island summers fondly. We often went to Jones Beach on the South shore. My mother would pack a lunch for us, sweetened ice tea with orange juice (she liked it better than lemon), some fruit, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, and egg salad sandwiches.

We always rented a large beach umbrella. After my brother and I had played in the water we would eat lunch in the shade of the canvas umbrella and wiggle our toes in the sand. Since then, egg salad sandwiches have symbolized summer and, if I close my eyes and think hard, I can almost taste them and smell the sea.

Where did egg salad come from?

Eggs are one of the oldest foods. Recipes for cooking eggs go back centuries. I have about 100 cook books and looked up egg salad in some of them. One book had a recipe for "Old Time Egg Salad," a true salad made with torn lettuce leaves, thin slices of red onion, sliced hard boiled eggs, tossed with a cider vinegar and oil dressing.

As the years passed home cooks added chopped pickles, black olives, green olives, green pepper, red pepper, anchovies and other ingredients to their egg salad. I have done the same. Sometimes I made "ordinary" egg salad, but I prefer Elegant Egg Salad with Cashews and Curry. Here is my recipe.

INGREDIENTS

4 large eggs, hard boiled

1/2 cup celery, diced

2 green onions, white and green parts, diced

2 tablespoons fresh parsley, finely chopped

1/2 cup salted cashew pieces

1/3 cup light mayonnaise

1/8 teaspoon salt

1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice

1 teaspoon curry powder

shredded lettuce

METHOD

Hard boil eggs and chill well. Peel eggs, cut in half, and mash with a fork. Add celery, green onions, parsley, and cashews. Combine mayonnaise, salt, lemon juice, and curry powder. Pour dressing over egg mixture and toss gently. Spread filling on whole wheat, five grain, or Italian bread and top with shredded lettuce. Makes 5-6 sandwiches.

Elegant Egg and Shrimp Salad: Omit two eggs. Add 1/2 cup cooked, chopped shrimp.

Elegant Egg and Bacon Salad: Omit one egg. Add 1/3 cup precooked bacon pieces.

Copyright 2007 by Harriet Hodgson