Steakhouse Deviled Eggs

Ingredients

6 large eggs

1 teaspoon baking soda, optional

6 tablespoons mayonnaise

1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce

2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice

Fine sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

3 slices thick cut bacon

2/3 cup fresh breadcrumbs 1 sheet nori (dried seaweed)

Method

Slice each egg in half lengthwise and drop the cooked yolks into a medium mixing bowl. (Refrigerate the whites if making ahead.)

With a rubber spatula or a wide wooden spoon, paddle the yolks until smooth.

Add the mayonnaise, Worcestershire sauce, lemon juice, 1/4 teaspoon pepper and a pinch of salt, and stir until light and fluffy. Transfer the yolk mixture to a clean quart size plastic bag. (Refrigerate if making ahead.)

Cook the bacon until lightly crisp in a skillet set over medium heat, 8 to 10 minutes. Remove the bacon from the skillet, reserving 2 tablespoons of the fat, and finely mince. Add the breadcrumbs to the pan, season with a pinch each of salt and pepper, and cook over medium heat, stirring, until they turn golden and crisp, about 5 minutes.

Combine the breadcrumbs with the bacon.

Holding the nori sheet with tongs, toast it over an open flame (or if you have an electric stove, over a burner set on high) until it shines and becomes brittle, about 30 seconds.

With scissors, cut the nori into a thick stack and then into tiny pieces, as small as the bacon. Add 1/3 up of the nori to the bacon mixture.

When you’re ready to serve the eggs, preheat the oven to 325 degrees F. Arrange the egg white halves on an oven safe platter. Push the filling to the bottom of its bag and snip a 1/2-inch opening in one of the bottom corners. Squeeze the yolk filling into the egg whites. Warm the eggs in the oven until the yolk mixture turns soft and luscious, about 5 minutes.

Cover the eggs with a dense smattering of the bacon-nori crumbles, and serve.

Chef’s Note

If you’re making these eggs for people who you worry might not take to the nori, rest assured that mixing dried seaweed with bacon is a very good way to make its introduction.

If the eggs you’re using are super fresh (as farm fresh eggs sometimes are), add 1 tsp. baking soda to the cooking water.

The alkalinity of the soda makes them easier to peel. (This, courtesy of food scientist Harold McGee.)