Life is Great

Best Egg Salad

Recipe modified from this 101 Cookbook's Egg Salad Sandwich.

Yield: If it's up to me, not enough egg salad. This fills about 4 sandwiches.

• 6 large eggs, room temperature
• 1-2 tablespoons full fat/Greek yogurt
• Salt and pepper
• 2 stalks scallions, thinly slices
• 1/2 bunch chives, chopped
• 1/2 teaspoon whole grain mustard
• 1/4 teaspoon smoked paprika

Place the eggs in a pot and cover with cold water by a 1/2-inch or so. Bring to a gentle boil. Now turn off the heat, cover, and let sit for about 6-7 minutes. Immediately place the eggs into a big bowl of ice water for about 3-4 minutes. Crack and peel each egg, place in a medium mixing bowl.

Add 1 tablespoon of the yogurt, a few generous pinches of salt and pepper, and mash with a fork. Mix just enough to break down some of the eggs, leaving some bigger pieces for texture. The soft yolks will add to the moisture, add more yogurt only if necessary.

Stir in the scallions, chives, mustard and paprika. Taste, and adjust the seasoning, adding more salt and pepper if needed. Spread over toasted sourdough or buttery croissant for complete satisfaction.

Blood Orange Chiffon Cake

Recipe modified from this Pandan Chiffon Cake.

Yield: One 25cm 5-inches tall cake.

• 180 grams cake/top flour
• ¼ tablespoon baking of soda
• ¼ teaspoon salt
• 180 grams castor sugar, halved
• 160 milliliters blood orange juice
• grated zest of 2 blood oranges
• 8 eggs, separated
• 6 tablespoon corn oil

Pre-heat oven to 170°C and position a wire rack at the lower third rack. Prepare a clean 25 cm chiffon cake tin, do not grease.

Sift the flour and baking soda into a small bowl, add in the salt. In a separate large mixing bowl, whisk the egg yolks with the corn oil to form an emulsion. Add the blood orange juice and orange zest. Mix well before adding half (90 grams) of the sugar and whisk till sugar has melted. Pour the mixture into the dry ingredients and whisk well into a smooth batter, there should be no lumps. Set aside.

On medium-high speed of a stand or hand held mixer, whisk the egg whites. Start adding the remaining sugar once the egg whites begin to foam, gradually in 3 additions. Beat till the meringue is smooth and glossy, with stiff peaks. Be careful not to over-beat the egg whites.

Immediately stir in approximately 1/3 of the meringue into the flour batter. With a flexible rubber or silicon spatula, fold in the meringue gently and mix well. Once a roughly homogeneous mixture is achieved, add the rest of the meringue and repeat the gentle, light-handed folding process till the cake batter is well combined. Scoop from the bottom of the bowl to ensure no meringue or flour batter is left unmixed. Do not beat or overwork the batter as this will knock out the air you've put into the meringue.

Pour the cake mixture into the cake tin. Using your spatula, dip it into the batter right to the bottom and make circles around the tin twice. This is to remove any large air bubbles possibly trapped while pouring in the cake batter. Bake at 170°C for 10 minutes. Lower the temperature to 160°C and bake for another 45 to 50 minutes or until cake is done. The cake tester should come out clean. Don't fret if the top of your cake cracks a little, this is normal.

Remove the cake from the oven and immediately overturn it to cool completely, up to 2 hours. I like to do this over an upturned funnel as the legs of the chiffon cake tin are not long enough to avoid the top of the cake touching its resting surface - the cake should rise to the same level or slightly higher than the center tube. You can also use a narrow necked bottle but ensure that it's stable enough to support the weight of the cake. Release the cake by running a sharp, thin knife along the sides of the cake tin and subsequently the bottom of the tube. The cake is meant to be served upside down as it is heavier on the top.