Alison Cook’s egg salad

I eyeball everything and mix it by feel and, at crucial moments, taste, so I don’t have specific measurements.

First I hard-boil four or five eggs by placing them in a small pot of cold water, bringing it to a boil, turning off the heat and letting the water cool as it sits. So, yeah, give yourself some time.

Then I peel the eggs using my newfound technique: placing each one with water to cover in a small, narrow glass, covering the top and shaking until lots of little cracks appear in the shell. They peel easily then. (Hold them under cold running water as you do it if you need to.) Then place the eggs in a broad-bottomed ceramic bowl and slice them longways, crossways and crossways again. Plop in a heaping soup spoon of Duke’s mayonnaise, a teaspoon of Dijon mustard, a big pinch of sea salt flakes, then mix and taste.

Adjust as necessary.

To this basic mix, I add finely minced red onion or green onion and some finely minced pickle. These days it’s usually a couple of fat rounds of Brine Queen Hot & Sweet Flame Pickles, made in Cypress, cut into tiny dice. But you might like dill pickles, or a well-made pickle relish, and some freshly ground pepper. It’s a forgiving recipe unless you mess up by adding too much of the pickled element or the salt.