Kazia Jankowski - big world | small kitchen

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Picnics in the Park

On the first warm Saturday of the season, a group of friends and I headed to the park. My friends arrived before I did, and they spread blankets over barely green grass and plunked themselves in the warm, spotty shade of trees with new leaves. Babies sat between mommies. Daddies gathered at the edge of the blankets talking about the stuff that new daddies rarely get a chance to talk about.

This was a BYOS (bring your own sandwich) affair, and soon, it came time to eat.  Meaty Italian sandwiches were pulled out of crinkly white paper. Tupperware lids were lifted off of tender slices of cranberry-walnut bread stuffed with turkey. In no time, I had sandwich envy. With no kid or husband to report to, I’d forgotten to bring a sandwich (even though the invitation, sent by a very organized mommy, reminded me to do so). I watched the slices of salami and turkey slowly disappear and shook my head. I knew the perfect sandwich for this occasion: Egg salad.

My affection for egg salad started early, with a simple recipe. My mom, who’d grown up in a 1950s Southern California home fond of Jello salads, often made egg salad. When I was young, she would mix hardboiled eggs, mayo, apple cider vinegar, salt, and pepper. This was a tasty egg salad that would never offend—and never excite. I lived on this egg salad until my junior year of college, when I studied abroad in Chile. That year, with few friends and tongue-tied speaking a foreign language, I read a lot of Spanish cooking magazines.

One day, flipping through the colorful glossy pages, I came across a recipe for an egg salad that called for capers and tarragon. Capers? Tarragon? In egg salad? I wasn’t sure, but since I had no other plans for that afternoon, I thought I’d give the recipe a try. I boiled eggs. I minced juicy capers, long silvery leaves of tarragon, and crisp chives, under a dull, rental-house knife. I stirred all the ingredients together and dug in. The first bite tasted as if I were snacking in an herb garden. As I continued eating, the sweet, anise-like flavor of tarragon and the saltiness of the capers lingered, and I savored. This was a grown-up egg salad.

And at that first picnic of the year, I wish I had one. So when I left the young families in the park, I went directly home to my kitchen. With bright sunshine flooding my apartment, I did what I did all those years ago in Chile. I chopped eggs and herbs (this time with a sharp knife) and made Spanish egg salad, full of spring flavors. I piled herb-accented salad onto a baguette. Future picnics, fear not. I won’t arrive sandwich-less again. I will have this Spanish egg salad sandwich, ready to take out and eat at the first sound of crinkling sandwich paper.

Spanish Egg Salad Sandwich
Makes 2 sandwiches

Tarragon, chives, and capers put a touch of fresh Spanish flavor into this egg salad. I served the salad on a baguette, because that’s what Spaniards would do. But a croissant or soft slices of sourdough bread would also be delicious.

4 hardboiled eggs, peeled and diced
¼ cup mayonnaise
2 tablespoons capers, minced
1 tablespoon minced chives
1 tablespoon freshly squeezed lemon juice
2 teaspoons roughly chopped tarragon
¼ teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon freshly ground pepper
Small baguette
2 leaves of lettuce, cleaned

In a medium bowl, combine eggs, mayonnaise, capers, chives, lemon juice, tarragon, salt, and pepper. Stir until combined.

Cut a sandwich-size serving of baguette. Split lengthwise, and remove some of the soft bread crumb. (This will allow the egg salad to sit better in the sandwich.) Spoon half the egg salad on bread; top with lettuce and other half of bread. Repeat for remaining sandwich.

For printable recipe, click here.

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