Swiss Chard Gratin with Cheese

Recipe by Pille @ Nami-Nami. All photos by Juta Kübarsepp for the September 2014 issue of Kodu ja Aed ("Home and Garden"), an Estonian monthly magazine. I've been their food writer since October 2012. 

There's this wonderful cauliflower cheese recipe that I make pretty regularly, as it's super easy, quick, tasty and flavoursome. It's also gluten-free and low-carb, and I always have some cheese and mustard and cream in the fridge. Early this summer I realised that exactly the same cheese-cream-mustard topping works spectacularly well with Swiss chard stems and leaves. I grow around three or four varieties of Swiss chard in my garden, and they thrive well, so I've got a steady supply of those nutritious leafy greens.

This dish looks especially pretty when you use bright and colourful Swiss chard (also known as mangold, silverbeet, rainbow chard). Here's the selection from my garden:



Swiss chard with cheese and cream
(Juustu-lehtpeedivorm)
Serves 4

 

a good bunch of Swiss chard (about 400-450 grams)
200 ml double cream
1 Tbsp wholegrain mustard
150 g cheese, shredded
salt and black pepper

Separate the ribs/stems from the greens. Cut the ribs into 5 cm/2 inch pieces. Blanch the ribs in lightly salted boiling water for 3-4 minutes, until they soften. Then add the leaves, and cook for another minute. Drain thoroughly.

Mix the cream and mustard, fold in most of the cheese and season with salt and pepper. Add the Swiss chard stems and leaves.

Transfer the mixture into a buttered oven dish, sprinkle the remaining cheese on top.

Bake in the middle of a preheated 200 C/400 F oven for about 30 minutes, until the gratin is lovely golden and crisp on top.

Serve and enjoy.



More Swiss chard gratin recipes:
Swiss chard gratin by Alanna @ A Veggie Venture
Baked Swiss chard stems with olive oil and Parmesan by Kalyn @ Kalyn's Kitchen
Swiss chard gratin with vegan bechamel by Clotilde @ Chocolate and Zucchini
Swiss chard gratin @ Whole Foods
Swiss chard gratin by Phoebe @ Feed Me Phoebe
Swiss chard au gratin @ Rachel Ray
Alice Waters' Swiss chard gratin @ Serious Eats

Cauliflower with tahini dressing and sesame and hemp seeds

It's almost two years since I went to Israel with the lovely David Lebovitz and Ms Marmite Lover, as well as Cambria from The Kitchn and Erin from Serious Eats. We were invited and hosted by Kinetis, and I had the most wonderful week exploring the Israeli culinary scene. One of the most memorable meals during that trip was lunch at Haj Kahil, an Arabic restaurant in Jaffa. (Read David's wonderful review of the amazingly satisfying meal here). The restaurant is focusing on "authentic Arab cuisine with a Galilee orientation", cooked by the Palestine chef Omar Iluwan:



The food was utterly delicious, and I was gorging on the dozen or more mezze dishes, all vegetarian and all utterly delicious. One of the most memorable dishes was a simple cauliflower with tahini (20 NIS, still on the menu). The pairing of cauliflower and tahini was still new to me and it was a match made in heaven. I missed it.

There's a recipe for fried cauliflower with tahini in Yotam Ottolenghi and Sami Tamimi's newst book, Jerusalem, but Haj Kahil's wasn't fried. It was mild and soft, simple cooked cauliflower, dressed with creamy tahini. Just when I was about to start inventing the bicycle again - or trying to recreate the dish I fell in love with in Jaffa - Clotilde posted a recipe for Cauliflower Salad à la Café Pinson. I made the dish with regular cauliflower on the day Clotilde posted the recipe, and have made it almost on a weekly basis since then. It's my favourite way of preparing cauliflower these days, alongside a simply roasted cauliflower.

As always, I've modified the way I make this cauliflower salad. I'm not too keen on flax seeds, either whole or crushed, and apart from the crunch factor, I couldn't see what they'd add to the cauliflower. I used lightly toasted sesame seeds instead - after all, the tahini is made with sesame seeds as well, so it seemed like a nice pairing. Also, hulled raw hemp seeds have a lovely moist and soft bite, so I've been adding these as well (the nutritious hemp seeds also called hemp hearts; you can easily buy them from Amazon, see here, here and here).

(Romanesco) cauliflower with tahini dressing and seeds
(Romaani) lillkapsas tahiinikastmega
Serves 4



1 large cauliflower, regular or Romanesco, cut into florets

Tahini dressing:
3 Tbsp light tahini paste
1 Tbsp freshly squeezed lemon juice
1 tsp cumin seeds, slightly crushed
0.5 tsp fine sea salt
5 Tbsp cold-pressed olive oil

Topping:
toasted sesame seeds
hulled hemp seeds

Bring a large pan of water to boil. Season generously with salt. Add the cauliflower florets and boil for about 7-8 minutes, until cooked, but still with a bit of bite. Drain thoroughly and let cool to room temperature.

Make the tahini dressing. Whisk tahina, salt, lemon juice and cumin seeds until combined, then drizzle in the olive oil, whisking vigorously to create a nice emulsified dressing (Clotilde calls this "vegan mayonnaise"). Pour the dressing over the cooked cauliflower and toss until combined.

Transfer into a serving dish, sprinkle generously with toasted sesame seeds and hulled hemp seeds.

Enjoy either straight away, or keep in the fridge until ready to serve.

Here's a cauliflower version, dressed with tahini and topped with just sesame seeds:

Green beans, Greek style

Today is the Greek independence day, commemorating the start of the War of Greek Independence back in 1821. I'm celebrating with sharing one of my favourite Greek dishes with you.

The recipe has been with me since early 1990s, and I remember clearly that I discovered it from a Finnish women's magazine. Cannot remember the exact date or the name of the magazine, but it was called "kreikkalainen papupata" or Greek bean stew. Since then - and that means for the last 20+ years - I've been making it every now and then. It's versatile - it's lovely when steaming hot, but also nice at room temperature and perfectly edible straight from the fridge. It goes equally well with some bread, or with a grilled steak, it can handle beer, water or wine. My kind of dish, you know :)

Green beans with tomatoes and feta
(Rohelised oad Kreeka moodi)
Serves 3 to 4 as a side dish, or 2 as a main dish



400 - 450 g frozen green beans, trimmed
2 large (red) onions, chopped
2-3 Tbsp olive oil
400 g canned chopped tomatoes
water
1-2 tsp dried Greek oregano
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
fresh flat-leaf/Italian parsley, chopped

To serve:
about 100 g of Greek feta

(If using fresh beans, then trim them first, then boil in plenty of salted water for about 5 minutes. Discard the liquid).

Heat olive oil in a sauté pan. Add the onion and fry gently for about 5 minutes, until the onions start to soften. Don't burn them!

Add the tomatoes, the green beans and some water (I usually just fill the empty tomato tin with water). Season with salt, pepper and oregano. Bring to the boil, then reduce heat and simmer gently for about 20-25 minutes, until the beans are cooked and the tomato sauce thickened. Stir in the parsley.

Transfer the beans and tomato into a serving dish. Crumble some feta cheese on top.

Mascarpone and cottage cheese with raspberries

Trying to reduce the amount of carbohydrates, yet missing something sweet and luscious? Then try this low-carb, gluten-free, wheat-free mascarpone and raspberry pudding - either for breakfast, for dessert or just a quick treat between meals.  It's not dairy-free, however - there's some creamy mascarpone cheese and full-fat cottage cheese in there!

I love the dairy products we get here in Estonia. You get excellent butter, kefir, buttermilk, yoghurt, curd cheese and cottage cheese over here - though the cottage cheese we ate daily in Israel back in 2012 (pictured on the left) was even better. The curds in the Israeli cottage cheese were larger, and much softer than here in Estonia - they really did melt in your mouth!  But apart from that, you cannot fault the Estonian dairy products. We use them a lot and in various delicious ways - just browse through the Estonian recipes on my blog to see all the cakes, desserts and pastries - and even savoury dishes - requiring curd cheese (tvorog/quark/rahka) or the farmers cheese/cottage cheese.

I adopted the recipe from Madbanditten, a popular Danish LCHF-blog. Jane (the blogger) added some sweetener into the dessert as well, which I didn't have nor missed at all - mascarpone is so rich and creamy that it fully satisfies your tastebuds without any added sweetener :)

Simple mascarpone and raspberry pudding
(Kodujuustudessert)
Serves 2

100 g full-fat cottage cheese (also known as farmer's cheese)
100 g mascarpone cheese
0.5 tsp vanilla extract or powder

To serve:
raspberries

Combine cottage cheese and mascarpone in a bowl, add vanilla and mix again. Fold in some raspberries, serve at once or keep covered in the fridge until ready to eat.

Green beans with garlic

Do you tend to prefer fresh vegetables over frozen ones? I guess most people would say "Yes". However, out of season - which depending on your location could be from October till May, like here in Estonia - fresh vegetables aren't always the best choice. That's a message Jamie Oliver is advocating in his latest TV series, Save with Jamie - out of season fresh vegetables are often way past their best, whereas frozen vegetables are harvested at their best and frozen within hours. They're often fresher than the fresh, so to say. They're definitely cheaper as well, helping you to save the pennies!

So here I am, in the middle of Estonian winter, cooking with frozen-fresh green beans, inspired by Jamie. Jamie served these garlicky green beans alongside his secret steak and chips and creamy mushroom gravy (here's the original recipe), I serve these simply as a vegetarian main course or alongside some grilled meat.

#glutenfree #Paleo #LCHF #lowcarb

Green beans with garlic
(Küüslauguoad)
Serves 4

400 g trimmed green beans (frozen)
olive oil
4 to 6 large garlic cloves, peeled and sliced
salt, to taste

Put the frozen green beans into a large frying pan. Add a generous lug of oil, and fry on a medium heat for about 5 minutes, or until the beans defrost and any liquid has evaporated from the bans.

Add the garlic, turn down the heat and cook for another 5-8 minutes, until the beans are crispy and golden brown here and there.

Chia, banana and coconut pudding recipe

It took me a while to like chia seeds. I was well aware of all the benefits of enjoying some chia seeds every now and then (if you're not, then check out this article over at Huffington Post), but they reminded me of frogspawn and I wasn't really interested. Yet somehow a packet of chia seeds did find a way into my kitchen cupboard recently and I've been adding a serving (2 Tbsp) here and there. And you know what - they still look like frogspawn when mixed with liquid and left to stand for a while - but they taste actually nice and I quite enjoy the texture now.

Today's recipe is for a simple banana, chia and coconut pudding. Many bloggers use almond milk (see a list of similar recipes at the end of this post), but I never have that at home, so I use coconut milk instead. Enjoy this for breakfast, dessert or a quick snack.

You'll need an immersion blender for making this pudding.

Banana, chia and coconut pudding
(Banaani-chia-kookosepuding)
Serves 1

1 very ripe banana
100 ml coconut milk
2 Tbsp chia seeds
a dash of vanilla extract

Peel the banana, cut into chunks and place into a tall glass or jug. Add the coconut milk and blent until smooth.
Add the chia seeds, blend for a second, just to distribute the chia seeds evenly. Season to taste with vanilla.
Leave to stand for an hour, so the chia seeds can suck in some of the coconut milk.
Serve with a small spoon.



Similar recipes:
Three-ingredient banana chia pudding @ Run Eat Repeat
Banana chia pudding @ Healthy Living How To
Banana coconut chia seed pudding @ Slender Kitchen
Chia seed breakfast bowl @ Oh She Glows (Angela has great topping suggestsions as well!)

Brussels sprouts with bacon and almonds

Brussels sprouts, yes or no? 

I say yes, especially now, mid-winter. Cheap, cheerful and seasonal!

Here's a dish based on the lovely Nigel Slater's recipe that I found on BBC's website (see here), though I first read about it on this Estonian blog and on this Estonian blog). I still get a fresh batch of Brussels sprouts at my local farmers market almost every weekend, and my family seems to love them. The kids, I must admit, seem to prefer them raw, so I always put a couple aside for them.



Without further ado, here's the recipe. However, do check out this recipe on Nami-Nami, posted just a few months ago - sautéed Brussels sprouts with lemon - that's lovely, too!

Brussels sprouts with bacon and whole almonds
(Rooskapsad peekoni ja mandlitega)
Serves 4 to 6

 


1 kg Brussels sprouts
about 300 g smoked ham or bacon
2 Tbsp butter
150 g whole almonds

Trim the sprouts - cut the stem shorter, remove the ugly outer leaves. Halve the Brussels sprouts.

Cut the ham/bacon into 1 cm dice.

Melt the butter in a large heavy frying pan. Add the ham/bacon and fry over moderate heat, stirring regularly, until the meat is golden and starts to crisp. Add the prepared Brussels sprouts and sauté for 5-6 minutes more over medium high heat, until the cabbage is cooked and begins to brown on edges.

Throw in the almonds and fry for another 2 minutes, just to heat through.

Serve immediately, though I enjoyed nibbling on this dish much later as well.



Brussels sprouts recipes from other foodblogs:
Pisike ja pisut segi (recipe in Estonian)
Taimetoit.ee (recipe in Estonian)
Juustukuningad (recipe in Estonian)
101 Cookbooks
Simply Recipes
Two Peas and their Pod
Smitten Kitchen

Cauliflower rice

Originally posted in January 2013. Still immensely popular at our house!

Have you eaten "cauliflower rice" before? Have you prepared it yourself? What's your favourite cauliflower "rice" recipe?

Kalyn wrote back in 2010 that she realised she's late to the cauliflower rice party. Imagine being then three more years late to the "cauli rice" party!!! I had seen the blog posts here and there, but didn't get around to trying this way of cooking cauliflower until now. We all liked it, and our 2-year old son really-really liked it, so we'll be definitely making this again.

I love cauliflower a lot (see the list of other cauliflower dishes here at Nami-Nami at the end of this post), but I admit this way of preparing cauliflower changes the flavour quite a lot. If I hadn't cooked it myself and someone had offered me a spoonful, I wouldn't have suggested cauliflower at first - texture-wise, it reminded me more of egg fried rice and not grated and fried cauliflower. Perhaps this is the way of introducing cauliflower to those people (men? kids?) who tend to be suspicious of cruciferous vegetables? Perhaps?

Here's my version of cauliflower rice. It's low in carbohydrates, high in fibre, suits vegan, gluten-free and Paleo diets - so a rather universal dish. Cheap as well!


 

Cauliflower rice
(Lillkapsariis)
Serves 4 as a side dish, can be easily halved or doubled




1 large head of cauliflower (about 700 grams)
1 tsp chilli flakes
2 large garlic clove, finely chopped
3-4 Tbsp rapeseed or olive oil
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
a large handful of fresh parsley, finely chopped

Rinse the cauliflower, drain. Shred finely, using the coarse side of your grater.
Heat the oil on a large frying pan over moderate heat.
Add the grated cauliflower, garlic and chilli flakes and fry the cauliflower for about 5 minutes, stirring regularly. Season generously, scatter the parsley on top and serve.

More cauliflower recipes @ Nami-Nami:
Cauliflower cheese with mustard
Cauliflower with creamy pepper and pesto sauce
Roasted cauliflower (over-baked cauliflower)
Roasted cauliflower with bacon and garlic
Spicy cauliflower with tomatoes and Cauliflower with egg and sage butter
Cauliflower with browned butter and breadcrumbs
Cauliflower with peas and cumin
Cauliflower mince and cheese with dill

Some other "cauliflower rice" recipes:
Cauliflower rice with celery and onion @ Elena's Pantry
Cauliflower Spanish rice @ A Veggie Venture
Cauliflower rice with fried onions and sumac @ Kalyn's Kitchen
Cilantro-lime cauliflower rice @ Big Red Kitchen
Paleo Dirty Rice @ Elena's Pantry
Cauliflower chicken fried "rice" @ Stephen Cooks

The Easiest Homemade Cheese Crisp Recipe Ever (gluten-free and low-carb)

I originally blogged about these baked cheese crackers back in early December 2007.  Back then I was teaching at the university during day-time and working as an intern at a restaurant in the evenings. Didn't have much time - or need - to cook at home, so these delicious and exceptionally easy cheese crisps were perfect as a late-night nibble.

Now, more than 6 years and 3 kids later, I still make these every now and then. Cheese is an ingredient I always have lurking in the fridge, as it's pretty versatile - and I love cheese. So whenever I bake something in the oven, I bake a batch of these as well. These are also suitable if you're on a low-carb and/or gluten-free diet. And if you go to sauna on Saturday evenings, like many Estonians do, then these go beautifully with beer.

You can use any semi-hard cheese on hand. I tend to use Eesti juust aka 'Estonian cheese' - a cheese similar to the Danish Havarti cheese which is available pretty much everywhere in the world. Cheddar and Parmesan would work as well, so really, use whatever you have in your fridge.

Easy Baked Cheese Crisps
(Imelihtsad juustuküpsised)

coarsely grated cheese
caraway seeds (optional, but nice!)

Take small heaps of grated cheese and place them on a baking sheet covered with parchment paper. Leave about 5 cm/2 inches between cookies, as they spread during baking.
Sprinkle some caraway seeds on each 'crisp', if you wish. I really love the taste of caraway seeds and find the flavour mingles wonderfully with cheese, but you could use cumin seeds or paprika powder or chilli flakes or anything else you like.
Place in the middle of pre-heated 180 C/350 F oven and bake for 5-7 minutes, until the cheese has melted and turned slightly golden on the edges. Remove the baking sheet from the oven (overbaked cheese is nasty and bitter, so be careful not to bake the crisps/cookies for too long!) and leave to cool.
The cheese crisps harden slightly when cooling.

Serve as an accompaniment to a glass of hõõgvein/mulled wine/glühwein/glögg, or even regular wine or beer.

A recipe for Shakshuka (shakshouka), or eggs nested in spicy tomato sauce

You'll find the recipe for this wonderfully simple and flavoursome basic shakshouka at the end of this post. The colourful selection of hot peppers and tiny tomatoes is from our greenhouse.  


I went to Israel back in June (see disclaimer at the end of this post), and fell in love with shakshuka (also spelled as shakshouka). Shakshuka is a northern African dish, originally from Tunesia or Algeria (depends who you ask from) that has become extremely popular in Israel over the last decades. We were told on several occasion that this is one of the two dishes that every Israeli man knows how to cook (I cannot recall what was the other one. Anyone?). I'm sure Israeli women are pretty good in making this dish as well, but yes, it's mainly men who boast who can make and eat the most fragrant and spicy shakshuka for breakfast :)

As with many traditional dishes, there are as many recipes around as there are cooks.  The hugely popular Yotam Ottolenghi has a version in his second bestselling book, Plenty, using onions and plenty of bell peppers and you can see him making his version of shakshuka in this video recipe on Guardian's website. The guru of Jewish food, Claudia Roden, includes a recipe for shakshouka in her epic The Book of Jewish Food. She notes that  

"This name us used for all kinds of dishes involving fried vegetables with eggs broken on top. A variety of vegetables, from potatoes and broad beans to artichoke hearts and courgettes, are used in Tunesia, where the dish originated, but it is the version with onions, peppers and tomatoes that has been adopted in Israel as a popular evening meal".

Claudia Roden also includes two variations in her book - one with spicy merquez sausage, the other with white Bulgarian cheese.  In another excellent book, Tamarind and Saffron, Claudia Roden provides two recipes, one with the merquez sausage, the other one with peppers and garlic instead of onions, which also happens to be my Allium of choice for this recipe.

Janna Gur - a popular and well-known Israeli food writer whom we had a pleasure of meeting twice during our trip to Israel (she's standing on the far left on this photo) - has included a recipe and several variations of shakshuka in her beautiful The Book of New Israeli Food: A Culinary Journey. Janna claims that there are just three mandatory ingredients - tomatoes, hot sauce and eggs, and her basic recipe includes garlic, fresh and canned tomatoes, seasonings and eggs (note: NO peppers!). She also includes varieties with onions and peppers, with spicy merquez or small cocktail sausages, "the Israeli Army shakshuka" with canned corn, baked beans and sausages, as well as the mild tomatoless shakshuka with spinach and feta.

Last, but not least, there's a recipe for shakshuka in Rebbetzin G. H. Halpern's rather humorously written Confessions of a Kitchen Rebbetzin, using plenty of bell peppers (green, yellow and red), garlic cloves, eggs and spices. Rebbetzin goes as far as claiming that shakshouka is probably the dish Israelis enjoy eating most:

"What Israelis really dig is Shakshuka - a well seasoned North African dish of eggs in hot tomato sauce. The best and nicest (and most barbaric) way to eat it is straight from the pan, no utensils needed, by dipping thick chunks of simple bread."

Here are some of the shakshukas we  enjoyed during our trip to Israel*. First off, the large Shakshuka at restaurant Cordelia (Chef Nir Zook), Old Jaffa, Israel. Challah bread (on the background) is perfect for scooping up the spicy tomato and egg dish:
 

Here's a "single portion" shakshuka at Manta Ray, Jaffa, Israel - about to be devoured by the colourful Ms Marmite Lover. Note the thin layers of grilled cheese on top of the shakshuka - wonderful, if not traditional, addition. Another fellow traveller, David Lebovitz, mentions shakshuka in his extensive post about Israeli breakfast.
 

As the eggs play such an important role in this dish, it's best to use the freshest organic/free-range eggs you can afford. Luckily, our backyard chicken keep us well stocked with eggs at the moment and of course, I used eggs from our own chicken. Here are our Orpington chickens, Buffy and Fluffy, earlier this year. They're excellent layers:


My recipe below is pretty basic - just garlic, tomatoes, seasonings and eggs. Although you can use fresh tomatoes during the summer time, I'll include canned tomatoes in the recipe - the fresh tomato season is coming quickly to an end here in Estonia, and you wouldn't want to use the flavourless winter supermarket tomatoes here. You'll find links to fancier and more elaborate versions below. Somehow I prefer this dish to be very basic.

As hinted above, you need a good bread - no pita bread (that's for eating hummus!), but a nice challah or a bloomer or a crusty country bread to scoop up all the shakshuka from the pan!

A simple shakshuka recipe 
(Shakshuka ehk teravas tomatikastmes küpsetatud munad)
Serves one

1 Tbsp oil
1 large garlic clove, crushed
200 g chopped tomatoes
a generous pinch of chilli flakes or a scant teaspoon of harissa
a pinch of ground cumin
a pinch of ground caraway seeds
salt and freshly ground black pepper
2 eggs

Heat oil in a small frying pan over medium heat. Add garlic and fry gently, until garlic is golden.
Add the chopped tomatoes and the seasonings, stir, cover and let simmer for 10-15 minutes, until the tomato sauce is well flavoured and slightly thickened. Taste for seasonings - add more chilli or other spices, if necessary.
Using a spoon, make two dents into the tomato sauce and break an egg into each one. Sprinkle some salt on top and heat for another 5-6 minutes, until the egg white is thickened and the egg yolk is half-cooked (if you prefer your egg yolk fully cooked, cover the pan or transfer it under a hot grill for a few minutes.

Other foodbloggers writing about shakshouka (in English): 
Kitchen Parade (September 2012; Alanna hosted me generously - and fed me, of course - in June 2008. Do check out her blog, if you're not yet familiar with it)
The Wednesday Chef (September 2006)
Smitten Kitchen (April 2010; Deb crumbles feta cheese on top of her shakshouka)
The Bojon Gourmet (October 2011)
The Leftover Queen (May 2012)
The Shiksha in the Kitchen  (July 2010)
A Sweet Spoonful (March 2012, incl. fennel!)
Cook Republic (May 2011)

Other foodbloggers writing about shakshouka (in Estonian):
Ise tehtud. Hästi tehtud. (August 2011)

 * Disclaimer: I spent six days in Israel in late June/early July as a guest of a non-profit social start-up Kinetis, more specifically their Vibe Israel programme. This particular trip hosted five international food bloggers and writers, introducing them to the multifaceted and pluralist Israeli culture and cuisine. 

See other posts about my trip to Israel.

Cottage Cheese and Egg Salad

Egg Salad (called 'munavõi' or 'egg butter' in Estonian) is a popular sandwich spread in Estonia. The traditional version contains just softened butter and boiled eggs, seasoned with salt. However, I've come to prefer this slightly lighter version over the last few years. In addition to the butter and eggs, this version contains cottage cheese or farmer's cheese. As far as the herbs go, I love chives here, but dill, parsley, savory would work as well.

It can be kept in a fridge for a few days, covered, but it tastes best when freshly made. If you do make it in advance, then bring to the room temperature 15-20 minutes before serving. Serve with boiled potatoes, on home-baked rye bread, or as a sandwich filling.

Cottage Cheese and Egg Salad
(Kodujuustu-munavõi)
Serves four to six



3 to 4 eggs
100 g butter, softened
150 g cottage cheese
sea salt
fresh chives, finely chopped

Hard-boil the eggs using your favourite method, cool to room temperature, then peel. Separate the cooked egg yolks and whites.
Place the butter and egg yolks into a bowl and use the back of a wooden spoon to cream the mixture (that gives the gorgeous yellow colour!).
Finely chop the cooked egg whites, stir into the rest of the ingredients alongside the chives. Season with salt.