It's Easter egg time at our house. Last year we brought you the story of Huevos Haminados, a Passover tradition of dying eggs with onion skins. This year, I decided to try it with both yellow and red onions, on white and brown eggs. The result was a gentle palate of reds and browns.
My favorites were the chocolaty brown eggs that came from dying brown eggs with red skins.
This is a great, natural way to make subtly beautiful Easter (or Passover) eggs. As to what to do with all those left-over onions? Check out this post we ran last week, asking that same question.
Onion-Skin Easter Eggs
makes one dozen
12 medium eggs at room temperature
12 onions
3 tablespoons white vinegar
2 teaspoons olive oil, or other edible oil
Clean the eggs so there are no particles sticking to their shells.
Chip or peel away the dry skins from the onions. Reserve onions for another use. In a stainless steel saucepan, boil 4 1/2 cups water, onion skins and vinegar. When it boils, turn heat down to low and simmer, covered, for 30 minutes. Remove from heat and let cool to room temperature (I put the pot on my fire escape and it cooled off in about 20 minutes.)
Pour mixture through a fine-mesh strainer into another stainless saucepan, or into a bowl then back into the original pan if that's all you have. For the dying, it's best to use a pan with a 9" diameter, like a Dutch Oven. Remember to use a stainless steel pan to avoid staining. Arrange the room-temperature eggs in the pan in one layer and carefully pour the cooled dye over them.
Bring liquid to an easy boil over medium heat. Then reduce to low and cover. Simmer for 10 minutes, then start checking for color by gently raising an egg out with a slotted spoon. It may take up to 20 minutes to get the right color. Do not cook for more than 20 minutes. (If, after 20 minutes, the eggs are not a deep enough color, remove pot from heat, cool to room temperature, then place in refrigerator until desired color is reached.)
Remove eggs with a slotted spoon and cool on racks. When cool enough to handle, massage in a little olive oil to each, then polish with a paper towel. Keep in refrigerator until time to eat (or hide.)
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So pretty. I was introduced to this technique by my Romanian coworkers. They go a step further and hold little leaves to the eggs with panty hose as they dye them, creating silhouettes of the leaves.
Wouldn't boiling the eggs for 20 minutes over cook them?
I dye my eggs with onion skins, but I use a different method. I wrap raw eggs with onion skins softened in warm water. I make sure the entire egg is covered, then I wrap in cheese cloth and tie off with twine to make sure the skins stay on they eggs. Then I put the eggs in water to cover with a couple Tablespoons of vinegar. I bring the pan to a boil, turn off the heat, cover and let sit 15 minutes. The eggs turn out mottled and very pretty and they are perfectly cooked. No gray rings around the yolks.
Hey! My Serbian friend taught me the same method, art! The detail you can get in the leaf silhouettes is fantastic -- delicate veins, edge texture. So beautiful. The one time I made them myself I went to my supermarket and asked the produce guys if I could root through the onion bin for stray skins so I didn't end up with a dozen naked onions. They thought I was crazy, but were very nice about it... And stuffing the eggs into the panty hose is particularly amusing -- you end up with a long panty hose 'sausage' with knots between each egg. Try it!
i wish i had read this before i dyed mine with food coloring. i LOVE those earthy colors!
I tried this and wound up with lovely terracotta colored eggs. I made a giant batch of caramelized onions (for the freezer) at the same time, avoiding the naked onion problem.
That panty hose technique is genius!
I used onion peels and flowers for a beatifull result. See www.thefirst8days.com for pictures and how to do it. My mother taught me it and her mother did to her etc.
www.thefirst8days.com
My grandmother also did the method described by MiyaOnFiya. Grandmother would save her onion skins through the year to use at Easter.
As for the onions, you can keep them in a bowl of water in the fridge for up to a week (changing the water each day). This also keeps the onions from making you cry! Bonus!!