Smoked Salmon and Egg Tartines

Growing up my parents would buy bagels and lox for us on random weekend mornings.  I was always so excited when I would come down for breakfast and see the bag of bagels on the counter with cream cheese and lox in the fridge.  Once I moved to NYC all of a sudden bagels with cream cheese and lox became insanely accessible.  And then I discovered that lox and scrambled eggs work really well together too.  I guess I should say thanks to the guys at Barney Greengrass for teaching me that.  I don't know why smoked salmon and eggs work so well together, but they do.  This morning for breakfast I was thinking about making scrambled eggs with some smoked salmon that I picked up from Zabar's, but then I decided that I wanted to make an egg salad with smoked salmon instead. So that's what I did.  I had some fresh dill that I picked up for another recipe and dill is such a natural pairing with salmon so I threw that in.  I don't like too much mayo in my egg salad, so I added in some whole-grain mustard, which I do with every salad, including tuna salad.  You don't want more than a touch of mustard because you don't want the flavor to fight with the flavors of the smoked salmon and the dill, but a little mustard is the perfect touch for me.

Recipe after the jump!

Smoked Salmon and Egg Tartines

INGREDIENTS:

4 large eggs (I always use all four whites, but discard one of the yolks)

2 tsp mayonnaise

1 tsp whole-grain mustard

1 tsp minced fresh dill, plus sprigs for garnish

s&p

2 slices 7-grain or whole wheat sandwich bread

smoked salmon, cut into thin slices

Hard boil the eggs.  Add eggs to a large saucepan and cover with at least 1-2 inches of cold water.  Add a pinch of salt to the water.  Bring the water to a boil.  Lower the heat and simmer for 1 minute.  Cover, and remove from heat.  Let sit covered for 12 minutes.  Drain hot water from pan and place the eggs in an ice bath to cool briefly.  Carefully peel the eggs under running water. 

Finely chop hard boiled eggs.  Transfer the chopped eggs to a bowl and add the mayonnaise, mustard and dill.  Combine lightly with a fork. Season to taste with s&p.

Toast the bread.  Layer salmon on each piece of bread so that there is a single layer of salmon covering the bread, spoon on the egg salad, then garnish with a sprig of dill.

Serve.