To devil a person means to harass or worry them. To devil a food -- now that's something altogether more delightful.
The "Oxford Companion to Food" says the term "deviled" was first used in reference to food in the 18th century, and that it refers to food "cooked with fiery hot spices or condiments."
In other words, making food that is as hot as Hades.
Look up deviled in the dictionary as it applies to food and you'll find that deviling is described in general terms as making foods with spicy seasoning, such as hot sauces, peppers or cayenne.
Also, many deviled recipes call for bringing a bite or tanginess to the dish, from mustards to vinegars and Worcestershire sauce.
Then there's sweet devil's food cake. This dish name reportedly comes from its sinfully chocolatey flavor and the slight reddish hue of the cocoa powder used to make it.
Deviling dishes usually comes up during the spring and summer when we're boiling eggs and deviling them into wonderful two-bit snacks.
Still it's Halloween, so we thought we'd take a look a few ways to whip up a little delicious devilment in the kitchen with deviled crab, ham, eggs - and cake, too.
Dig in.
When I was a kid, I loved Underwood Deviled Ham, with the little red devil holding his pitchfork and waving to me on the label. (The company trademarked the friendly evil spirit in the 1870s and it is now the oldest food trademark in the United States.)
I'd spread the spicy ham on saltines as an afternoon snack. Now I only buy it at the start of hurricane season as one of those items to put in my storm prep box.
You can make your own deviled ham at home. Try it with already spiced ham, like Chisesi Brother's Cajun Ham, if you want a good kick. Be cautious with salt because ham already is salty.
You can do this treatment to many kinds of proteins. My husband's mother made her chicken this way. She ground up the protein and then seasoned it into a delicious spread.
This recipe is adapted from one at Foodnetwork.com.
Deviled ham
Makes 2-1/2 cups
1 pound smoked ham, cut into 1-inch cubes
1/4 cup mayonnaise, plus more as needed
1/2 cup chopped onion
2 tablespoons fresh parsley
3 tablespoons brown sugar
2 tablespoons hot sauce
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
2 teaspoons paprika
1/2 teaspoon turmeric
1 teaspoon yellow mustard
Salt, to taste
Pepper, to taste
Place ingredients in food processor and blend until smooth. Test for spreadability; add more mayonnaise as needed. Serve spread on crackers, or use to make sandwiches.
Keeps in airtight container in refrigerator for a few days.
This deviled recipe from Jason Seither of Seither's Seafood in Harahan comes from a place of love: "When I was a kid my dad would come home from fishing with a couple bushels of live crabs and we would have crab boils in my backyard with all of our family and friends."
"After everyone had their fill of crabs, we would still sit around the table and pick the crab meat and the next day my mom would make deviled crabs," he said.
"This was one of my favorite things my mom cooked for us," he said. "What I liked most about my mom's crabs was that she used a lot of crab meat and put the crab stuffing back into the crab shell for a great presentation. And, for some reason, it just tastes better that way.
"It is a time-consuming process, but very rewarding at the end."
Denise Seither's Deviled Crabs
Makes 1 dozen
1 dozen boiled crabs
1/2 cup butter
1 finely chopped medium onion
1 finely chopped bell pepper
3 stalks of celery, minced
4 toes garlic toes, minced
2 cups of crab or seafood stock (see recipe in instructions below)
1 teaspoon hot sauce
1 teaspoon Italian seasoning
Fresh cut parsley
Salt, to taste
Pepper, to taste
1 loaf of stale French bread, chopped fine
Panko bread crumbs
Pick all meat from the crabs, including claws. Set meat aside.
Place all empty shells in pot, cover with water, about 4 cups, and boil until water is reduced by half. Strain crab stock and set aside. Should be about 2 cups.
Clean crab body shells. Set aside.
Add butter to saucepan, add onion, bell pepper, celery and garlic. Simmer about 3 minutes.
Add crab stock, hot sauce, Italian seasoning, parsley and salt and pepper. Bring seasoning to a boil.
Add crab meat and when it starts to boil again, turn off heat. Add bread crumbs to mixture until stuffing is dry enough to form patties.
Place stuffing in the crab shell. Sprinkle with bread crumbs and bake for 30 minutes in a 350-degree oven.
Hillary Guttman's mother's birthday is Thursday (Nov. 2) and this Devil's Food Cake is the one she insists be served at her celebration. The recipe is from Susan Lafaye, Guttman's mother. It's one she wrote down and included in a "mom's recipes binder" that she gave to each of her three children.
"This is the one she always made for me when I was a kid growing up, and she always says, 'I have the best chocolate cake recipe,'" Guttman said.
Guttman's mother helped her start the Laurel Street Bakery, which moved to 2701 S. Broad St. in 2013.
"She baked all the time for us. Quite a few of the recipes that I use today are some variation of ones she used to use -- like our cinnamon roll recipe is a recipe she would make at home, and our sand tarts, like Mexican wedding cookies, we used to make every Christmas for as long as I can remember."
The cake is rich and chocolatey, but not too sweet.
"It just has a really good, dense, chocolate flavor," Guttman said. "It's a really hard cake to mess up, but it's really flavorful. A lot of times I find when you eat a chocolate cake, it's very pretty but it doesn't have a lot of chocolate flavor. And if it has flavor, it comes from the icing, and this actually comes from the cake."
Try it at the bakery, or in your own kitchen, and see if you agree.
Devil's Food Cake
Makes 1 two-layer 9-inch cake
3/4 cup cocoa powder
2 cups boiling water
1 cup butter
2-1/2 cups sugar
1-1/2 teaspoons of vanilla
4 eggs, beaten
3 cups flour
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
Cream cheese icing (See recipe below)
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Arrange two racks in center of oven.
Butter two 9-inch round cake pans. Line bottoms with parchment, if desired. Sprinkle bottoms and sides of pans with cocoa powder, if desired. Tap out excess.
Sift cocoa into medium bowl, and whisk in boiling water until fully incorporated. Set aside to cool.
In bowl of electric mixer, add butter and sugar. Whip on medium speed until fluffy and light. Gradually add sugar, mixing until fluffy and light, about 3 to 4 minutes. Scrape down sides of bowl as needed.
Place mixer on low speed and gradually add eggs, beating between each addition. Scrape down sides as needed.
In mixing bowl, sift together flour, baking soda and salt.
With mixer on low speed, alternately add flour and cocoa mixtures to the batter, a little of each at a time. Start and end with flour mixture.
Divide batter evenly among prepared pans.
Bake about 35 to 45 minutes, rotating the pans for even baking. Cake tester should come out clean.
Transfer cake pans to wire racks. Cool about 15 minutes. Turn out cakes. Place cakes on racks, parchment paper or bottom-side down, and allow to cool completely before icing.
Place one cake layer on a serving plate. Spread about 1-1/2 cups of icing over top. Add second layer and spread another 1-1/2 cups icing on top; cover the outside of the cake with remaining icing.
Chocolate Cream Cheese Icing
Makes enough for a 9-inch cake
1/2 cup butter, softened
8 ounces cream cheese, softened
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1 teaspoons vanilla
2-1/2 cups powdered sugar, plus more as needed
4 ounces unsweetened chocolate
Add butter and cream cheese to electric mixer bowl. Mix on medium for a few minutes, scraping bowl as needed, until creamy and smooth. Stir in lemon juice and vanilla until incorporated.
Gradually add powdered sugar until icing reaches desired consistency.
Melt chocolate in microwave. Use caution: Microwaves vary, so test it by heating for 30 seconds at a time.
Store at room temperature until used. Add chocolate to cream cheese icing and mix well by hand.
If necessary, place icing in refrigerator for 10 minutes, but do not allow it to chill thoroughly.
Food writer Judy Walker offers lots of great tips in her feature on how to make great deviled eggs below.
Here is Susan Spicer's recipe for the deviled eggs. She has been serving this popular appetizer at Mondo since it opened in 2011.
Mondo deviled eggs
Makes a dozen
6 hard-cooked eggs, peeled, cut in half, yolks and whites separated
1/2 cup mayonnaise
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
1 teaspoon Coleman's dry mustard, mixed with 1 teaspoon water
Salt, to taste
Pepper, to taste
Cayenne, to taste
Paprika, fresh herbs, for garnish
Mash yolks with fork in small bowl and stir in rest of ingredients. The yolk mixture should have a little bite from the mustard and the cayenne. Pipe or spoon the mixture into the egg whites.
Garnish with paprika, chopped herbs or small toasted croutons, if desired.
For a variation you can divide the yolk mixture into thirds.
For Basil Eggs: Add 1 tablespoon blanched, finely chopped basil. Garnish with small pieces of prosciutto, crisped in the oven.
For Curry Eggs: Add 1 teaspoon curry paste (we like Patak's) or curry powder. Garnish with fried shallots or onions.
http://www.nola.com/food/index.ssf/2017/10/deviled_eggs_deviled_crab_reci.html