Tarragon Shallot Egg Salad Sandwiches

After weeks of deliberation and careful planning (read: procrastinating), I've finally made some egg salad. Let me tell you, it was a relief to finally make a Gourmet recipe from epicurious. I get ribbed a lot at work for my recipe choices, but whatever.

Anyway, the Tarragon Shallot Egg Salad salad came out very well. I followed the recipe exactly and can only add a more-exact number on the shallots: 2. Two medium shallots yield, in my experience, about 3 tablespoons (and if it's less, it doesn't matter because the product comes out shalloty enough). In a fit of compliance, I went out and bought the jar of tarragon white wine vinegar; maybe one day I'll try the recipe with normal white wine vinegar, but I doubt that'll be any time soon since I have a whole bottle-minus-two-teaspoons of the stuff.

I really can't stress enough that you should use fresh herbs when possible; they're expensive, but if you cut up the whole bunch, you can easily freeze it and have it on hand for subsequent recipes. Their egg boiling method was quite ingenius; I'd read that cooks should let their eggs warm up to room temperature before boiling to prevent cracks and spillage, but who has time for that? Starting with the cold eggs and cold water is brilliant. The 30-seconds-covered timing thing creeps me out a bit, but I've done it twice and the eggs turned out well both times.

The cost: about $1.25 per sandwich (I get $1.06 but I usually round up...).

NB - my cost estimates are based on a no-waste system. Yes, you have to buy a whole loaf of bread to make the sandwiches, for example, but I assume you don't waste any of it (therefore the cost is deferred).

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