Chilli Chutney Devilled Eggs

1. Sit the eggs in a saucepan in a single layer and cover them with cold water by 2cm.
2. Bring the water to the boil, then start a timer and cook at a steady simmer for 10 minutes.
3. Lift the eggs straight into a bowl of iced water and leave them there for 10 minutes.
4. Crack each shell all over, then peel it under a running tap starting at the wide end.
5. Halve the eggs lengthways and tip the yolks into a bowl.
6. Mash the yolks with the mayonnaise, the mustard, the lemon juice and the chopped chutney.
7. Push the mixture through a sieve if you intend to pipe it rather than spoon it.
8. Season, then taste it cold, because chilled food always reads flatter than warm food.
9. Pipe or spoon the filling back into the whites, slightly proud of the edge.
10. Finish each half with a small spoon of chutney, the chives and the chopped nuts.
11. Keep the tray covered in the fridge and carry it out at the last minute.

Peeling, making ahead and the tray on the day

Old eggs peel better than new ones. The membrane loosens from the shell as an egg ages, which is why a carton bought a week ago behaves and one bought this morning tears. The ice water matters just as much: it stops the cooking and it shrinks the white away from the shell. If you boil eggs often, the Dreamfarm Eggler is an egg cracker, peeler and slicer in one tool, invented in Australia, and it takes the fiddle out of a dozen at once.

Both halves of this recipe keep. Boil and peel the eggs a day ahead and keep them covered in the fridge. Make the filling a day ahead too and keep it in the piping bag, which saves washing up and saves you a bowl of yolk mixture drying out under cling film. Fill them on the day. Once they are filled, keep them cold and put any leftovers straight back in the fridge rather than leaving the tray out through the afternoon.

For a milder tray, DCC Tomato Chutney does the same job with sweetness instead of heat, and it is the version to make if children are eating. For something more savoury, DCC Pepper Steak Relish gives you pepper and onion underneath. Either way the method does not change. If eggs are your contribution to someone else's table, curried egg vol au vents travel better than these do, and what to bring to Christmas lunch sorts out the rest of the tray.

Common questions

How far ahead can you fill devilled eggs?

Fill them the morning of the day you are serving them, not the night before. The whites weep a little once they have been sitting with a wet filling in them, and the surface of the filling dries and crusts, so a tray built at 9pm looks tired by noon. Keep them covered in the fridge until people arrive, and bring the tray out when you are ready to hand it round rather than setting it down early. Anything left over goes back in the fridge.

How do you peel boiled eggs cleanly?

Use eggs that have been in the fridge for a week, cook them from cold water, and move them into iced water the second they come off the heat. Then crack the shell all over before you start lifting it, and peel from the wide end where the air pocket sits. Running water underneath helps the membrane slide.

Can you use a milder chutney?

Yes, and it is the swap most people want. Use the tomato chutney in place of the chilli chutney measure for measure, in the filling and on top, and the recipe is otherwise identical. You can also split the tray: chilli in one row, tomato in the other, with the chives only on the mild half so people can tell them apart across a crowded bench.

DCC Woodcutters Chilli Chutney is $12.95 for a 330g jar, and a tray of twelve uses about three tablespoons, so most of the jar is still there for the sandwiches on Boxing Day. It sits with the rest of the Daylesford Condiment Company shelf in our gourmet condiments, next to the festive entertaining essentials and the rest of the Christmas finger food ideas. Shipping is free Australia-wide on orders over $100.