No matter how much I think I already know about cooking, I always learn something new whenever I attend a cooking demonstration.  More so if the one doing the presentation is someone like Dorothy Ferreria, a cooking teacher and excellent baker with many years of kitchen experience behind her.

A few weeks ago, for instance, I attended Dorothy’s cooking session in Nestlé’s Julius Maggi Kitchen.  Not only did I learn a few interesting recipes, I also learned some cooking tips from Dorothy, as she always generously shares her knowledge. Called Cream of the Crop, the cooking demo was JMK’s culminating activity for 2011. The afternoon session also included a demo on creative gift wrapping by Melissa Lim and her daughter Aiko.

One of the recipes Dorothy demonstrated was for deviled eggs. This traditional hors d’oeuvre is often served during the holiday season but Dorothy gave it a new twist by adding spicy sardines to the egg filling.

You may want to try adding this to your holiday table this year as it’s easy to do and fun to eat (and serve).

Deviled Eggs with Sardine Mousse

For the eggs:

8  eggs, cooked hard-boiled

For the sardine mousse:

2    cans spicy sardines (155 g each), drained

8    egg yolks (removed from the 8 hard-boiled eggs)

½   c Nestlé All-Purpose Cream

250    g cream cheese

½    c chopped onions

1    tbsp calamansi juice

1½ – 2   tsp fine salt

¼    tsp finely ground black pepper

For the garnishing:

sprigs of parsley

boiled strips of red bell pepper

Prepare the eggs:

Peel the hard-boiled eggs and cut them in half lengthwise.  Remove the yolks and set aside for the filling.

Prepare the mousse:

In a large mixing bowl, combine the sardines with the egg yolks that have been removed from the hard-boiled eggs. Add remaining ingredients in the order listed. Using an electric hand mixer, beat the mixture until moderately smooth.  Transfer the mixture to a piping bag fitted with an open star tip.

Pipe out the mixture into the cavities of each egg half. Garnish with parsley and bell pepper strips.

Dorothy’s tips:

Instead of an electric mixer, you can also process the filling in a food processor.

To make hard-boiled eggs: Put eggs in a saucepan.  Add enough water to cover and one tablespoon vinegar.  Let boil 10 minutes then turn off heat.  Let eggs stand in the water, with the pan covered, for 20 minutes.

To lessen the pungency of the onions, boil the chopped onions for 5 minutes then drain before using.

If you don’t have a piping bag and a star tip, just use a spoon to put the filling into the egg whites.

For more tips, recipes and stories, visit the author’s blog www.normachikiamco.com and Facebook fan page, www.facebook.com/normachikiamco.  Follow at Twitter@NormaChikiamco