Chinese Tea Eggs - Step by Step
Okay - so I've been making these eggs for almost fifteen years now, and since some of you expressed an interest, I'm going through the recipe with photos and explaining how to do it. The cookbook I originally found this recipe in was an old maybe 60's era Chinese cookbook. I now just do it from memory, and have tweaked and changed things over time. You should feel free to change some of the seasonings here - there's a good bit of sodium in here, but you don't really need to salt the finished eggs. The soy sauce and salt in the cooking liquid makes them salty enough for me. Anyway, step one is boil yourself some eggs. I put six eggs into a pan with enough cold water to cover them, then put them on medium-high heat and slowly bring the temperature up to a boil. Then leave them at a gentle boil for ten minutes.
Once they're done, I usually put them in a colander and run cold water over them until they're cool enough to handle. In the meantime, get your seasoning together. Put three cups of water in the pot and add the following:
1 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon each - regular soy sauce and dark soy sauce
2 Tbs black tea (about six teabags)
1 Tbs grated orange or lemon peel
1/4 tsp black pepper
1 cinnamon stick
2 cloves star anise
The dark soy sauce is richer and sweeter than the regular kind. You may have to look around for it, but as you might be able to tell from the pic, the brand I found is Reggae Country Store, a Jamaican (obviously) brand that also makes a superb habanero sauce.
Just add all this stuff to the water and bring it up to a boil. While physics is happening you're going to gently crack the egg shells. Like so:
Gently tap the eggs on a hard surface until cracks form. Tap all around the egg and try to get things fairly even, because the cracks are going to effect how the marbling comes out. Put the eggs into the flavored water, cover the pot, and let everything simmer for one hour. It looks weird, but it'll be tasty, I promise.
After an hour, take the pot off the heat and let the eggs cool in the liquid. Some people store the eggs in the cooking liquid for a more intense flavor, but I scoop them out and refridgerate them in a plastic bag. You can also eat them warm, or chill them.
This maybe wasn't the best egg. It was just the one I peeled. Leave the shells on until you're ready to eat them or pack them in a lunch. This guy came out flat on the bottom, but the marbling is nice. They last in the fridge for about a week.