Tea Eggs

The bloggability of my life seems to have been down of late. Most what I have to say fits in a tweet, or a personal conversation, I suppose. In some ways this is good - I tend to blog when things are on my mind, in a more melancholy way, not when I'm happily, if often tiredly, busy as I have been of late. One of the happily-busy things has been my circle of friends, so this is good. A recent potluck gathering was a wonderful way to spend an evening, and I much appreciate those who have the space for it, and the energy to offer it to a diverse and somewhat noisy if amiable crowd.

I thought I'd update my blog to admit I'm still here, and to share the "recipe" such as it is, for my potluck contribution - Spiced Tea Eggs.

I'll start with a disclaimer: I am in no way claiming this is an authentic Chinese Spiced Tea Egg recipe or that it's better or worse than you could do Googling for such. It's just the one I've hit on and it seemed to be appreciated. It's a mash-up of a couple recipes from friends and a couple hints I found online.

Here's what you need:

1 dozen eggs

1/2 cup light soy sauce

1/2 cup dark soy sauce

~ 4 cups water

2 tsp (or to taste) Five Spice powder

2-3 star anise

1/2 tsp citrus zest (orange, lemon, or mix)

1/4 tsp cracked black pepper (or to taste)

1/2 tsp ginger (or to taste... get the idea yet? flexible)

1 tbsp sugar (or to.. you get it.)

1 tbsp (or to taste, natch) of a strong black tea. I've used Scottish Breakfast, but any pekoe-type will do. To have a bit of fun, I used Lapsang Souchong, but don't do this if you don't like smoke flavours. The "tea" flavouring is rather mild in the end, though. Soy and spice come through more.

I should note about the marinade ingredients, pretty much every seasoning here is "to taste". I can't find two recipes/methods that have the same proportions or even the same spices. The essentials seem to be Five Spice Powder (and some recipes use just that, and not all Five Spice blends are the same) and a mix of light&dark soy sauces. Experiment - I do.

Here's what you do:

Put eggs in pot of cold water on stove, turn on element, and bring to boil. Boil 3 minutes or so, then turn off heat and let cool for a bit. The eggs don't have to be hard boiled at this stage, as they will cook quite a lot more in the marinade. You just want the whites to be solid before you hit them with anything.

When eggs are cool, gently crack the shells by tapping with a spoon, spatula, something dull. You want to crack the shell while leaving all the shell bits on the egg, and try not to dent any spots in, though it's not a disaster if you do.

Mix all marinade ingredients either in a pot or a crock pot, mixed with enough water to cover the eggs completely. Gently put the eggs back in. If using a crock-pot, bring up to a medium-ish temperature for ~ 4 hours, or set the crocker on "Warm" and leave overnight. If using a pot, bring back to a low-boil on medium high, then turn down to a very light simmer and leave for 2-3 hrs.

Once they've had a good simmer by either method, enjoy! You can eat warm, cool them and keep in fridge for easy-to-grab snacks, or if you like the flavour or want it stronger, store the eggs IN the marinade, chilled in the fridge. Fish them out, dry and peel one at a time, as needed.