Tea Eggs

Funnily enough, it was a photo of a plate by Alice that gave me cravings for these!

Tea eggs (or 茶叶蛋) are delicious but so darn time-consuming to make. So this lazy Sunday was perfect for it, in between chores and watching the last of the Olympics and the closing ceremony on TV. It’s been emotional, London.

So here we go:

Ingredients:

• Eggs (as many as needed to cover one layer in your saucepan)
• 1 cinnamon stick
• 3 star anise
• 1 tbsp Sichuan peppercorns (花椒)
• 1 tbsp salt
• 1 tbsp pu er (普洱) tea leaves
• 2 tbsp dark soy sauce

Step 1: Put the eggs in a saucepan of water, and bring to the boil. Simmer for 7 mins.

Step 2: With a back of a spoon, lightly crack the eggshells all over.

Step 3: Place the eggs back into the saucepan of water, and now add all the other ingredients. I happened to be eating tangerines at the time, so I threw in some of the peel for good measure. Simmer for 2 hours.

Step 4: Take the eggs off the heat, and leave to soak in the spicy mix overnight.

The result is beautiful marbled eggs, delicious hot or cold. All the spices will have absorbed through the cracks in the shell. (Now you can see why Alice’s speckled plate reminded me of these!)

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