Chinese Southern Belle

Ni Hao Y'all

Tea Eggs and Jane Eyre

tea eggs

Favorite Snacks: From Taiwan to Georgia

What are my mom’s favorite snacks? Marbled tea eggs, Georgia boiled peanuts (a bit messy, but good, have to hold book in lap) and beef jerky! Tea eggs bring back memories of Taiwan where she grew up. “It was my after-school snack.” All the students would head down the street to the corner convenience store. There you’d find a simmering crock pot of tea eggs (with cracked shell still intact) stewed in a brown savory”tea soup” and smell the distinctive five-spice*-soy sauce-ginger aroma wafting through the whole store. Tea eggs are so popular, you’ll find them in homes and shops everywhere in China and Taiwan from capital cities to the smallest country villages. (Believe it or not, 7-Eleven chain stores have been revived into very successful, multi-purpose stores across the entire island of Taiwan. )

Five-spice is a blend of blend of cloves, fennel, star anise, cinnamon and Szechuan peppercorns. Some variations may have ginger, nutmeg and licorice. Interestingly, Chinese cooks and consumers associate cinnamon with savory foods, like braised meats or tea eggs, cooked with five-spice. In the West, we pretty much exclusively associate and use cinnamon in sweets and baked goods, not savory entrees.

Tastes as Good as They Are Beautiful

Delicious hot or cold, the savory and fragrant seasonings turn plain boiled eggs into flavorful and beautifully distinctive “marbled tea eggs” after peeling the outer shell. We make them overnight and pack them as essential car and travel food for work and vacation. They’ve come in really handy when I have an early and long day at a food show with few breaks. A different twist on deviled eggs, they surprise and convert boiled egg naysayers into a tea egg lovers!

Classics in Any Language

Not to be outdone by Dad’s new iPad acquisition, Margaret enjoys a new Kindle, loaded with her favorite classics like Jane Eyre, Wuthering Heights and Gone With the Wind. She first read the novels in high school in Taiwan, translated into Chinese. “I was addicted to reading Western novels. Sometimes, I read under the covers with a flashlight and ate tea eggs so I wouldn’t get in trouble after curfew.”

tea eggs

 

 

Prep Time:

10 min

Cook Time:

8 hours

Feeds:

5

Ingredients:

1 dozen eggs
Water (enough to cover eggs in medium pot, about 4 cups)
1 1/2 cups soy sauce
4 bags black tea

Spices - if you don't have the whole spices, Five-Spice Powder is also sold pre-mixed. Use 1/2 -1 tsp depending on how strong you like the spices but a little will do.
3 star anise
1 cinnamon stick
1 tsp Szechuan peppercorn
1/2 tsp of clove

Instructions:

Put eggs in the inner pot on the steam rack.
Add enough water to cover the eggs.
Add tea bags, soy sauce, and seasonings. Mix.

InstaPot:
Set steam release to the Sealing position.
Select Pressure Cook or Manual, set to High pressure and 5 minutes.
After cooking, Quick Release the pressure.
Cool enough to handle. Crack each egg all over lightly with a teaspoon or butter knife, enough to crack it and let the marinade seep through but leave the shells on/intact. (This is how you get the beautiful marbling effect.)
Put back the eggs in the Pot with the lid on for at least 12 hours or overnight. Leave longer for a stronger, saltier flavor.

CrockPot or Regular Pot:
Boil the plain, whole eggs first. Drain. Let cool a bit for handling. Gently crack/tap the cooked eggs with a teaspoon or butter knife to allow the marinade seep through but leave the shells intact/on.
Stew the eggs on Low overnight or at least 8 hours in the seasoning mixture.

No Pot Alternative: Marinate the cooked, cracked eggs in seasoning mixture in ziplock bags or container with enough marinade to cover overnight. Store in fridge. Good for 1 week.

You can re-use your marinade mixture, just use clean utensils when adding and removing eggs and re-boil the marinade before using it again.