Recipe: Chinese Tea Eggs
Tea eggs are a delicious traditional snack or side dish in Chinese cuisine.
This set was shot as part of a series of creative content for The Way, an acupuncture and Chinese medicine wellness center in Phoenix, AZ.
Read on below for the full recipe on how to make these delicious little guys!
Ingredients:
One dozen eggs
Water
2 tea bags (black or red tea)
5 star anise
1 cinnamon bark
1 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon equivalent rock sugar (can substitute with cane sugar or brown sugar)
4 tablespoon dark soy sauce
1/2 tablespoon Mijiu wine (Chinese rice cooking wine)
In two large pots, bring about 5 cups of water to a rolling boil in each. The amount of water does not have to be exact, we just need enough to cover the eggs. One of these pots will be used to pre-cook the eggs, and the other will be used to make the flavored tea in which the eggs will steep.
Pro tip: use a pin to poke a small hole on the fat end of the egg. This will help the shell release from the egg making them much easier to peel and you will be so much happier. Honestly this is life changing.
Once the water has come to a boil, carefully place the eggs in one of the pots using a spoon so the shells don't break. Leaving the heat on high, cook the eggs for a quick 6 minutes. We are going for rich, runny yolks, which tends to pick up flavor much better.
In the second pot of boiling water, toss in the anise, cinnamon bark, tea bags, rock sugar, soy sauce, and mijiu wine.
Let this tea boil on medium-high heat for about 10 minutes.
When the 6-minute timer is up, carefully remove the eggs using a spoon and place them in an ice bath. Let them sit for 4-5 minutes to help the shell separate easier.
At this time, remove the pot with the tea from the heat and let it rest. We want to give the tea a few minutes to cool down so it does not cook our eggs too much more when we place them back in.
Remove the eggs from the ice bath and use the back of a spoon to gently crack the shells without breaking the egg open. Don't remove the shells, just gently crack them so the tea can start to seep in and flavor the eggs.
The eggs are still very soft at this point, so be gentle with your tapping. (It's okay if you happen to break through the shell and tear into the egg white, the egg just won't hold up as well when you peel it later.)
When you're done, gently place the cracked eggs into the pot of tea using a spoon and let them steep for a few hours. We recommend putting the whole pot in the refrigerator and letting it steep overnight. The longer the eggs sit in this tea bath, the deeper the flavors will penetrate.
