Marbled Tea Eggs

Unlike the Japanese Ramen or soy marinated eggs that I made earlier- these savory eggs are hard boiled and steeped in a mostly black tea mixture with some soy sauce and spices. What creates the marbled tea veins is the cracking of the egg shells and letting the eggs steep in it’s cracked shell.

If you made or followed my last ramen / marinated soy egg recipe, these are similar but has more of an Chinese spice flavor. These are also usually hard boiled (cooked through yolks). I prefer soft runnier yolks for my ramen so these tea eggs are more suitable as stand alone snacks or in rice bowls or salads.

For better results you can also use 50/50 low sodium and dark soy sauce. The dark soy sauce will help stain the cracks better!

INGREDIENTS

• 8-12 eggs

• 4 cups water

• 1/2 cup soy sauce (use 50/50 light soy sauce/dark soy or regular soy sauce if you have both on hand)

• 1 organic black tea bag

• 1 stick cinnamon (about 1" long)

• 1 whole star anise

• 1/2 teaspoon sugar

• 1 1/2 teaspoon salt

• 2 slices organic ginger

• 2 bay leaves

• 1 teaspoon Sichuan peppercorns (I subbed these for rainbow peppercorns)

• 2 tablespoons Shaoxing wine (or sub with rice wine, dry cooking sherry, mirin, soju, saki…)

PREPARATION

1. Add 4 cups of water to a medium pot and bring to boil.

2. Gently place eggs into pot and make sure they are completely covered with water about 8-10 eggs should fit.

2. Let eggs boil for 7-10 min for cooked through eggs. 7-8 min eggs for medium (my preferance), 10 min for hard boiled.

3. Remove hard-boiled eggs from boiling water and place into a large bowl with cold ice water

4. When eggs are cool enough to handle and touch- using the back side of a teaspoon, gently tap the eggshell to crack the shell, obviously the more cracks the more marble texture you will get. BUT be very careful not to crack open the egg since they are still quite delicate. Do gentle taps around the entire egg. Do this to all the eggs and set aside.

5. Add remaining ingredients into pot, stir, add eggs back into mixture, and bring to boil.

6. Simmer for a couple minutes, then set aside till pot gets to room temperature.

7. Transfer into a bowl or jar (remove tea bag, I also removed spices so they wouldn't be too aromatic) and let eggs marinate 24 hours. I was able to use a large half gallon mason jar and all the eggs were submerged.

*TIP- to peel eggs easier use a spoon to easily and smoothly peel eggs. Basically you’re using the round of the spoon and getting between the egg film skin and the egg white, cup the egg and gently scrape off shell under cool water.

Keeps for about a week.