Chinese Tea Eggs

Secret Recipe Club snuck up on me this month.  I didn't expect moving Mom from her condo to independent living to take nearly as much time and energy or I'd never have signed up for a post this month.  On top of that, we're up to our necks in a huge project at the office.  I've barely had time to sleep much less cook or read blogs or anything else.  This too shall pass!


You probably remember Secret Recipe Club from prior month's posts.  It's a group of bloggers where we're assigned another blogger's blog and we make a recipe that appeals to us. Each Monday of the month a group reveals their secret recipes.  I wish I'd had hours and hours to read Veronica's recipes.  She has some wonderful ideas from homemade vanilla extract to vanilla sugar.  And, wonderful recipes.  I'd chosen chicken wings.  Browned, sauced and looking gorgeous.  The problem was that Connie got one box of chicken wings.  My family would not be amused if I showed up on Father's Day without LaBrea Tar Pit chicken wings.  Actually, that's one of my recipes that was chosen for a SRC reveal.  Ok, plan B.  There's always a Plan B, isn't there?


How about Chinese Tea Eggs?  After all, they'd be much quicker than deviled eggs.  Ok, fine, I'd still make deviled eggs too.  What is a good barbecue without deviled eggs?  But, I'd make the Chinese Tea Eggs too.

What did we think?  The first batch was undercooked in spite of my following the instructions to a T.  And, peeling the eggs was a bear.  Well, that's not quite the word I used...  I'll leave that to your imagination.  As you can see from the photo one barely had any whites left.  So, I made a second batch.  I used my trusy egg cooker and heated the leftover soaking liquid.  Once the eggs were done, I picked them up one at a time with a pair of tongs and dropped them onto a cutting board until the shells were nicely cracked.  I felt kind of like the gulls we see on Cape Cod.  They drop their finds on the parking lots until their shells crack and the gulls can get to the sea critters.  Into the hot soaking liquid went the eggs.  The heat beneath the pan was off but the liquid steamed for a good fifteen minutes.  Then, I put the whole deal into the fridge and left it overnight.  Ah, success.  This morning for breakfast, we finally had our Chinese Tea Eggs.  The flavor is a bit delicate but oh, so good.  I love the marbled look.  Now, I'd love to figure out a great dipping sauce for these guys.  I'm thinking five spice powder and Connie's thinking wasabi...  We'll have to leave that for another day.

Thank you Veronica!  I'll be back to visit and try more fun recipes :-)






Chinese Tea Eggs




Ingredients:


6 eggs
1 1/2 c water
2 black tea bags
3/4 c teriyaki sauce
1 cinnamon stick
1 t sugar
zest and juice of one tangerine
t 2 Worcestershire sauce


DIrections:


Place the eggs in a medium pot and pour in the water.  Make sure they're covered by about an inch and a half of water.  Bring the water to a boil.  Allow it to boil for a minute then remove the pot from the heat and allow the eggs to sit in the water for 18 minutes.  Take each egg from the water and gently tap it just to crack the shell.  You don't want to remove any shell, just crack it.  Add the tea bags to the water and steep them for about 8 minutes..  Remove and discard the tea bags.  Add the rest of the ingredients to the water, stir well then put the eggs back in.  Put the eggs and soaking liquid into a storage container and refrigerate them overnight.  Shell the eggs and serve.

adapted from My Catholic Kitchen