Chinese Tea Eggs

Gluten-free | Sugar-free | Dairy-free | No added fat

Makes 6 eggs

Why it’s delicious

I first encountered these tea eggs whilst eating my way from the wonderful city of Taipei. It's commonly served as a snack food and even available from hot cauldrons in the urban cities 7-11 stores for about 4 cents an egg. 

If you like to munch on boiled eggs, you are going to love the added flavour that soaking eggs in a spiced tea mixture gives to the finished product. 

Helpful hints and tips

You can use the liquid a few times to make new batches of tea eggs, so keep it in a jar in the fridge for up to 1 month. 

Traditionally, hard boiled eggs are again boiled in the tea mixture, but I find that this method makes the eggs very rubbery, so my recipe calls for thee eggs to only be boiled once and then soaked for at least 24 hours in the cold tea mixture, keeping the eggs soft and delicate to eat.

Ingredients

• 3 litres (¾ gallon) cold water
• 120 ml (4 fl oz) low sodium tamari
• 4 tbsp Chinese tea leaves ( I used oolong tea)
• 4 cinnamon quills
• 6 star anise
• 4 bay leaves
• 6 whole cloves
• 2 dried cardamom pods, bashed with a knife to break open
• 6 eggs, preferably organic and free range

Method

1. Into a large saucepan, add the water, tamari, tea leaves, cinnamon quills, star anise, bay leaves, cloves and cardamom pods. Bring the mixture to the boil and then turn the heat down and allow the liquid to simmer for 5 minutes for the flavours to infuse. 
2. Cool the liquid for 30 minutes on the bench top and then for a further 1 hour in the fridge. 
3. Whilst the tea liquid, bring a small to medium sized saucepan of water to the boil and then carefully lower the eggs into the pot and boil for 6 minutes. 
4. Cool the eggs under cold running water and then gently roll the eggs on the bench to crack the shells as much as possible without the shell coming off the eggs. 
5. Once the tea liquid is fairly cool, place the eggs into the liquid and leave in the fridge overnight or for up to 2 days for the eggs to flavour and stain with the mixture. The longer you leave the eggs before eating, the more the flavour of the tea mixture will give to the egg. 
6. When you are ready to eat the eggs, peel and go! These eggs are nice for an alternative flavour to normal boiled eggs in the morning and are also good sliced and served through a salad or curry.