Chinese Tea Eggs

Normally we don’t celebrate holidays that apply to different nations, however, this year, my family and I find something very cool about celebrating the Year of the Dragon.  I picture a parade full of color and beauty and a giant red dragon “dancing” across the crowds.  What a site it must be!  We had the fortune of watching one this past summer at a parade in Waxhaw, NC, and while it was a smaller version dragon, my children and I were very much in awe of the decor that goes into a dragon.

This year I decided to make a Chinese Tea Egg.  Overseas, this is eaten as a savory snack or a late night snack, but I see nothing wrong with eating this for breakfast if you ask me!  Tea? Egg? I know the concept sounds really strange, and I  had to think over the idea of making them.  I didn’t want to go through a bunch of eggs and not like the flavor.  (We bakers take great care on how many eggs we have in the refrigerator – a daily check!)   So my daughter and I decided we’ll test out two eggs.  Enough for a good pictures, but not too many that we’re going to sacrifice good eggs! 🙂

I love the recipes I have seen out there, and one that really inspired me was from Saveur Magazine.  Take a look at the picture and tell me that doesn’t look beautiful!  However, I completely changed the recipe to be something unique for my blog, plus, I was scared off by the idea of using soy sauce with an egg.  Way outside my box, you could say…

Ingredients:

• 2 cups water
• 1/2 tsp. All-Spice
• 1 tsp. cinnamon
• 1 tsp. Anise
• 1 teabag of Orange tea (I used Tazo Wild Sweet Orange Tea)
• 2 eggs

Method:

Boil 2 eggs in water for 5 minutes to a soft boil.  Let cool for 2-3 minutes. In a separate small saucepan, boil 2 cups of water, all the spices and tea.  For more flavor impact with the tea, rip open the tea bag to let the contents flow freely in saucepan.  I recommend a strong orange tea to get a great flavor.  Slowly bring sauce to a boil.  In the meantime, crack, but don’t peel the egg shells of the soft boiled eggs.  Place the eggs into the sauce and bring to a boil to completely hard boil the eggs.  About 5 minutes.  After finished cooking, take off heat and let the eggs set in the sauce.  It would be best to have them set in the juices about 4 hours, however, I did an hour and you can see my steeping results in a lighter color around the cracks, and lighter flavor.  Again, I was nervous about getting too much flavor in, but trust me, these are really yummy and do recommend that you just “go for it!”  When the eggs are finished soaking, peel the shells and look at the beautiful cracked lines in the eggs!  A work of art!

Can you do this with just food coloring to not get the eggs flavored to orange or soy sauce?  YES!  Have the cracked eggs soak in food colored water overnight and you can have hard boiled eggs decorated just the same.

Happy Chinese New Year to my readers that this would apply to!!  I hope that you have a fantastic day!