Ex Ovo Omnia

Meera Sethi

To make Tea Eggs, gather the following:

6 eggs
3 cups water
1 tablespoon black tea leaves (you can just break open a cheap tea bag)
2 tablespoons soy sauce
4 pieces star anise
1 piece cinnamon or cassia bark
1 teaspoon cracked peppercorns (optional)
1 tablespoon dried mandarin peel (optional)

Place the eggs in a small saucepan with the water. Bring the water to a boil and simmer the eggs for 5 about minutes. Then remove them from the water and lightly tap each egg on two sides with a teaspoon or a knife to crack it slightly. Put the eggs back in the saucepan, add all the other ingredients and simmer for 2 hours, adding water as necessary. Cook longer for more flavor and a deeper colour.

Your house will smell wonderful and the eggs, despite the extensive cooking time, will emerge tasting incredibly delicately of spices and soy and fragrant with the scent of tea. Their shells will be stained a beautiful earthy brown and when you peel them open they will be marbled with thin spiderwebby lines across their whites.

Serve with zhok or bak kut teh.

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