Soft-Boiled Tea Eggs • 茶葉蛋
Updated: Jul 3, 2021
Hello, my name is Halden Levin, and you are listening to Little Dragon’s Journey. 你好！我叫李靜辰，你正在聽小龍的旅程。
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Throughout September, I’ve cooked a number of simple Chinese dishes, including tea eggs, fried rice, and pickled shallots, and in celebration of the Mid-Autumn Festival on October 1st, which also happens to be my younger brother’s birthday, I will be attempting to make traditional Chinese mooncakes, so I will definitely share more about that process in the future. Today, I thought I’d elaborate a little more on tea eggs, which is one of my favorite Chinese recipes.
Tea eggs, or 茶葉蛋, are hard-boiled eggs marinated in tea and soy sauce with a number of different spices. 茶葉蛋 literally translates to 茶, tea, 葉 or 葉子, leaf, and 蛋 or 雞蛋, egg, which altogether is tea leaf egg(s); pretty much the same as tea egg(s). The eggshells are slightly cracked before the eggs are marinated, which results in a beautiful marble-pattern on the actual eggs. Tea eggs are a common savory snack sold by street vendors in China and 7-Elevens in Taiwan, among other locations. I’ve heard that 7-Elevens are quite popular in Taiwan, so if I make it over there, I will definitely have to check them out.
According to the Omnivore’s Cookbook, which I will discuss a little more in a moment, tea eggs are traditionally cooked twice: first until hard boiled and then simmered in marinade for several hours, so the result are flavorful, but rather overcooked, eggs. For the purpose of preservation, this works quite well, but if you make tea eggs at home and have a refrigerator on hand, you can make flavorful and tender tea eggs that are not overcooked, and even soft-boiled.
Regarding the Omnivore’s Cookbook, I’ve explored a number of blogs focused on authentic Chinese cuisine, and one of my favorites is the Omnivore’s Cookbook. The creator of the Omnivore’s Cookbook, Maggie Zhu, was born and raised in Beijing and currently resides with her husband in New York. One of the primary driving forces behind her blog site is a desire to share authentic Chinese cuisine to a wider audience through approachable recipes modified to work in standard western kitchens. If you’re interested in making authentic Chinese cuisine, I definitely recommend checking out her content. There are also a number of other blog sites that I've found useful, including The Woks of Life, China Sichuan Food, and Just One Cookbook, which focuses more on Japanese cuisine.
So back to tea eggs. I’ve made tea eggs every week this month as a primary protein source coupled with brown rice and cucumber and/or carrots for lunch. Each time I’ve made the marinade, I’ve used the recipe from the Omnivore’s Cookbook. The first time I tried my hand at tea eggs, I just used the ingredients we had available in our kitchen, the second time, I purchased a few additional ingredients from H Mart in Cary, and the third time, I used all the correct ingredients from the Grand Asia Market in Raleigh.
H Mart is a Korean-American grocery chain, so I was unable to find a number of ingredients used primarily in Chinese cuisine, such as Sichuan peppercorns. The Grand Asia Market is a grocery store in Raleigh, NC, providing an extensive variety of Asian goods; the moment I stepped into the Grand Asia Market, I was reminded of China through the store’s layout, the smells of seafood, and the bustling environment. I’m hoping to explore as many local Asian markets as I can, but the Grand Asia Market is my favorite for now.
Anyway, making tea eggs is rather simple. All you have to do is mix together the marinade ingredients: light and dark soy sauce (I just used Kikkoman’s lower sodium soy sauce), bay leaves, Sichuan peppercorns (or regular peppercorns), star anise, a cinnamon stick, salt and sugar, black tea, and water. You can also use different types of tea, such as jasmine tea or green tea. Also, loose leaf tea and tea bags both work well. Then you bring the mixture to a boil, lower the heat, simmer for ten minutes, and let the marinade cool completely. To quicken the cooling process, I’ve found that covering the marinade and placing it on a towel in the fridge works well.
While the marinade cools, you boil the eggs for five to ten minutes, depending on your preference. I prefer softer eggs with a slightly runny yolk, so I usually boil my eggs for five to six minutes. Once the eggs are done, you place the eggs in an ice bath, which is just cool water and ice, to prevent the eggs from cooking any further. And finally, crack the egg shells with the back of a spoon and place them in a resealable container, ensuring the eggs are completely submerged in the marinade.
If you store the marinade properly, you can easily reuse the marinade to make a fresh batch of tea eggs. All you have to do is re-boil the marinade and let it cool as done the first time around.
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Please visit haldenlevin.wixsite.com/littledragonjourney to access the transcript of this episode, and know you are always welcome to contact me through my website, email, or social media. Thank you for joining Little Dragon’s Journey. 謝謝你們參加小龍的旅程。拜拜！
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