This sweet and tasty cooked egg recipe brings back my childhood in Singapore

In Singapore, where I grew up, there was a tea egg stall near my home, and the stunning smell of soy sauce, tea leaves and warm spices often made me buy eggs on the way home. Snack-which consists of hard cooked eggs that are usually marinated in a fragrant mixture of soy sauce, tea and warm spices, such as Cassia bark or cinnamon, cloves and Stariaman Asia, including Taiwan and Hong Kong. Once the egg is cooked, people touch the shells with a spoon to form a gently hair mesh that allows the liquid to pass and the marble appearance of the egg signature when peeled.

Most culinary historians believe that tea eggs come from China, where, according to legend, during the Qing dynasty, people have cooked eggs in a tea for comfort – why can you make tea and eggs in separate dishes when you can make them in the same pot? As the tea cooked eggs have become more popular, those who cannot afford expensive tea leaves used to use low -quality tea leaves by inserting tea leaves mainstream Or water, not water, not water.

Now I live in the Netherlands where there is no tea eggs unless you make them. Fortunately, I can easily make it – and with my recipe you can recipe this classic snack at home.

The best tea to the marinade

The soluble liquid of the eggs usually consists of loose leaf -oolong tea, soy sauce, brown sugar, ginger and spices, although the exact used combination varies from place to place and cook. Because here is tea the most dominant aroma used High quality loose-leaf tea– which is more robust and nuanced than most bagged tea – it is essential. The type of tea may change: many tea eggs traditionists recommend black tea, oolong is often used in Taiwan, and some prefer jasmine tea because of their flower profile. The PU-ERH is a great choice to use black tea and I used both Tie Guan Yin, Oolong Tea and Xiang Pian, a fragrant mixture of green tea leaves and jasmine flowers. Both worked well: the Tie Guan Yin eggs were gently smoky, while the Xiang Pian eggs had fine flowers. After all, you can use the tea you like; The most important thing is the tea you use is its quality. While some believe that the type of tea affects the color of tea eggs (the darker the tea, the darker the eggs), the effect of the eggs on the color of the eggs is quite minimal; Rather, how much soy sauce he uses in the marinade is more important.

How to reach the marble appearance of signature

In the marinating liquid, I use a combination of light and dark Chinese soy sauce, both because the dark soy sauce gives the eggs a darker shade and because they have different taste profiles, so their use gives the eggs a more nuanced flavor. However, if there is no dark soy sauce, you can use a simple soy sauce. I suggest you use Chinese or Chinese -style soy sauce for both dark and light soy sauce, as their taste is different from other soy sauce, such as the Japanese.

In order to ensure the distinctive marble appearance of eggs, it is essential to create well -defined cracks that allow the fluid to pass. In my experience, the best way to use the back of a spoon is to carefully break the eggs. He does not want to put much pressure that large spaces are formed between the shell and the egg (which results in dark brown spots rather than the desired stained effect), but he wants the well -defined cracks of the liquid. While some believe that tea eggs should be boiled in the marinade, to be in full -flavored and colored, I have found that the marinade is curved for at least 24 hours and has the same effect.

When an egg is made, it returns straight to my childhood. Practically I hear the buzz of trains.

Cooking method
(Keep on the screen awake)