茶叶蛋 Tea Leaf Eggs (Half boiled )

During one of the Chinese New Year I was planning to bake a kueh lapis cake but my oven decided to go on strike so I had to ditch the plan. But not before I already bought 5 boxes of eggs! Stuck with so many eggs, I decided to cook tea leaf eggs (茶叶蛋) since this is one fast route to get rid of one box of eggs at a shot. However I was not satisfied with the regular tea leaf eggs. And my last round with this dish wasn't that fantastic either when I followed the recipe that came along with the tea leaf egg herbs sold by Eu Yan Sang. So I decided to tweak it a bit: I will cook it without the shells (so that the marinade really gets into the eggs) and I want wobbly yolks (like those in Ramen!). So here is what I did:

Ingredients:

- 10 eggs (60gm sized)

Marinade:

- 1 sachet of Eu Yan Sang tea leaf eggs herbs
- 500ml water
- 1 tbsp dark soya sauce1

- 1 tbsp light soya sauce1

- 50-60 gm rock sugar1

Method:

1. Bring the herbs and water to a boil in a saucepan. Add the remaining seasoning and taste to adjust seasoning1 if necessary. Lower the heat and simmer for 15 minutes. Remove from heat and set aside to cool completely.

2. Put the eggs in a pot of room temperature water deep enough to cover the eggs completely. Bring it to a boil. Stir the eggs gently while waiting for the water to come to a boil.

3. When the water comes to a boil, lower the heat to a simmer and continue to simmer the eggs for 4.5 minutes2.

4. Remove the eggs from heat immediately and rinse under running tap water till they feel just barely warm to touch. Leave it aside to cool completely in a bowl of water. Peel the eggs when cooled.

5. Soak the peeled eggs in the cooled marinade sauce overnight in the fridge. Make sure the eggs are put into a small based glass container so that they get fully covered by the marinade.

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Notes:

1. The seasoning amounts are pretty much up to own preference. Above stated amounts are suited to my palate and it is not too salty. If u prefer a saltier version, you can add a pinch of salt or more light soy sauce.

2. Most recipes making eggs with runny yolks require an ice bath for the eggs once they are removed from the heat but I didn't keep ready made ice cubes in my freezer, so lazy me rinsed the eggs under running tap water till they were just warm to touch and I soaked it in a bowl of room temperature water for complete cooling. For this entry I simmered the eggs for 4.5 minutes but the yolks were not runny enough for me, so I will advise 3 or 3.5 minutes (tried 4 minutes before too and still way too cooked for me) of simmering. If you are using an ice bath, u might want to simmer for 4.5 minutes since that will cool down the eggs (hence stop further cooking) faster than my lazy method.