Tea Eggs, with Prawn and Bean sprout Noodles

Apparently some people used to do something similar to eggs as children, making patterns etc. I however did not have such creative forces influencing my childhood so this is new to me.

The eggs do take on quite a lot of the flavour as well as the stunning patterns. The rest of the dish is standard Chinese fare of noodles and prawns, still very tasty though.

The pickle goes well, although too much and you’re straying into pickled eggs territory which is a different game altogether

I may or may not make this again, visually stunning , pleasant on the taste buds and fairly healthy, so actually, why not?

I saw this in this in this months Olive, very eye catching and I instantly wanted to have a crack, ahem 

Cucumber ¼ peeled, seeded and diced

½ Birds eye chilli finely sliced

Rice Vinegar 2 tbsp

Golden Caster sugar 2 tsp

Egg Noodles 200g

Rapeseed oil 2 tbsp

Garlic 2 cloves sliced

Spring onions 4 shredded

150g Cooked Prawns

Fish sauce 1 tbsp

Bean sprouts 1 handful per person

Tea Eggs

Light soy sauce 2 tbsp

Shaoxing rice wine  2btsp

Star anise 1

Golden Caster sugar 1 tbsp

Cinnamon stick 1

Ginger 2 thick slices

Chinese black tea 3 tbsp

Eggs 4

To make the tea eggs put all the ingredients, except for the eggs in a pan with 750 ml water and bring to the boil. Turn down and simmer for 20 mins.

Bring another pan of water to the boil add the eggs and simmer for 4 mins. Drain and run under cold water until cool enough to handle.

Carefully tap until the shell cracks, then gently crack roll the shell to get a crazy paving effect. Be very gentle as the egg is still runny inside, the first one I did smashed and caused much fuming. So I used a knife and tapped the shell gently all over to get the effect rather than rolling it

Place the eggs into the tea mixture and cook for an hour, then leave to cool in the mixture until ready to shell

Put the cucumber, chilli, rice vinegar and sugar in a bowl

If the noodles are uncooked, cook to packet instructions and drain

Heat the oil in a wok add the garlic and cook for about 30 seconds then add the spring onions and stir fry for two mins.

Add the prawns, bean sprouts toss together, add the fish sauce

Add the noodles and toss together

Divide into bowls and place 2 shelled eggs onto each plate

Serve the pickled cucumber on the side