Mexinese Tea Eggs: Chinese Tea Eggs With a Mexican Twist

I was really excited about Chinese Tea Eggs when I saw them on TasteSpotting. I thought they sounded delicious for the most part, but I love southwestern spiciness, so this is my variation/experiment. I sort of followed this recipe from a blog about eating in china which has some pretty good writing and stories to go along with the recipes. The pictures they have are amazing: like the best photography on a food blog I've seen, ever. EVER. The top image is their picture of chinese tea eggs. Compare that to my homely picture below.

I changed their recipe to use southwestern ingredients and add a southwestern flavor (hence the 'Mexi' in 'Mexinese').

Now, to start with, I don't know if it was worth the trouble or if I just didn't do this right,

but I didn't notice a significant difference in taste from a regular hard boiled egg. I think I did an okay job getting the color though. I'll give you the recipe I followed then tell you what I think I should do next time.

Mexinese Tea Eggs

Ingredients:

4 tsp salsa

4 tsp salt

4 tsp paprika

2 tsp sugar

2 tsp cayenne pepper

2 tsp Tapatillo hot sauce

1 black tea bag

This recipe begins just like hard boiled eggs. Boil your eggs for 5 minutes then remove and cool them off. Next you'll crack the shells. I used a wooden spoon. after cracking the shells, you'll place them back into the pan of water and all your ingredients and bring it to a boil, then let it simmer for 1-3 hours, removing the tea bag after about 8-10 minutes (the longer it simmers, the more noticeable the colors and flavors become). After this it's just like any old hard boiled egg: peel the shell and put it in your mouth.

So some things that I think would help the next time I make this:

I'm not going to be scared to really smack that with my wooden spoon. The worse the eggs were cracked the better the color/flavor.

I'm going to triple all the spicy/salty ingredients. I was worried that it would be too hot, and I could barely taste any spicy/saltiness.

I'm going to simmer them for at least three hours. I want the colors and flavors to blow me away, not just surprise me a little.

So maybe you can adjust the recipe too? Send me some thoughts if you try it.

Also, does anybody know if Jesus saw his shadow when he came out of his cave? I think if he did that means there's six more weeks of Lent.