About a month or so ago, I heard about the Daring Kitchen from another blogger who writes Live the London Life. The basic premise is this: The Daring Kitchen comprises of two groups, The Daring Bakers and the The Daring Cooks. You can sign up for one or both (I am just signed up for The Daring Cooks). Once you sign up, you will be tasked with cooking one recipe each month from what the monthly host has selected as the cooking or baking challenges. Everyone posts their dishes on their blogs on the same day (also known as the reveal day).
So today is the big reveal day for my first challenge: Cooking with Tea.
I’ve never cooked with tea before, with the exception of maybe duck breast a long, long time ago. So long ago that it doesn’t count anymore. Of the three dishes I could have chosen from, I perhaps chose the easiest (the other options were a green tea noodle soup, and a beef and sweet potato stew made with rooibos).
But hey, I made the decision right after I whacked into my thumb with that folding knife!
And sometimes the simplest recipes are the most challenging . . . or at least that is what I am telling myself 😉
So here are the blog-checking lines:
Sarah from Simply Cooked was our November Daring Cooks’ hostess and she challenged us to create something truly unique in both taste and technique! We learned how to cook using tea with recipes from Tea Cookbook by Tonia George and The New Tea Book by Sara Perry.
Ingredients:
6 eggs
2 tablespoons of loose black tea, or four tea bags (I used loose Keemun)
2 teaspoons of Chinese Five-Spice Powder
1 tablespoon of coarse salt
Sesame seeds for garnish
How to prepare:
(taken from The Daring Cooks’ November Challenge PDF)
1. In a large enough pot to avoid overcrowding, cover the eggs with cold water. Bring to a boil over medium heat and simmer for twelve minutes.
2. Remove the eggs with a slotted spoon and keep the cooking water.
3. With a spoon, tap the eggs all over until they are covered with small cracks. This can also be done by tapping and rolling the eggs very gently on the counter.
4. Return the eggs to the pan and add the tea leaves or bags, Chinese five spice powder, and salt. Cover the pan.
5. Heat gently and simmer, covered, for one hour.
6. Remove the pan from the heat and let the eggs cool down in the liquid for 30 minutes.
7. Remove the eggs from the liquid. Peel one egg to check how dark it is; the others can be returned to the liquid if you wish to have the web-like pattern darker. Allow the eggs to cool fully.
8. To serve, peel and slice the eggs in halves or quarters. Sprinkle with toasted sesame seeds.
coolcookstyle 
This was my first Daring Cooks post as well! Your tea eggs look like they came out perfectly!
They looked good! I was a little worried that I made uneven cracks, but was relieved when they peeled easily and revealed a nice pattern!
I just signed up for Daring Cooks a couple of days ago! These look great – and I love the plate you put them on. How were they?
Thanks! That plate was from my friend Eri. Sometimes I don’t think to buy pretty dishes for myself, so I was so happy to get it as a gift and I do use it all the time!
As for the tea eggs, the tea taste was really subtle — even after about an hour and a half of steeping. They reminded me a little of these hard-boiled soy sauce eggs that my grandmother used to buy in Chinatown, but those whites turned really dark brown, and tasted much stronger.
Very interesting cooking method. I’d never heard of cooking with tea before.
If not for the challenge, I’m not sure if I would have thought of it either! It did make me remember a recipe I read about years ago for a tea-smoked Thanksgiving turkey. And the holidays are coming up soon . . .
What a lovely presentation of the tea eggs. Thanks for taking up the challenge. It seems as though you are a perfect fit for the Daring Cooks! Welcome to the group. 🙂
Thank you so much, and thank you for the awesome challenge! It was such a fun introduction to the Daring Cooks. Looking forward to December’s reveal!
That is probably the best egg porn i have ever seen. I am drooling.
Oh, I’m so glad! The world needs more egg porn!