Chinese Tea Eggs For The Year Of The Dragon

Some time ago Veronica at mycatholickitchen.com had a post with Chinese Tea Eggs and they have been on my to do list for some time and with the upcoming year Chinese New Year I thought I would finally take the plunge.

Chinese tea eggs or marbled eggs are a savory snack often served as street food. While they are called tea eggs tea is not really the main flavor. These were quite delicious and I am sure they would improve if left to marinade for even longer in the liquor.

I made very little change from Veronica’s recipe with the exception of the amount of time I cooked the eggs. I think I went a more traditional route and cooked them longer.

Chinese Marbled Tea Eggs

6 eggs
1 /12 cups water
3/4 cup soy sauce
2 black tea bags
I tea spoon of five spice powder (I made a teabag of this in a piece of muslin)
1 teaspoon sugar
2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce

• Place the eggs in a medium pot and fill with water. (make sure the eggs are covered by about 1 inch of water)
• Bring to a boil. Allow to boil for 2 minute.
• Remove eggs from water and add all ingredients to water after three minutes remove teabags.
• Meanwhile gently tap egg in several places to crack the shell in several places.
• Return eggs to liquid and simmer gently for 1 hour

Allow to cool peel eggs and enjoy.

I thought I would take the opportunity to share some of my photos from San Francisco’s Chinatown.

I am also linking this up to the Weekend Potluck over at The Country Cook

Chinatown, NYC. A Little Lunch and Exploration

If you are visiting New York City and have even the slightest interest in food you have to visit Chinatown. Before writing this post did a little research so I could get the geography right. Much to my amazement on some of the tourist sites people complained about the smell, how crowded it was and even being harassed by the vendors. I do have to warn you this is not a Disneyfied  version of Chinatown and you can expect to be confronted by smells, crowds and harassing vendors but in my opinion that is a huge part of the attraction.

There are plenty of places to eat from expensive to very cheap. I urge you to muster up your courage and go into a place with mostly Asian customers I know that is somewhat clichéd but it really is the best way to go.

We went into  Yee Li restaurant and because of the camera we looked very touristy  and were handed “dinner menus” luckily the lunch menus were sitting on the table and the prices were considerably lower so do what the locals.  We chose  Roast Pork with Duck and Bok Choi topped with a  Fried Egg over Rice and the second dish was a Roast Duck Noodle Soup. Served with a pot of tea the check was $10.50 for both which will buy you very little anywhere else in Manhattan. Now be warned a P.F Changs at the mall this is not but a much more authentic experience.

The best thing to do is just walk around to experience all the great vegetable and seafood stores. The prices are really great and there is just an amazing selection.

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Please stay tuned I have a link party planned..

Irene’s Asian Meatball and Sesame Noodles

Normally I post on a Sunday morning but thought I would post a little early to try get the best of Irene.

As I write this a thought came to me I should have bought some clams to cook a dish just so I could have a post called “The Clam Before The Storm”.I know, a sad attempt at humor but I try.

With hurricane Irene barreling towards us I cooked up this meal figuring if the power goes out this would not be particularly bad served at room temperature.

For the meatballs:

For the meatballs:

• 2 tablespoons of canola oil
• 2 cloves of garlic chopped
• 2 teaspoons of minced ginger
• 2 teaspoon soy sauce
• 3/4 teaspoon sesame oil

• 1lb of Lean Ground Chicken or Turkey
• 1 egg
• 1/4 cup of Panko Breadcrumbs
• 1/2 bunch of scallions sliced finely sliced
• salt and pepper
• Oil for cooking

Heat oil in a pan and add in garlic and ginger and sauté till they sizzle. Turn off heat and add in soy sauce and sesame oil, remove ingredients from pan and set aside to cool. When cool mix all ingredients together. Form into a meatball size of your liking. I shallow fried these and finished cooking the in a moderate oven.

Glaze

• 1 tablespoons of Soy sauce
• 1 tablespoon of hoi sin sauce                    

Mix these together and either pour directly into pan or brushing on top of meatballs.

I basically used this Cold Sesame Noodle Recipe at Epicurious,com I added sesame seeds and a very fine julienne of red peppers,

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On another note the voting is complete and here are the winners of my Thinking Man’s Link Contest

Mia over at Mia’s Domain and her  Roasted Tenderloin of Pork with Caramel Lime Sauce  
                                                                                         
And Heather at  Basilmomma  and her Sausage Risotto

And the randomly drawn name from the comments section was
Jamie at The Unseasoned Wok
I have mailed the prints already and  Mia has already received hers so with any luck the other two winners should be getting their envelopes very soon.

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Garlic Beef With Broccoli From A Spoonful of Ginger

I was one of the lucky winners of an incredible wok starter kit from a contest held by Tiny Urban Kitchen. The kit included an autographed copy of a book by Nina Simonds from Spices of Life site. Both of these sites are well worth your time so be sure to take a look.

The wok kit was pretty cool with everything you'd need to set you on the road to Chinese cooking. I also have the good fortune to have an enormous Asian supermarket within a short walk of my apartment. So getting hold of ingredients was gong to be easy.

I wish  was able to write well enough to do this book justice. It is filled with wonderful recipes that would keep  you cooking for a long time. But what is truly interesting is it’s holistic approach to cooking and good health. With information on foods that are best to eat at different stages in your life and even seasonal menus for health. I cannot wait to try more of the recipes and delve into the health  benefits even more.
I chose Garlic Beef with Broccoli as the first dish I would try as it used the same sauce used on the contest page so you can more or less see the recipe here. Just substitute the chicken for beef and blanch the broccoli in boiling water. I hope my picture does what Nina had in mind justice. The finished dish is delicious and could easily become a new favorite. My Chinese take out may just be getting a whole lot less phone calls.

And because of the Chinese theme of this post I thought sharing a few photos from my trip to San Francisco’s Chinatown might be appropriate.
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