A Unusual Snack (Tea Eggs)

You know those marble eggs you see at craft fairs and never buy, because you know that one day the kids will be fighting and they will grab it off the knick-knack shelf and toss it through a window?  You can make the culinary version of marbled eggs by following a simple, although extended method of preparation.  Tea eggs are good things to have hanging around the fridge to snack on.  They can also be included whole into many Chinese style stews.  tea eggs are beautiful to look at and have a rich, vibrant and complex flavor.

This recipe is adapted from Barbara Tropp’s The Modern Art of Chinese Cooking, Hearst, 1982.  It is an essential resource, with easily understood recipes.  A revised paperback version is available on Amazon for $3.57.  Tropp argues that this recipe is best made with older eggs, ones that have been in the fridge for a week.  They will peel easier and since this recipe is all about the smooth, marbled appearance of peeled eggs, go with the older ones.  Use fresh, aromatic tea and make them ahead, allowing the eggs to marinate in the broth for an extended period of about 18 hours.

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Tea Eggs

8 large eggs

2 tbs. soy sauce

1/4 tsp. salt

2 whole star anise, broken

2 tbs. fresh, whole black tea leaves

1 cinnamon stick

2 2-inch strips of orange peel, remove white pith

Hard cook the eggs by putting the eggs in a large soup pot and covering them with cold water.  Add 1/2 tbs. salt and bring them to a boil.  Turn down the heat and simmer for 20 minutes uncovered.  Drain then cool under cold running water.  When the eggs have cooled, using the back of a large serving spoon, tap the eggs while turning, creating a spider web network of cracks in the shell. 

Place the eggs in a slightly smaller pot, one that gives them a little room, but where they fit snugly.  Cover the eggs with about 3 cups cold water.  There should be 1 1/2 inches of water over their top.  Add the seasonings and quickly bring the water to a boil.  Reduce the heat to a low simmer, stir to make sure that the seasonings are submerged and cover the pot, simmer for 3 hours.  Occasionally top off the liquid if has boiled away and swirl it to make sure that the seasonings stay in solution.

After boiling, turn off the heat and allow the eggs to steep for at least 8 hours at room temperature or up to 18 hours.  Discard the liquid.  Refrigerate the eggs tightly covered.  They will keep for at least 4 days in the refrigerator.

The eggs should be peeled before serving, either cold or at room temperature.     

Make Pasta, But Do It Right (spaghetti with fennel and Italian sausage)

Pasta is easy.  It really is however there are a few unbreakable rules.  The first is that you have to understand the noodle that you are using.  Generally, pasta has a neutral, pleasant grain flavor.  The flavors derived from carrot, spinach or squid ink are also understated.  Those ingredients are mostly there to contribute orange, green or black color.  I’ve never been a big fan of multicolor pasta, although there was a chef in Lambertville who served white and black angel hair with his zebra chops.  That seemed to be more of a laugh than a culinary breakthrough.

Shape matters.  Those ridges on your penne will hold the sauce.  That’s why rigatoni should be baked with sauce and messy cheeses (always plural), because it is smooth on the outside and will not sauce well.  Size is also important.  You should match the size of the flavoring ingredients with the size of the pasta.  That’s why bowties, farfalle, makes such great salad when combined with celery, red onion, pepperoncini, provolone and big hunks of salami.

Since it is such a simple thing to prepare, if it is not done correctly, the dish will be a complete disaster.  It’s rare that I will cop out and tell you to follow the manufacturer’s advice, but with pasta, their cooking directions are usually right on.  Again, you won’t hear me recommending avoidance of store brands often.  Name brand pasta, in my experience at least, tends to cook up more evenly and taste better than store brand.  It also only costs a quarter more, so this might not be a place to count pennies.

Pasta’s greatest contribution to a dish, much like tofu, is that it has a subtle, delicate taste and will soak up the flavors of whatever it is paired with.  That’s why tomato sauce and any of the cream sauces work so well with noodles.  Additionally, something simple like olive oil, garlic and basil, all strong flavors, elevate pasta to greatness.  I lived on that in college.

Today’s recipe is designed to show off a few things.  Pasta that is hot when combined with the sauce will soak it up more readily that cold noodles.  You’ll be making the sauce as the pasta boils.  Don’t worry.  It is a simple process.  We’ll also play with flavor, doing a spin on Carbonara, the classic egg yolk, onion, garlic and bacon sauce by instead using a whole egg, fennel, garlic and Italian sausage.  Using the same technique, while making a few substitutions creates a new dish that I hope you’ll like.

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Spaghetti with Fennel and Italian Sausage (serves 4 as an appetizer, 2 as a main course)

½ pound spaghetti

4 oz. Italian sausage, hot or sweet

2 eggs

1 c. fresh fennel, thinly sliced

1 c. heavy cream

½ c. Locatelli or Parmesean cheese, grate your own*

1 clove garlic, chopped

salt and black pepper

Following the directions on the package, boil a large pot of salted water and cook the spaghetti al dente, so that is cooked through, but still firm.  Begin making the sauce when the spaghetti goes in the pot.

Remove the sausage from its casing and brown it on a high heat in a large sauté pan.  Drain 2/3 of the grease from the pan.  Break the egg into the pan.  Scramble it, add the garlic and fennel.  Sauté these aromatics until the fennel has wilted.  Pour in the cream and 2/3 of the grated cheese.  Reduce the sauce by half.

By this time, the spaghetti will be properly cooked.  Drain it, then immediately add it to the sauce.  Stir it together, blending the sauce and the spaghetti.  Plate immediately, topping with the remainder of the grated cheese.

*Yes, grate you own.  Read the packaging on the pregrated stuff.  Unless you think that eating “powdered cellulose,” sawdust, is a good thing, you should take the 30 seconds it’ll take to grate up some cheese.

Snowed In (French toast)

Just a brief note, since we are all in the process of being buried in Snowmageddon.  Really, look at all the red stuff spilled all over the Weather Channel.  They’re calling it Winter Storm Janus.  Interesting, Janus is an old Roman god with two faces, looking backward and forward.  Let’s look back, just one day.  What did the supermarket parking lot look like?  Mine was a crazy place, filled with folks desperately grabbing up every loaf of bread, dozens of eggs and gallons of milk, apparently prepping to be snowed in until May.  I’d prefer to look forward.  What should we do with all those provisions?

French toast?  Yep that’s the best thing to do with bread, eggs and milk.  You’re gonna need the calories to shovel away Janus, although everyone I know will be spending the day zoning on X-Box and Netfliks instead of digging out. 

Either way, here’s a good breakfast.

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French Toast serves 4

12 slices of white bread

3 cups whole milk

4 large eggs

1 cup brown sugar

1 tbs. ground cinnamon

1/3 tsp. ground nutmeg

3 tsp. unsalted butter

Whisk the milk and eggs together in a 9 X 12 baking pan.  Stir in the brown sugar, cinnamon and nutmeg.  Allow the batter to rest for 10 minutes until the sugar dissolves and the spices soak in.

Place 4 slices of bread in the batter.  Do not just dunk the bread, let it soak up the sweet egg mixture.  Carefully, transfer the bread to a hot buttered griddle or large sauté pan.  Cook for about 2 minutes, until the bread looks dry, then flip it over and cook for another minute.  The bread will brown and puff up, soufflé.  Repeat until all the bread has been cooked. 

Serve immediately with butter and real maple syrup.

*You can pour an ounce of rum into the batter if George or CJ (or any other lusty blaggard pirates) are coming over for breakfast.