Tea eggs

Whenever we travel to China, there is one thing I always get for a snack: cha ye dan, or marbled tea eggs. Tea eggs are incredibly easy and fun to make – simply cook the eggs, crack, then simmer in a tea broth, and finally steep in the broth overnight. The flavour seeps in through the cracks and spreads through the entire egg. It also leaves beautiful marbled lines from the gentle cracks of the shell. I use star anise, cinnamon, five spice, sugar, soy sauce and orange peels as my flavourings, but you could use other spices – cloves, nutmeg, maybe even some bourbon.