Wild Tea-Marbled Eggs

So, tonight's post is going to be a quickie.  But surely you value a good quickie - adjusts the hormones and relaxes you after all.  No long story, no deep thoughts, just tasty food. In the end, what else endures?

Check that, I've got a short story.  So, a few weeks ago, I was in a car with Hank Shaw, and mentioned something about how I wanted to make a wild tea-marbled egg, thinking I was having some sort of genius moment.  Hank turns to me and says, "oh, like my madrone tea eggs?"

Oh yeah, right.  Like that.  So much for genius moments.  I'll console myself with the idea that great minds think alike.

You can make tea eggs NorCal-stylie like Hank, or dressed up with Rocky Mountain flavors like me.  But really, I encourage you to use the flavors of your own home.  I used this recipe for reference.

Here's the long and short of it.  Soft-boiled eggs.  Break their shells with a spoon - tap tap tap.  Boil them in a strong tea for a bit, then turn off the heat and let them infuse.  You'll end up with eggs that are touched by your favorite flavors, and also have the rather awesome side benefit of looking like mini dinosaur eggs.

Wild Tea-Marbled Eggs

6 eggs
enough water to cover by an inch
1/4 c. porcini soy sauce
1/2 c. dried fermented raspberry leaf tea
1 4x6" chunk of Ponderosa pine bark
8 crushed juniper berries

1.  Place eggs in a small pot, and cover with water by an inch.  Bring the water to a boil, reduce heat until it reaches a simmer, and let it roll for 4 minutes.

2.  Fish the eggs out of the water, and place them in a bowl of cold water.

3.  Once the eggs have cooled to the touch, tap each one with with back of a spoon.  You want to thoroughly crunch the egg without actually tattering the shell into pieces.  Get the shell well broken up without destroying it.

4.  Place the porcini soy sauce, rasberry leaf tea, Ponderosa pine bark, and juniper berries into the same pot of water.  Bring the whole lot to a boil, lower the bashed eggs in gently with a slotted spoon, then reduce the heat to a simmer.

5.  Simmer the eggs for 30 minutes, turn off the heat, and let them sit for at least 4 hours.

7.  I like these eggs served cold.  Understand that part of the joy of these wild tea-marbled eggs is in peeling them, and revealing the alligator pattern on the surface of the egg and inside the shell.  Ooooh, purty!

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Yo, it's time to send me your wildcrafted tea recipes for the round up, pronto! Email them to wildthings.roundup@gmail.com right now in order to see them appear in the collection that goes live on Thursday.