Marbled eggs

I have discovered a recipe for tea-infused eggs in the Guardian readers' recipe swap back in September (scroll down if you visit the link). I wanted to try it myself, as they sounded marvellously exotic.

In the original recipe you had to boil 6 eggs for 10 minutes, then rinse with cold water. Taking a teaspoon, carefully smack it all over the shell, getting a crackled effect (without peeling them).
Then the fun part begins. Place the eggs in a pan with cold water, and start adding 3tbsp of pu-erh tea, 1 anise seed, a cinnamon stick, 1tbsp of sugar, a couple of garlic cloves and 5 slices of ginger.
Bring the tea with eggs to the boil, reduce the heat and simmer for 3hours. Keep an eye on the water level, and add more water for the eggs to be covered.
That's exactly how I made them. They looked very pretty, with a marbled effect.

Taste-wise, they were much milder than I expected. They were also slightly sweet. So, I decided to add more spices and cook the remaining eggs for another half hour and then let them infuse overnight.
I added more garlic and ginger as well as a couple of tablespoons of balsamic vinegar, plus the peel from the orange and lemon zest.

We had them with hot noodle soup (I used a kit from Waitrose which contains noodles, dried mushrooms and sauce). It was a lovely bowl of soup.

I will make marbled eggs again, especially around Easter time, but will try to experiment with different spices.
It might be a bit time-consuming to cook the eggs, but if you make a big batch, they will keep in the fridge for a couple of days. How about making an egg mayo sandwich with a difference?

Also adding my noodle soup with marbled eggs to No Croutons Required linky.