Golden Eggs (黄金蛋）

I love eggs. It doesn’t matter how it is cooked or prepared…over easy, poached, scrambled, hard boiled, soft boiled.. you get the point. To make these golden eggs, you will have to practice a few times to get the timing of the eggs just right. But when you do, the eggs are hardboiled, with a golden, partially runny yolk on the inside. YUM! You just have to be a hawk when watching the water boil with the eggs. The worse part is seeing the eggs in the fridge but having to wait 3 days to get just the right flavor and color. A true test of willpower… (that I have failed many times).

Prep time: 20-30 min Marinade time: 3-4 days
Ingredients:

eggs, at room temperature
ginger, 1 inch piece
3 stalks green onions
1 cup chinese cooking rice wine
1 cup soy sauce
3 cups water
rock sugar, roughly 1 inch piece
1 anise star
cornstarch
egg perfect egg timer, optional (works pretty well- I picked mine up at sur la table). If you don’t have one, make sure you have a timer handy.

Directions:
1. In a large pot, add room temperature eggs and enough water to cover eggs. Place the egg perfect egg timer in the middle of the eggs in the pot.

2. Prepare a bowl/pot of cold water nearby to cool the eggs once they cook.

3. On medium heat, start heating the water. Make sure you are watching the pot closely.
-If you are using the egg perfect egg timer, you want to watch to see when the black increases up to the “soft” line.
-If you you are using a regular timer, once the water start to boil (like consistent bubbling covering the whole surface), set a timer for 3 minutes.

4. Once it reaches that point (either the “soft” line or 3 minutes), immediately scoop out the eggs and put them into the cool ice bath on the side (or rinse in cold water like I did…).

5. Gently, crack some of the eggs just a little to help in the cooling and make the peeling easier for later. Keep in cold water.

6. Next, prepare the marinade for the eggs. Slice the ginger into large discs and cut green onion into large pieces.

7. Heat a large deep skillet/wok, with no oil, over low/med heat. Break the anise star into pieces and add in to release the oils for 1-2 min, stirring. Add in the ginger and green onion until starting to brown.

8. Add in the water, soy sauce, wine and rock sugar to the skillet. Heat for ~3-5min while stirring until the rock sugar has complete dissolved. Let cool to room temperature.

9. Peel now cooled eggs and return to empty bowl.

10. Once the sauce has completely cooled, add into bowl with eggs, cover bowl, and put in refrigerator to let marinade for 3 days. After a day or so, flip the eggs to let all sides marinade evenly.

11. Once three days are up.. or before if you’re like me and can’t wait, scoop eggs out and enjoy!