Marinated Soft Boiled Egg 溏心蛋 (táng xīn dàn) is an easy yummy appetizer, snack or addition to a rice dish, ramen or poke. The main feature of this egg is that the egg white is solid and the yolk is runny. In contrast, in the more common Soy Marinated Egg 鹵水蛋 (lú shuǐ dàn), the yolk is fully-cooked.
Ever since I learned to make soft boiled egg, I’ve never gone back to eating a fully cooked yolk. I can’t think of anything better than biting into an egg with a sweet soy marinade and soft creamy yolk! My son used to call it “egg gravy” and he loved it on his rice and with toast. I like to drizzle some sweet soy sauce on top. Some pork cracklings wouldn't hurt either!
Tea leaf egg 茶葉蛋 (chá yè dàn) is quite similar to the Soy Marinated Egg 鹵水但 except that the shell is cracked and left on. The cracked shell leaves very cool markings on the eggs. But I still prefer the eggs with the shell removed for convenience sake.
In my Marinated Soft Boiled Egg 溏心蛋, I’ll show you how to cook the eggs perfectly and they are easy to peel without making craters in the egg white. It doesn’t matter if the eggs are fresh or a couple of weeks old, they always come out perfectly.
You can marinate these eggs for 3 hours or 3 days. Of course, the longer you have it in the marinade, the more flavourful they become. The egg yolk will also solidify more as you marinate it for longer. I’ve had some that I had forgotten in the fridge and after a week, they were super tasty but a bit rubbery (a good kind of rubbery). If you like the flavour of Shaoxing wine, add some to the marinade. After marinating, you can also smoke them with some tea leaves in a wok to add even more aroma.
I like to make a batch of 8 to 10 and keep them in the fridge. It makes a great after school snack that kids love. Great for grown ups with low carb diets too!
Love eggs? Here are a couple of my family favourites: Tomato, Egg and Beef on Rice 滑蛋蕃茄牛肉飯 & Steamed Egg with Pork 滑蛋蒸豬肉.
Marinated Soft Boiled Egg 溏心蛋
Ingredients
- 8 Large eggs
- 125 ml Light soy sauce
- 500 ml Water
- 40 g Rock sugar
- 2 Star anise
- 1 Small cinnamon stick
- 2 Bay leaves
- 2 slices Ginger (optional)
Instructions
- In a pot, add 125ml light soy sauce, 500ml water, 40g rock sugar, 2 star anise, 1 small cinnamon stick, 2 bay leaves and 2 slices of ginger (optional). Heat on medium heat until the mixture comes to a boil. Cook on low for 30 minutes so that the liquid absorbs the aroma of the spices. Let cool
- In another pot, fill with water enough to submerse the eggs completely (do not put the eggs in yet). Bring water to a boil
Adding the egg when the water boils is how you can peel the shell off the egg without ripping off parts of the white - Using eggs directly out of the fridge, carefully put the eggs into the boiling water
Using a ladle or wire strainer will help - Set timer for 7 minutes
If you want the egg yolk completely runny, use 6 ½ minutes; for a more solid egg yolk, cook for 7 ½ minutes - Roll the eggs around the pot gently for 2 minutes so that the yolk is in the middle of the egg
- Once 7 minutes are up, remove the eggs and submerse in running cold water for 1 minute to stop the cooking process
- Once the eggs have cooled, peel the eggs and rinse off traces of the shell, if any
- Place the eggs into a container for marinating
- Pour the marinade through a strainer onto the eggs and discard the spices
The eggs will float to the top and if you don’t rotate it after an hour, you’ll get a white area that wasn’t submersed in the marinade. This will also happen if the eggs are touching each other. You can prevent this by rotating the eggs hourly if you plan on consuming them in 3 hours. Rotate them daily if you plan on eating them in 2 or 3 days. - When ready to serve, slice with a sharp knife to get a clean cut but you can always wipe the egg yolk off the egg white with a kitchen towel
- Serve
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