Tea Leaf Eggs

Today when P stepped out of the house, I threw together the materials for this in half an hour. And left it there for a long while. And then it was done! Easy!

Tea Leaf Eggs

6 eggs
3 bags of black tea (chinese and english tea are both fine)
1 cinnamon stick (about 2 inches)
1 tsp chinese five spice powder
5 cloves
5 tbsp soy sauce
3 cups water

Boil eggs in plain water for about 3 minutes until solid.
Crack with the back of your spoon. These will form the marbled patterns on the eggs.
Put in the rest of the ingredients.
Simmer on low fire and steep for at least 2 hours.

DONE!

Mini-steak

I wonder why I did not explore the mysteries of steak earlier. This turned out far more tasty than I expected. This may have also been because I put the beef in this improvised/made-up marinade for a few hours longer than I expected to have it marinade because Mr P was packing in the house like crazy so cooking was delayed but in the end these were very easy to prepare and the results were unbelievably tasty.

Perfect Steak Marinade

2 tbsp soy sauce
2 tbsp worcestershire sauce
1 tsp of butter, melted
thyme or italian herbs

1. Marinade for as long as you can possibly bear (1-3 hours)
2. Fry in a skillet with butter for 10 minutes or less for medium rare steak. Timing depends on thickness and requires some estimation. As a general rule, do not exceed 10 minutes.

As for the sides...

Boiled Potatoes

1. Skin the potatoes and cut them into large chunks.
2. Throw them into a big pot of water with a pinch of salt. Boil for approx 20 min.
3. Heat a small sauceboat of butter. Pour butter over potatoes as required.

Caramelised Onions

1. Cut up onions.
2. Fry in pan at moderate heat. Add cracked pepper and a pinch of sugar. If feeling fancy, make a red wine reduction along with the remnants of the sauce produced after pan frying the beef.