Hmm, I'm playing with a bit of brainstorming ... I wonder if one might be able to adapt Tea Eggs with vinegar (and maybe a bit of sugar) into a sort of Five Spice Pickled Eggs which could be sealed shelf safe in Mason jars for later use.
Could filter (cheese cloth, coffee filter, etc.) the crockpot liquid the eggs were steeped in and then add vinegar and sugar. Perhaps dilute the Tea Egg liquid with water first if concerned about over seasoning or over coloring.
I assume it's best (probably in fact necessary) to remove the shells prior to canning as the vinegar (acid) would react with the eggshells (calcium) over time dissolving shell and weakening acid. I figure safe and savory vinegar ratios can be derived from traditional pickled egg recipes.
I'm thinking with a low enough pH (i.e high enough acidity) simple water bath canning would suffice. Although, perhaps with high temp pressure cooker canning some sort of straight Tea Egg (rather than vinegared Pickled Egg/Tea Egg hybrid) might be safely stored. Touch of calcium chloride (or similar agent) might be added as a sequestrant and firming agent to increase shelf stability if needed. Hmm, I'm slipping into minutia ...
Back to 'Five Spice Pickled Eggs' ideas—a simplified method (alas discarding the crackle patterning) would be to hard-boil a bunch of eggs, peel 'em, and then can in Tea Egg inspired/flavoured pickling solution.
I'm imagining could either simmer peeled eggs in bulk in seasoned solution and then transfer to jars or simmer in jars via water bath from the 'get go'. If the later, would likely want to steep seasonings (spices, zest) with the tea to infuse into liquid or simmer before adding to jars.
It might be stylish to make a base liquid (tea, vinegar, salt, sugar) and then add whole spices to the jars. Envisioning piece of cinnamon stick, some peppercorns, slice of ginger, a few cloves, piece of star anise, and some curls of citrus zest swirled in jars of eggs. [I might be inclined to add a hot chili pepper or two]. Give 'em an extra long boil in the water bath and then let the 'em rest a coupla' weeks in the sealed jars to get well infused. Ya' know, throw a little printed fabric under the canning rings and ya' got a novel housewarming gift, etc., yada-yada ...
To sugar or not to sugar — one could likely come up with something quite nice with none at all, but I'm thinking a little would round things out and smooth the edge of the vinegar a bit. Alternatively, one might go 'full on' and take a cue from Sweet Gherkins, Candied Dills, Watermelon Rind Pickles, and such. But Tea Egg flavored instead. I'd be curious to find out how/if a high sugar pickling solution affects egg texture.
A sweet hard-boiled egg may seem counter intuitive to some, but consider sweet egg custard, and eggy batter foods like crepes, waffles, cream puffs, french toast. I suspect it might be quite good.
... Sweet and w/ egg musing has led me to reminisce ...
When I grabbed a copy of "Let's Go Southeast Asia" and went to Thailand some years ago there was a divine treat called "Banana Roti" available from the occasional street vendor. Setup was generally a modest cart with a large round somewhat concave steel griddle. The vendor would work a small ball of dough into a disc—like starting a personal size pizza—and then give a good squirt of cooking oil onto the griddle and then lay in the dough to sizzle. Once the bottom had browned a bit they'd flip it and then crack an egg onto the dough circle and use their spatula to break the yolk and mix it up a some. Then they'd take a banana and use their spatula to swiftly rough dice it over the egg and dough. Then the dough would be folded to center from four sides to make a sealed envelope which would be turned a few times to further brown and cook through. When golden perfection had been achieved, it was pulled to a cutting board, cut a few times along width and length to make bite size squares, and then deftly slid 'en masse' into a cardboard 'boat' (like fries and such come in sometimes). It was then drizzled with sweetened condensed milk and given a light sprinkle of granulated sugar. The vendor would then jab a bamboo skewer into one of the pieces as a utensil and serve it to you with a smile. Pure roadside nirvana.
When a roti cart come through the residential neighborhood in Chieng Mai—where the guesthouse I stayed at was tucked away—we reacted like a little kids running to an ice-cream truck.
I was surprised at how much I liked it at first, but when I broke it down ... egg, banana, milk, sugar, toasted wheat crust ... pretty much a banana custard which had been assembled a bit differently.
Regardless, yum, yum, yum, nom nom nom : }
