I’ve been busy preparing for Easter service, which we now call as Resurrection Sunday to celebrate the risen of Jesus Christ. And although my church does not use eggs to represent Easter like when I was a Sunday School kid, I was still intrigued to make something out of eggs.
The egg symbolized new life emerging from the eggshell, just like we get new life when Jesus is risen from the death. In some tradition, eggs are painted red to symbolize the blood that Jesus shed on the cross, and maybe that is why we decorate the Easter eggs nowadays.
One of the very popular traditional egg dish from Indonesia is Egg Pindang or Telur Pindang or also known as tea eggs. It was originated from China but Indonesians made their own way of cooking the eggs. The hard boiled eggs are cooked in low heat in a very long time with some spices and tea leaves to give the nice brown color outside and inside the eggs. For us, some people don’t even use tea leaves, we use bay leaves, jambu leaves, and shallot skins. You will definitely need time and patience to make this dish, but you will be happy with the result. The eggs will be in shiny dark brown color. It is very easy to make, but you need to leave the eggs overnight for best results.
Ingredients:
- 15 hard boiled eggs, remove the shells
- 1.5 L of water
- 5 shallots
- 3 garlic
- 25 gr coconut sugar (red palm sugar)
- 2 tbsp sweet soy sauce
- 1 tbsp dark soy sauce
- 5 bay leaves
- 1 tbsp roughly ground dried black tea leaves (loose black tea leaves)
- 1 tbsp salt
- 1/4 tsp ground white pepper
Method:
- In a large pot, add eggs and all other ingredients. Bring to a boil
- Reduce to low heat and half covered the pot with a lid and cook until 1/2 liquid has evaporated. Close the lid and let rest for 6 hours or overnight
- Cook again until the amount of liquid is just enough liquid to cover the eggs. Cover and let cool completely
- Strain and wash the eggs from the tea leaves that attached to the eggs
- Serve as side dish with steamed rice
Making memories in every dish 