Spicy Pickled Eggs

Pickled eggs, now there is a word to get me salivating and to confuse or dismay 90% of my country men and women. I bloody love them but the urban myths and scare stories are rife. Hard boiled eggs pickled in a spicy vinegar solution are a match made in heaven for malty English beer and salty English crisps. I have been making, and consuming them for about 2 decades now and I swear by them. On my recent England trip it was heartening to try both average and gourmet (http://www.purelypickledeggs.co.uk/) and find that what I have been producing at home here in the antipodes for 20 years has been spot on. Here is my basic recipe.

As many eggs as you think will fill your jar or jars
A 50/50 blend of malt and cider vinegar, enough to fill your jars around the eggs
Handfull black peppercorns
Handfull cumin seed
3 or 4 dried chilli
A bayleaf for every jar , I use fresh from my tree
Teaspoon of fennel seed
Teaspoon of mustard seed

Take your clean jars and boil or use whatever usual preserving technique you use to sanitise.

Place your eggs in a large pot , cover with cold water, bring to the boil and boil for 10 to 15 min.

cool eggs rapidly in running cold water for 5 min

shell eggs placing rinsed shelled eggs into your sanitised jars

In a heavy bottomed non reactive pot bring all other ingredients to a boil

Cover jared eggs with hot spiced vinegar solution being carfefull to distribute solid spices amongst the jars

seal lids , invert to sanitise the tops with hot vinegar

leave to cool before washing the exterior of the jars

Store somewhere cool and dark for at least a fortnight , refrigerate after opening.

This is my base recipe , you can play with spices , chilli intensity , coloured ingredients (turmeric, beetroot ect ) . They are the ultimate bar snack and as I state above the perfect partner to a pack of crisps , Walkers Cheese and Onion get my vote. They also work well on a cheese and or meat platter , and if you haven’t had a pickled egg, cheddar and mayo sandwich , well frankly you have not lived.