Chinese Marinated Beef Shoulder and Eggs 滷水牛肉 滷水蛋

I craved for the flavored eggs - the ones which are cooked in soy sauce and spices. You can make the marinade from scratch with spices, soy sauce and sugar. I used a "spice sachet" (滷包) which can be purchased in Asian supermarkets, or you can make your own by putting the following ingredients in a sachet and tie it up.

*Spice sachet ingredients*
7 star anise
25g of fennel
5g of dried tangerine peel
10g of Sichuan pepper
10g of licorice
5g of cloves
5g cinnamon (bark)
5g galangal root (or ginger as substitute)

*Ingredients*

Beef shin or beef shoulder (meat with little fat is better)
Eggs (as many as you like)
200 ml soy sauce
50 g sugar (rock sugar is best. If n/a, then cane sugar, brown sugar would also work)

Boil beef shoulder in hot water in a deep pot. Dispose of hot water and add fresh water to the pot to cover the meat. Boil again with soy sauce and sugar. Add spice sachet. Switch to low heat and simmer for 45 minutes.

In the meanwhile, cook eggs in separate pot until they are hard-boiled. Peel eggs. Add to pot of beef and let them simmer together. It is ideal to add eggs after the beef has been simmering for 20 minutes or longer so that the sauce will be more flavorful.

Turn off heat after 45 minutes to 1 hour (or when meat is done) but leave the meat and eggs in the sauce overnight so that the flavors will continue to seep in. Cut the meat into thin slices and it is ready to be served! Eggs are also delicious as the yolk of the egg would have also absorbed the marinade.