This is a great recipe to make with your kids. They also make a wonderful centre piece at a party.

This recipe is taken from our cookery book Spanish Village Cooking – Recetas del Campo. It can also be found along with 8 other fun recipes in our free download – Cooking With Your Kids – 9 Spanish Recipes, which you can get immediately by signing up to our newsletter.

Boiled eggs are used a lot in cookery here in Murcia, mainly because most countryside houses have their own free range chickens. If you have a dozen eggs to spare this is great way to use them up and have fun with your kids.

This recipe was provided by Consuelo Sánchez from La Murta, she was taught how to make these snowman in Sección Femenina classes more than 40 years ago.

Boiled Egg Snowmen – Huevos Chinos – Recipe in Spanish & English

Ingredients

Español:

12 huevos
Anchoas
Olivas rellenas
Unas granitos de pimienta
Pimiento rojo en conserva
Tomate frito
Palillos

English:

12 medium eggs hard boiled
Small tin of anchovies
Small tin of stuffed olives
36 black peppercorns
Jar of roasted red peppers
Tomato frito
Cocktail sticks

Instructions

Español:

Se cuecen los huevos. Después se le corta la parte más fina del huevo, un trocito. Se coge un palillo, se pone al huevo hacia abajo donde se lo ha cortado la capa en un recipiente con tomate frito y encima se pone la parte que hemos cortado.
Tomar una oliva rellena y hacer un corte a modo de boca. Poner 3 pimientas negras en 'la cara' de cada oliva para hacer los ojos y la nariz. Poner una oliva rellena en un palillo y ponerlo encima del huevo haciendo la cabeza.
Ese trocito de huevo que le hemos cortado, se deja para hacer el sombrero del chinito. Con un poco de pimiento se hace la bufanda y la anchoa se le pone en la parte de arriba y se le pone con el mismo palillo.

English:

Peel the hard boiled eggs. Chop the bottom 1/4 off, so that the egg can stand up, like in the photo. Keep the chopped off part as the hat.
Tip the tomato frito onto a serving plate, place the 12 eggs standing up in the frito.
Take a stuffed olive and cut a little slit to make a mouth. Poke three black peppercorns into the 'face' of each olive to make eyes and nose.
Push a stuffed olive onto a cocktail stick and push it through the egg, making a head. Push the cut off egg part onto the stick and top with an anchovy.
Slip a little cut red pepper round the snowman's neck as a scarf.

Spanish Village Cooking – Recetas del Campo… Over 150 simple, family recipes from a rural village in Spain… Enjoy over 150 simple, family recipes from a small village in Murcia. These recipes have been handed down through generations, grandmother to mother to daughter, making use of local, homegrown ingredients and traditional cooking methods. The chefs of La Murta generously share their secrets, so you can enjoy fresh, Spanish food from the heart of the Sierra del Carrascoy.