Thai fried egg salad
Yam khai dao is a quick Thai home-style salad, good for days when the fridge holds mostly eggs: eggs fried in plenty of hot oil until the edges are crisp and lacy, cut up and tossed with cherry tomatoes, shallot, celery and coriander in a dressing of lime, fish sauce and chilli. “Yam” is a Thai dressed salad, and “khai dao”, literally “star egg”, is a fried egg. Contrast is everything here: crisp white, runny yolk and a sour-salty-hot dressing. It is usually eaten with jasmine rice.
Your own work in that: 13 min.
- Dressing 5 min
- Frying the eggs 12 min
- Assembling 8 min
Step by step
0 / 8 doneMake the dressing
Dissolve the sugar in the lime juice, then add the fish sauce, crushed garlic and finely chopped chilli. It should be sour, salty, sweet and hot at once.
Ingredients: 2 tbsp fish sauce · 3 tbsp lime juice · 1½ tsp sugar · 1 clove garlic · 2 pcs small red chillies
Four tastes in one small bowl.Prepare the vegetables
Halve the tomatoes, slice the shallots thinly, slice the celery with its leaves, and roughly chop the coriander and spring onion.
Ingredients: 150 g cherry tomatoes · 2 pcs shallots · 1 pcs celery stick with leaves · ½ bunch coriander · 2 pcs spring onions
Heat the oil
Pour the oil into the wok — it should be about 2 cm deep at the deepest point (150 ml is not enough in a flat pan). Heat it until a scrap of bread sizzles hard at once (about 180°C). Never leave hot oil unattended; if it catches fire, cover the wok with a lid and turn off the heat — never use water.
Ingredients: 4 pcs eggs · 150 ml oil for frying
Fry the eggs
Crack an egg into a dry cup, then slide it gently into the oil from just above the surface — it spits hard, so stand back and do not lean over the wok. Fry 2 minutes, spooning oil over the white, until the edges are brown and lacy and the yolk still runny.
Ingredients: 4 pcs eggs · 150 ml oil for frying
Plenty of hot oil — the edges turn lacy.Drain the eggs
Lift the egg onto paper with a slotted spoon and fry the rest the same way — about 10 minutes for all 4. Let the oil heat up again before each egg.
Ingredients: 4 pcs eggs · 150 ml oil for frying
Cut the eggs
Cut each egg into 4–6 pieces with a sharp knife.
Ingredients: 4 pcs eggs · 150 ml oil for frying
A sharp knife keeps the yolk from squashing.Toss
In a bowl, gently toss the vegetables with the dressing, then add the egg pieces and turn once only so the yolks do not break.
Ingredients: 150 g cherry tomatoes · 2 pcs shallots · 1 pcs celery stick with leaves · ½ bunch coriander · 2 pcs spring onions
Serve
Tip onto a plate, pour over the rest of the dressing from the bowl and serve at once, ideally with cooked jasmine rice — the crispness fades within minutes.
Ingredients: 150 g cherry tomatoes · 2 pcs shallots · 1 pcs celery stick with leaves · ½ bunch coriander · 2 pcs spring onions
Before you start
Runny yolk
A runny yolk is not safe for children, pregnant women, the elderly or anyone immunocompromised — after 2 minutes flip their eggs and fry 1–2 minutes more, until the yolk is completely set.
Chinese celery and fish sauce
Thailand uses thin, strongly flavoured Chinese celery. It turns up in Asian grocers, but ordinary celery with leaves stands in well — use mainly the thinner inner sticks. Fish sauce is sold in the Asian aisle of most supermarkets.
Storage
Eat at once — the eggs soften in the dressing. The dressing can be made ahead and kept in the fridge for up to 3 days.
