Fried Egg Salad (Yum Kai Dao)

December 22, 2009

Fried Egg Salad (Yum Kai Dao) © kvalifood.com

A classic Thai home-cooked salad where crispy deep-fried eggs are tossed with fresh vegetables and a spicy-sour dressing. “Kai dao” means fried egg in Thai (literally “star egg”), and the eggs here are fried in plenty of oil until the whites are bubbly, browned, and crisp with just-set yolks. Simple, fast, and surprisingly satisfying.

Ingredients

Serves 4 as an appetizer or 2 as an entree

The Dressing

1-2 Thai chilies
2 Tbsp palm sugar, finely chopped, packed
60 ml lime juice
3 Tbsp fish sauce

The Salad

4 eggs, room temperature
Vegetable oil for frying eggs (enough to fill about 1 ½ cm in the pan)
1/4 onion, julienned
2 stalks Chinese celery (or inner stalks of regular celery), leaves left whole, stalks cut into 2 ½ cm pieces
125 ml grape tomatoes, halved
1-2 green onions, chopped
½ dl cilantro, chopped
60 ml roasted peanuts, lightly crushed

Directions

Pound the Thai chilies into a paste in a mortar, then add the palm sugar and pound until dissolved. Add the lime juice and fish sauce, swirling the pestle to combine. Without a mortar, finely mince the chilies and stir everything together in a small bowl until the sugar dissolves. The dressing can be made ahead and refrigerated.

For the eggs, add about 1/2 inch of oil to a wok or small frying pan. Fry one egg at a time for best results. Heat the oil until very hot but not smoking - drop a tiny scrap of food in to test; it should bubble immediately. Crack the egg directly into the centre of the pan and reduce heat to medium. The white should start bubbling right away. Baste the top of the egg with hot oil as it cooks. Once the edges are browned and crispy and the yolk is set but still moist in the centre, remove and drain on paper towel. Repeat with the remaining eggs.

Cut the fried eggs into bite-sized pieces and add to a large bowl with the onion, celery, grape tomatoes, green onions, and cilantro. Pour the dressing over and toss gently. Taste and adjust seasoning.

Transfer to a plate, sprinkle with crushed peanuts, and serve on its own or with jasmine rice.

Notes

Use room-temperature eggs so the whites spread wider and get crispier edges. Older eggs work better too, as their whites are thinner.
Crack eggs directly into the oil rather than from a bowl - this keeps the yolk centred and reduces the risk of breaking it.
The yolks should not be runny since you are cutting the eggs up. Aim for moist but set.
If an egg sticks to the pan, let it cook for a minute before gently nudging it off with a thin spatula.
Do not let the assembled salad sit too long or the eggs will lose their crispiness.