fried egg salad

Fried Egg Salad [Yam Khai Dao] Adapted, just a little, from the Pok Pok Cookbook I made several liberal interpretations here. I used readily-available celery, not Chinese. I used less than one chile because my husband declared it “plenty hot” only to find that we might not have minded the second one, since the other dressing ingredients mellowed it a lot. If you’ve got palm sugar and want to make palm sugar simple syrup (here’s the recipe online), you absolutely should, but I just used 1 tablespoon water + 1 teaspoon dark brown sugar instead. Finally, the salad is supposed to be tossed at the end in a hot wok with the dressing you’ve made, but I found pouring the hot dressing over the salad and tossing it to be an acceptable substitute. It only lightly wilted the ingredients, my preference. For the to-the-letter version, plus an almost unfair amount of delicious inspiration in one place (hello, fish sauce wings, papaya salad and grilled corn with salty coconut cream), I cannot recommend the cookbook enough.

Unbalanced

% Daily Values based on a 2,000 calorie diet

Step 1

Fry eggs: Heat a wok or small skillet over the highest heat. Once hot, add enough oil to reach a depth of a generous 1/4-inch. Once the oil is hot enough to smoke, carefully crack the eggs into the oil — cautiously, as they will splatter a lot — and decrease the heat to medium-high. The eggs will hiss, sputter and the whites should puff and develop translucent bubbles. Once they’re very crispy and a deep golden brown underneath, 45 seconds to 1 minute, use a thin spatula to flip the eggs, trying not to break the yolks but not fretting if it happens. Cook for another minute on the second side, until the yolks are set but still slightly molten (aim to have them a little less loose than mine, shown above). Transfer eggs to paper towels; you can cook them up to 15 minutes before serving. Discard oil and wipe out wok or skillet.

Step 2

Assemble salad: Place all salad ingredients in a large bowl. Quarter the eggs through the yolks and add them to the salad.

Step 3

Make the dressing: Place the lime juice, palm syrup or dark brown sugar and water, fish sauce, garlic and chiles in the same wok or skillet. Set it over medium heat and heat the mixture until it just begins to sizzle at the edges, less than 30 seconds.

Step 4

Finish and serve: Pour the hot dressing over the salad and eggs. Stir gently to combine. If you’re feeling fancy, transfer the salad, liquid at all, to a plate in a low heap. Eat at once.

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