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The days following Easter give me two things I love: April showers and plenty of hard-boiled eggs. The USDA recommends hard-cooked eggs get eaten within seven days. The clock is ticking, and you might have trouble keeping it interesting after three days of egg sandwiches. Switch things up with this spin on a Thai fried egg salad that’s simple and full of flavor.
Yam khai dao, or yum kai dao, is a Thai salad that features chopped pieces of the eponymous khai dao, a crispy, chewy fried egg that I like to put on everything. The best part about shallow-frying an egg like this is the marriage of textures. The egg white exposed to the hot oil develops a crisp brown and blistered skin while the interior white and yolk remain silky and tender. After the egg is cooked, you roughly chop it and add the pieces to a heap of veggies. The salad is drizzled with a dressing that ticks all the boxes: sweet, sour, salty, and spicy. It’s a salad that ends too fast every time.
Highly-rated pans for the perfect khai dao:
How to make yam khai dao
You can make this salad any time of year, but post-Easter you have the unique opportunity to use leftover boiled eggs instead of frying raw ones like a traditional khai dao.
1. Fry the eggs
If you haven’t peeled your eggs yet, go ahead and free them of their shells. I like to rinse off any bits of shell or membrane stuck to the white. If you do this, make sure you use a paper towel afterward to dry off the eggs thoroughly. Drying them will reduce oil splatter later, since we’ll be rolling them around in hot oil. Heat a tablespoon of a neutral cooking oil in a frying pan over medium heat.
I use a fork and poke a hole or two into my eggs before frying. If you forget, I think it’ll be okay. I don’t think they’ll explode but I’d rather not find out.
Credit: Allie Chanthorn Reinmann
Just like in these steps for khai dao, tilting a frying pan allows me to shallow-fry with less oil. You can opt to use a wok for frying instead. Once the oil is hot, tilt the pan to make a puddle of oil and add an egg. Keep the pan tilted and fry for about one minute. Turn the egg over to the next side and fry for another minute. The white should become bubbly and brown on the outside. Drain the egg on a paper-towel-lined plate and repeat this with the next eggs.
2. Make the dressing
Mix the salad dressing of sugar, fish sauce, lime juice, and chopped chilies in a small bowl so the sugar dissolves.
3. Assemble the salad
Thinly slice red onion, celery, tomatoes, red peppers, or really any type of vegetable you like with salad. Toss the slices together and pile them onto a plate. Chop the eggs into quarters and nestle them on top of the vegetables. Drizzle the fish sauce dressing over the entire plate and add a sprinkle of salt.
Surprisingly, shallow-frying your hard boiled eggs won’t overcook the centers. I steam my eggs to get a jammy center and even after the second cooking my eggs were crisp and chewy on the outer edge with a tender interior white and jammy yolk. One forkful of hard boiled khai dao topped with crunchy veggies and you’ll be smitten with the wonderful balance of flavors and textures. You can personalize the flavors in the dressing as well as the spice by adjusting the ratio of ingredients.
Yam Khai Dao with Leftover Boiled Eggs
Ingredients:
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4 boiled eggs, peeled
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1 tablespoon neutral cooking oil
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¼ of a red bell pepper, thinly sliced
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¼ cup thinly sliced red onion
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1 rib of celery, thinly sliced
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A sprinkle of salt (optional)
For the dressing:
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1 Thai chili, chopped
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1 teaspoon sugar (brown sugar works too)
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1 1/2 teaspoon fish sauce
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2 teaspoons fresh lime juice
1. Mix the chopped chili, sugar, fish sauce, and lime juice in a small bowl to dissolve the sugar. Set it aside for the moment.
2. Add the oil to a frying pan and heat it over medium heat. Once the oil is hot, tilt the pan and add one of the boiled eggs. Fry the outside of the boiled egg, rotating every minute or so, until it’s blistered and browned. Drain the egg on a paper-towel-lined plate. Repeat this with the other eggs.
3. Toss the bell pepper, onion, and celery together and heap them onto two plates. Cut the eggs into quarters and dot them on top of the veggies.
4. Stir the dressing again to dissolve any pesky remaining sugar, and drizzle it over the two plates. Sprinkle a bit of salt over the dishes to finish.
