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Friday, August 6, 2010

Fried Egg Thai Salad Cucumber Series #1

8.6.10

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My new article on the IE (green issue) is up. Feel free to stop by! The article is inspired by Lazaro - Lazaro Cooks, and Stella - The Witchy Kitchen

Is Organic Food Worth the Price?

This salad dish was created because I needed to use the leftover English cucumbers. I created 4 cucumber related dishes! - Just tried to incorporate it to the dishes. The fried egg Thai salad is the first to feature. You don't see this salad as often as the glass noodle or beef salad. Even for me, I rarely see it on the menu. Maybe it's too simple? Well, in this case, simplicity is better. I made this for a busy weeknight.  It's fast and tasty! You can have this for a salad starter or main dish as I did.

I'm trying to think back to what other street food I ate when I was back home.  I'm thinking about Thai street food lately because I'm booking a flight to my sister's wedding in December! My mind is planned ahead on food already. I don't care so much about fancy food but would rather focus on the food I'm not able to find here. Since I will stay there for only a week, I'm going to eat, shop, and eat. Hopefully, the heat from the hot weather will burn out calories otherwise I will be chubby T!

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As mentioned in the last post, lime, sugar, and fish sauce are a must in Thai cuisine. No doubt, the salad dressing requires those 3 ingredients. I'm amazed these 3 ingredients can make so many different types of food.

Fried eggs add a GREAT flavor to the salad, surprisingly. A little crispy from the egg white, creamy texture from the yolk, and savory exotic dressing are a great combination. However, the yolk shouldn't be undercooked like melted cheese, or overcooked like boiled eggs. The ideal is to have an almost-cooked egg yolk. What you have to do is to splash hot oil onto the middle of egg. The white egg tends to cook faster than the egg yolk. By doing so, the yolk will cook at the same time as the egg white.

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Chinese Celery

Another interesting ingredient is Chinese celery. It has a unique flavor. I think it tastes like arugula mixed with parsley in Italian cuisine. Cucumber and cherry tomatoes are to balance out the flavor and make the salad even more refreshing.

Fried Egg Thai Salad
Yield: 2 for main salad; 4 for starter

Ingredients:
6 organic eggs
1/2 yellow onion, sliced
2 stalks Chinese celery, chopped
1/2 cup cherry tomatoes, halved
1/2 cup ground pork
1/2 English cucumber, peeled, halved, and sliced
Vegetable or canola oil for frying eggs

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Dressing:
3 tbs fish sauce
2 1/2 whole lime
2 tbs sugar
2-3 Thai bird chili, sliced (for medium spicy)

Directions:
  • Heat up oil in a wok or skillet to fry eggs. Crack eggs one at a time. Splash hot oil over eggs. Cook until the edge is crispy and the egg yolk is turning light yellow but not completely cooked. If you overcook, that's fine as well.
  • Place cooked eggs on a prepared towel sheet. After you're done with eggs, add pork. Use wooden spoon to break it apart. Cook until it's cooked through. Place the pork in a salad bowl
  • Cut fried egg into 4-6 pieces depending on how big you prefer.
  • Add sliced onions, chopped celery, cherry tomatoes, and sliced cucumber in a salad bowl
  • Combine all the dressing ingredients. Whisk until mix and sugar is dissolved. Adjust the taste.
  • Pour the dressing over and mix. Enjoy!

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Fry the egg one at a time

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Stir fry pork

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Dressing

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27 comments:

Magic of Spice said...

What a gorgeous salad, and I love the dressing...very fresh. I also loved your recent article, exceptional as always!

Jennifer said...

Mmmm.... I love egg on anything. Looks so delightful!

ugh... I have to go to work soon and your salad is making me hungry... ;)

~Lisa~ said...

These look like something I would eat everyday! Seriously, chinese celery, eggs, cucumbers...oh my my favorites! Love the combination of flavors (=

Unknown said...

It's a beauty! I love all those Thai flavors, just thinking about them is making me hungry:-) Everything looks so fresh on the plate. Congratulations again on your article, job well done.

May Ling Wu said...

What a wonderful salad! I am always trying to think of ways to add some protein to my salads. Eggs is an old stand by but got a bit boring. Thanks for the post!

Mother Rimmy said...

I love the colors and freshness of this salad!

Monet said...

I adore fried eggs...I must be needing more protein! And thai flavors always make me smile. This looks like a great recipe. Thanks for sharing!

Roxan said...

T - yum! I love that you did a salad for this entry :) It looks great. I do love a good fried egg! I used to put them on top of EVERYTHING. I went through this phase where I would fry three eggs into the shape of a disc, and put that over a plate of rice. Then I would get egg and rice in every bite. SO good.

lequan@luvtoeat said...

Tanantha, you are definitely my kind of traveller. Eat, shop, and eat some more? You said it my friend! if i could, i would probably eat in my sleep too...lol.

this is a beautiful salad, such vibrant colours. i love your fish sauce/dressing recipe too. we use almost the exact recipe to dip with water spinach (ong choy) after plainly boiling it. i'm sure if you and i got together there would definitely be a feast :-P
have a lovely weekend my dear.

Nancy said...

Hi T, I read your article and it was great! I love your salad recipe , sounds like a good low calorie meal too. The dressing I think I would also use it on my other salads for a unique and special dressing.
Oh if I was going back home like you I'd be doing the same thing. Actually I have dreams about this too, haha :)

nandini said...

wow this looks super good. The dressing sounds wonderful. would love to try it .

Stella said...

Hey Tanantha! I inspired you? Yes-score! That so sweet, Tanantha, and you really just made my night. I feel all giddy now. I mean, I can understand Lazaro inspiring about organic, but I always feel like I don't talk about it enough, you know?
Hey, I don't think it's too surprising that the egg made this salad so good. The runny yolk with raw onion sounds delicious. I love stuff like this-it's real food. I'll try it tomorrow, as I have fish sauce, lime, and, of course, sugar.
Okay, I'm running over to read your article now!

Emily said...

I like the simplicity of the salad and at the same time, it's bursting with flavours!

My only question is besides pork, do you think it is ok if I substitute with chicken/beef?

Biren said...

This is a lovely salad. I do like eggs but can't have as much as I would like to. Yes, Chinese celery has a nice flavor which is quite different from cilantro though they look similar.

Lazaro Cooks said...

T,

Beautiful salad. I see you've been working on your plating because the presentation is flawless. Two enthusiastic thumbs up. Wonderful flavors and the perfectly cooked fried egg.

You truly are on of the most responsible bloggers I have come across. Keep preaching the organics.

It's a pleasure to be able to call you a friend.

Joanne said...

Total food porn! I think everything tastes better with a fried egg on top!

denise @ quickies on the dinner table said...

You know I LOVE these kindsa flavours - Thai, Vietnamese, Southeast Asian. Gorgeous combination! It's lunch time I haven't eaten and I feel lightheaded looking at this.....

Unknown said...

I love fried eggs! The yolk makes such a great sauce. As always, great job on the pictures!

Shirley said...

Yum, that looks amazing!

norah said...

oh my, what a great looking salad! eggs on pretty much anything makes it better... :-)

Mo said...

I'm not a fan of eggs, but I should definitely make this for my dad someday! He would go crazy for it. :) (Almost every time he makes eggs, it's fried.)

FOODESSA said...

Tanatha...you reminded me to think of adding organic eggs more often to the variety of salads I already enjoy...especially during the summer.

I buy mostly...but not always organic. I use my judgement and I try to be gentle with my decisions because not all ingredients are worth the price.

Thanks for this nice post. Going off to read your article ;o)

Flavourful wishes,
Claudia

Andra@FrenchPressMemos said...

This looks like a perfect summer lunch. I love those Thai flavors but most of what I can get for lunch around my work is a pad thai- albeit a delicious pad thai, but a salad would sure agree with my waste line more :)

Unknown said...

When I was in Thailand, a lady made me vegetarian sandwiches with cucumber, egg, tomato and mayo. She cooked those eggs in a way I haven't seen anyone do since.

Thanks for the trip down memory lane!

Liv Wan said...

Love this fried egg salad so much! It looks tasty and refreshing. i can feel it's asking me to try it soon.

Le said...

fried eggs with anything is yummmmmmy!!! This looks like a nice and simple salad, hmmmmmmmmmm I miss thai food!

denise @ quickies on the dinner table said...

I love the cucumber series you're doing! This is so nostalgic for me! My mum and grandma used to cook something very similar and we all loved it as kids!

I'm going to check out your other cuke offerings...

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