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Fruit Som Tam: Som Tam Phon La Mai ส้มตำผลไม้


It seems to me that the food scenes in Thailand have in the last few years eased off of the east-west fusion trend. Panaeng curry pizzas are now the thing of the past. The somewhat new trend is to reinvent the old-fashioned, classic dishes. Som Tam(ส้มตำ), the beloved salad featuring crunchy green papaya strands, has been given numerous innovative makeovers. Vegetable tempura Som Tam. Som Tam with salted duck eggs. Som Tam with steamed roe crabs. The list goes on and my head hurts.

Just when I thought I couldn’t keep up with all the Som Tam variations, when I visited my beautiful cousin in Ayutthaya last summer, she regaled me with this most unusual version of Som Tam, made with fresh cabbage and raw shrimp. I have seen many versions thus far, yet I’m sure I haven’t seen even half of what’s available out there. Apparently, the modus operandi behind this is: if you can fit it into a krok, you can make Som Tam with it.


One of the many new versions of Som Tam wherein various seasonal fresh fruits are used in lieu of green papaya is among some of the most popular reincarnations out there. And it’s for a very good reason too. Fresh tropical fruits are inexpensive, plentiful, and available all year round. It would be a shame not to take advantage of them. Besides, Som Tam Phonlamai (ส้มตำผลไม้) makes perfect sense. After all, the original version with green papaya as the main star is also a fruit salad even though the Thai mind regards green papaya as more of a vegetable than a fruit.

Regardless of the variations, the basic procedure of Som Tam is the same, i.e. some garlic and fresh chillies are pounded together in a mortar and pestle, then thin strands of green papaya, pieces of long beans, and fresh tomatoes go in, and the whole thing get seasoned with fish sauce, palm sugar, and lime juice. That’s the bare-bones version. Sometimes, pickled crabs are added to it. Sometimes, roasted peanuts and dried shrimp. Sometimes, all of the above. Basically, Som (a dialectal word meaning “sour” or “tart”) Tam (“to pound” or “to be pounded”) is all about fresh vegetables lightly-bruised and seasoned in a wood or terra cotta mortar. (Make Som Tam in a granite mortar in the presence of a Thai person and s/he would most likely have a hard time holding in a laugh.)


With the standard procedure and the list of essential ingredients in mind, this Thai fruit salad, Som Tam-style, should be a cake walk for everybody. The key is to use fresh fruits with firm and crunchy texture. Your choice of fruits should have flavors that lend themselves well to a sour-salty-sweet salad such as this. Anything soft, watery, gooey, pasty, or sticky does not make a good candidate. (Durian or mangosteen, for example, shouldn’t be part of the mix. Nor should bananas or ripe mangoes.) Some crunchy, mild-flavored vegetables can also be used. Grated zucchini, carrots, or chayote squash come to mind. I’ve also had used under-ripe avocados in the past with great success.


Since living in Chicago means I don’t have access to some tropical fruits which would be perfect for this salad, I made do with what I’ve got: a Granny Smith apple and a Fuji apple cut into thin slices, honeydew melon balls, some big dice of cantaloupe and pineapple, grated green mangoes, and some clementine sections. I also threw some vegetables into the mix: a jicama cut into matchsticks, a carrot grated thinly, some halved cherry tomatoes (let’s just agree for convenience’ sake that they’re vegetables in this case) and radishes. (Some sugar snap peas would have been perfect in this, but I didn’t have them on hand at the time.) Use what you like. Mix up flavors and textures. Cutting the fruits into various shapes also makes the finished dish even more interesting to look at and eat.

All you have to do is follow the procedure laid out in my post on Thai papaya salad, replacing the shredded green papaya with a mélange of fresh fruits cut into bite-size pieces. For this fruit Som Tam, I usually leave out the long beans. But that’s a personal preference.


Be sure to serve the salad immediately. It does not keep.

Notes:

  • Cut up the fruits that are most susceptible to oxidation, e.g. apples and pears, last.
  • To make this salad vegan, use salt instead of fish sauce. Leave out the dried shrimp.
  • To make this salad vegan and raw, omit the shrimp, use sea salt in place of fish sauce, replace the sugar with raw agave nectar, and use chopped raw almonds instead of roasted peanuts.

 

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Thai Fried Egg Salad – Yam Khai Dao (ยำไข่ดาว)

thai recipe
Invariably, Yam Khai Dao (ยำไข่ดาว) or Thai fried egg salad is made out of fried chicken or duck eggs. I prefer to use quail eggs. When you use fried chicken or duck eggs, each fried egg needs to be cut into quarters to make it easier to eat. Once the quartered fried eggs are tossed in the dressing along with the other ingredients, the yolks get separated from their whites since they’ve been cut open. It’s not the worst thing in the world, and some people even prefer that since some the integrated yolks get mixed into the dressing which makes the dressing a bit creamier. I don’t.

I like each bite of this salad to be a perfect bite. This means each bite comprises a well-seasoned fried egg — naturally bite-sized — with the creamy yolk and the crispy-tender white together. The only way to achieve this is to use very small eggs so you won’t have to cut them up. Quail eggs are perfect for this.

Aesthetically, this also improves the salad. No messy, disintegrated fried eggs.

thai fried eggs
The only thing about this salad that takes any effort at all is the frying of the quail eggs. Cracking 24 tiny, tiny eggs can be a pain in the neck.

The frying isn’t that complicated, though. Fill an 8-inch nonstick skillet with about 1/2 cup of oil and put it over medium heat. You can fry 3-4 quail eggs at a time this way.

thai salad recipe
Thai Fried Egg Salad (Yam Khai Dao ยำไข่ดาว)
Serves 2
Printable Version

thai egg salad
2 dozens quail eggs
1/4 medium red onion or 2 large shallots, sliced thinly
Half an English cucumber, peeled and sliced thinly (optional)
2 plum tomatoes, halved then cut into 1/4-inch slices (optional)
2 tablespoons fresh lime juice
2 tablespoons fish sauce
1 teaspoon palm sugar
2-3 fresh bird’s eye chilies, finely chopped
About 1/2 cup packed cilantro leaves

  • Fry the quail eggs until the bottoms are crispy and the whites thoroughly cooked. If you want the yolks cooked, flip the eggs and continue to fry until the tops are just as crispy as the bottoms. Remove the eggs from the pan and place them on a paper towel-lined plate.
  • In the meantime, make the dressing by mixing together the lime juice, fish sauce, and chilies.
  • Arrange the fried eggs (and, if desired, tomato slices and the cucumber slices) on a serving plate. Strew the red onion slices all over the top.
  • Drizzle the dressing all over the eggs. Top with cilantro leaves and serve immediately.
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Spicy Chinese Sausage Salad – Yam Kun Chiang (ยำกุนเชียง)

Thai Sausage Salad recipe
Dried Chinese sausage (aka lap cheong or lap chong), which the Thai call kun chiang (กุนเชียง), is widely used in Thai cuisine. It was also a staple in our house.

When I was a kid, my nanny would cut a few links of kun chiang into thin diagonal slices and saute them in a pan just to crisp up the outsides. A portion of glistening, perfectly seared pieces of aromatic dried sausage would then go on top of steamed Jasmine rice followed by a couple of glugs of Maggi sauce.

That was usually how my nanny got me to wear a skirt from time to time or sit still long enough for her to braid or curl my hair in an attempt to turn little Leela into something that vaguely resembled a girl.

Thai Sausage Salad recipe
As for the rest of the seared kun chiang pieces, she would turn them into a simple spicy salad, Yam Kun Chiang (ยำกุนเชียง), for the older members of the family. The salad has been a favorite in our family for many years. It can be eaten by itself as a first course. It’s also great as an entrée served with rice or plain rice porridge. For my grandfather, kun chiang salad and a glass of frosty cold Singha beer form a celestial match. I’ve been known to put Yam Kun Chiang inside a split baguette and eat it like a Banh Mi sandwich.

Thai Sausage Salad recipe
This salad couldn’t be simpler to make. The only part that takes any effort at all would be searing the sausage pieces. Kun Chiang is both sweet and fatty; care needs to be taken in making sure that the sausage is not over-caramelized or over-crisped.

Spicy Chinese Sausage Salad: Yam Kun Chiang
(Serves 4)
Printable Version

Thai sausage salad
4 links (300 g) of dried chinese sausage (lap cheong or lap chong), sliced diagonally into 1/4-inch thick pieces
1 English cucumber, peeled and thinly sliced
2 shallots, thinly sliced
3-4 fresh bird’s eye chillis, finely chopped or cut into very thin slices
1/2 cup loosely-packed fresh cilantro leaves, roughly chopped
Lime juice, to taste
Fish sauce, to taste

  • In a nonstick pan, over medium heat, sear the sausage slices until crisp on the outside.
  • In a bowl, toss all the ingredients, except lime juice and fish sauce, together.
  • Season to taste with lime juice and fish sauce.
  • Serve immediately.
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