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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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Mushroom Stir-Fry with Brown Sauce (เห็ดผัดน้ำมันหอย)


Light, natural, clean eating doesn’t have to be all about deprivation. There are so many dishes made almost entirely of fruits and vegetables that give you the same hearty satisfaction as some of the heavier dishes. Mushroom is my go-to vegetable during the time when I want to lay off meat and dairy. I find its “meaty” texture to be very filling and satisfying. Its somewhat bland flavor and spongy texture make mushroom a very versatile and inoffensive ingredient. Like tofu, it goes with pretty much anything.

This simple stir-fry of assorted wild mushrooms is one of the most delicious meatless dishes I have ever eaten. Let me take that back. This simple stir-fry of assorted wild mushrooms is one of the most delicious dishes I have eaten. It features three kinds of fresh mushroom: oyster, shiitake, and king oyster, some green onions, some fresh garlic, and a simple brown sauce that is a cinch to put together.

While only one kind of mushroom would be sufficient to yield a great result, using various types of mushroom in this particular dish gives you a rice or noodle topper that is both spectacular to look at and utterly good to eat. In one bite, you get the velvety texture of the oyster mushrooms, the spicy-toasty aroma of the shiitake mushrooms, and the voluptuous meatiness of the king oyster mushrooms (which I adore). You can add crimini, portobello (with gills removed), or even good old white button mushrooms to the mix. The idea is to play with various textures.

To make this, make the sauce by whisking together 6 tablespoons of oyster sauce, 1/4 cup of soy sauce, 1/4 cup Chinese rice wine (Shaoxing) or brandy, 3 tablespoons of cornstarch, 3 large cloves garlic (minced), 3/4 cup of water, and 2 teaspoons of sesame oil. Then you cut 5 green onions into 1-inch pieces and set aside.

Set a large pan over medium-high heat. A total of 3 pounds of assorted mushrooms, cut into bite-sized pieces, go into the pan with about 1/4 cup of water to get some steaming action going. For this dish, I do not want to brown the mushrooms; no caramelization is needed when you just want the velvety/meaty textures in a brown gravy. In fact, I don’t use any oil, except for the two teaspoons of sesame oil in the sauce.

Once the mushrooms are softened a bit, but still remain firm, pour the sauce mixture all over the surface of the mushrooms. (The cornstarch in the sauce may sink to the bottom, so give the sauce a quick whisk before you add it to the pan.) Stir in the green onions.

The sauce will thicken up fast and you need to keep adding about 1/4 cup of water at a time to the pan just to thin it out a bit. Don’t add too much water, though, as the end result should not be too “saucy.” You don’t want the mushrooms to look like they’re drowned in the sauce. Add just enough water to thin out the sauce so it doesn’t look like a lumpy goo.

By the time the green onions are softened a bit, the dish is ready to serve. This mushroom stir-fry is great over steamed rice or cooked noodles.

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Beet Ice Cream by Chef Patrick Fahy, Blackbird Restaurant


My recent rhapsody of a beet dessert and the chef who makes it may have led you to believe that I am a beet enthusiast. Though that is true, I have to admit – beets and I didn’t start off so hot.

Beets, or beetroots as we called them, and I were formally introduced when I was in grade school. I remember vividly how it happened. Mom just came back from a trip which she had taken with a group of her friends to the North of Thailand to visit various sites under the management of the Royal Project Foundation.[1]

The moment I heard her come in, I ran downstairs in excitement just to find dirt-covered roundish, dark crimson, strange-looking bunch of some never-before-seen plant life on the kitchen counter. Mom’s face beamed with delight and her voice got all animated, “Look! Isn’t this exciting? We got beetroots!


Exciting? They didn’t even look like food to me.

To understand Mom’s excitement, you have to know that back then beets, being a cold climate produce, weren’t available at all in Thailand. They’re everywhere now. But back when I was a kid, it was practically unknown.

And this was one of the reasons my mom loved visiting the Royal Project orchards and farms: she got to bring home fruits and vegetables which we didn’t normally find at the supermarket. Problem was, we didn’t always know what to do with some of these things.

We didn’t waste too much time trying to figure out how to cook the darned things, though. Mom happened to be going through a phase wherein she prepared everything in her new sandwich maker — you know, the kind that simultaneously bakes and diagonally cuts your square sandwich in half. A lot of what my little brother and I ate back then were triangular, even things that should not have been triangular. Basically, if it fit into the sandwich maker, my mom made sure that was where it went.

As Mom stared at the fresh beetroots innocently lying at her mercy, I knew exactly what diabolical plan she was devising.

We could have grated up the fresh beets and make a salad out of it. We could, of course, have consulted one of the American cookbooks we’d bought from the various yard sales for ways to prepare this unfamiliar vegetable. But did we? No. We didn’t have to.

Since beets happened to fall into the it-fits-in-the-sandwich-maker category, their fate had already been predetermined. Attempting to turn the beets into savory sandwich filling, Mom peeled and julienned them up. I watched in horror as Mom sautéed the beets in a skillet with some butter and seasonings. She joyfully whistled her kitchen tune, “My Favorite Things” from the Sound of Music as she went. Standing there with beet juice dripping, trailing, and spattering everywhere I looked, My Favorite Things, at that very moment, sounded to me like Mozart’s Requiem Mass.

The grilled beet sandwiches were atrocious. We looked at each other and agreed those beets died in vain. Just as we tried to figure out what to do with a huge bowl of sautéed beets, we noticed Tofu, our mutt, was longingly eyeing the failed sandwich filling. I gave him a little bite and he gleefully ate it up, panting with anticipation. We ended up giving him the entire bowl.

So that’s how I stayed away from beets until I rediscovered them a few years ago in, of all places, Ukraine. In a cafeteria somewhere by the Dnieper river, I took a bite of beet salad thinking it was something else. To my surprise, I found it to be utterly delicious. That moment, beets and I reconciled.

The funny thing is, on the day I had beets for the first time (and was convinced it would be the last), I looked at Tofu gobbling up the disgusting beet filling and said to my mother, “Mom, only dogs would like stuff like that.”

Uh. Woof.

Beet Ice Cream
Recipe courtesy of Chef Patrick Fahy
Blackbird Restaurant, Chicago

Printable Version

5-6 medium beets, peeled and cubed
438 g heavy cream
750 g whole milk
250 g granulated sugar
4 g salt
30 g nonfat milk powder
325 g egg yolks

  • Juice the beets until you get about one cup of beet juice; set aside the pulp. (If you don’t have a juicer, blend the beets in a blender with just enough water to get the blades going; strain and save the pulp.) Let the juice simmer in a shallow pot over medium-low heat until it reduces to approximately 1/4 cup. Strain the beet juice reduction and set aside.
  • Meanwhile, gently heat the cream, milk, and sugar in a large heavy-bottomed pot. Add the beet pulp to the cream and continue to heat the cream mixture for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally.
  • Put the egg yolks in a large mixing bowl and place it close to the cream mixture. Quickly whisk in 3-4 ladles of the hot cream mixture into the egg yolk to bring the temperature of the yolks closer to that of the cream. Pour the tempered yolk mixture back into the cream pot and continue to heat, whisking occasionally, until the temperature falls between 70 °C (156 °F) and 85 °C (185 °F).
  • Take the ice cream base off the heat and strain.
  • Since some of the liquid evaporates during heating, you need to add more milk to restore the original weight of 1.763 kilograms (1.438 g of cream-milk-sugar mixture + 325 g yolks). Once that is done, add the milk powder and salt to the ice cream base and mix well. Whisk in the strained beet juice reduction. Strain the mixture once more, if necessary. Then leave the mixture to cool in an ice bath.
  • Churn the ice cream base in an ice cream maker according to manufacturer’s instructions. Freeze.
  • This recipe yields approximately 3 quarts of ice cream.
  • [1] The idea of the Royal Project Foundation originated from King Bhumibol of Thailand. It was part of His Majesty’s initiatives to help the tribal minorities around the area in northern Thailand to abandon the practice of opium farming which was detrimental to forest soil, forest ecology, wildlife, and water resources. These minority highland dwellers have been trained to grow crops suitable for the cold climate in which they live. In collaboration with the Thai government as well as both public and private agencies, the RPF has been operating since 1969.

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