Egg Salad

 



I know what you're thinking already, egg salad? Where's the abundance of egg? Well, the egg is in the dressing. This is dish is a take on a classic Laotian salad, "yam salat", that my mother use to make. I believe her dressing was a mixture of thousand island and something else. I really can't remember on the top of my head right now. But I basically made this dish because I had tons of veggies left and didn't want it spoil. Of course, you may all know of the many variations of lettuce wraps that I usually make when dieting, well, that started to get boring. The dressing I created is actually a basic aioli with egg yolks from the hard boiled eggs. As I stated earlier, the egg is all in the dressing.

Ingredients:

1/2 head green leaf lettuce (roughly chopped)

1/2 cucumber (peeled and thinly sliced)

4 scallions (cut into 3 inch pieces and then julienne)

8-10 sprigs cilantro (roughly chopped)

2 Roma tomatoes (seeded and julienned)

5 eggs (hard boiled)

1 egg (raw)

1 cup canola oil

2 garlic cloves

1 teaspoon kosher salt

Juice 1/2 lemon

1 tablespoon rice vinegar

1/8 cup water

Directions:

Mix the lettuce, cucumbers, scallions, cilantro, and tomatoes well in a large bowl, the bigger the better.

Bring a pot of water to a boil. Add 5 eggs to the boiling water and cook for 10-12 minutes. Discard the hot water in the sink and begin adding cold water from the faucet to help cool it down. Once the eggs have cooled down, peel the shells of the eggs and discard. When all of the eggs have been peeled, gently cut the eggs in a circular motion (do not cut all the way through, only to the yolk) until it is split in half. Remove the yolks and set aside in a bowl. Thinly cut the egg whites and add them to the salad mixture.

This is probably redundant but I'll show you how to make an aioli again. In a food processor add the egg whites of 1 egg. Set the speed to mix. Slowly drizzle half a cup of canola oil until the mixture thickens (4-5 minutes) now add the raw egg yolk and continue drizzling the remaining oil. You mixture should look like mayonnaise  (that's what it is at this point). With you setting still on mix, add lemon juice, salt, and vinegar. Now add your garlic and set your speed to process for about 1 minute (now it's an aioli). Add your hard boiled egg yolks and water to the mixture with your speed set on mix. The texture of this dressing shouldn't be thick like mayonnaise, if it is add a little more water. Your dressing shouldn't be to runny either so be careful when you add the water. Remove the dressing from the food processor and chill in the refrigerator for at least 10 minutes.

To serve, add dressing to the salad and toss until everything has been properly dressed.

Side note:

My mom likes to add stir fried beef in the salad as well. If you would like to add this to the salad here's how to make it. You'll need 1/2 pound paper think slices of beef (doesn't matter which cut), 2 tablespoons of oyster sauce, 1 garlic clove (minced), and 1 tablespoon of canola oil. Heat the oil on medium high heat and add your garlic and then your beef. Add your oyster sauce shortly afterwards and cook for about 4-5 minutes or until well done. Let this cool before adding to your salad. It's also customary to add all of the sauce from the stir fry to your salad as well, it'll give it the extra saltiness that pairs well with the slightly tart dressing. In the picture above I actually used thinly sliced pork shoulders and cooked it the same way.