I was very curious about the name of this egg salad. When reading Western cookbooks, I have been familiar with the name of the dishes indicating who makes them such as mother’s chicken soup, grandmother’s apple pie, etc. But this is the first time I read about a dish by a son-in-law. "What an interesting name given to this dish", I thought.
So I decided to make this salad. It is quite simple. I like cooking with tamarind paste and this is always my favorite flavor. Personally I think this dish has more typical Asian flavors. After the first trial, i definitely had to admit that I liked the taste and flavor so so much. I immediately told my fiance that he ought to make this salad for my parents one day and surely he would get good praise.
In several friends’ gatherings, I re-made this salad and it was always welcomed by my friends and was the one to be finished first and very quickly. It really worths a try.
Ingredients (serves 2-3)
- 35g palm sugar
- 30ml soy sauce
- 50ml thick tamarind water
- vegetable oil, to fry the eggs
- 3 shallots, thinly sliced
- 2 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
- 1 large red chili, thinly sliced
- 3 hard-boiled eggs
- 1 bunch lettuce, washed
- 1 stalk coriander, chopped
Method:
- Combine the sugar, soy sauce and tamarind water in a small saucepan, bring to a boil over medium-low heat, stirring constantly until the sugar has melted. You should adjust if necessary until the sauce has a balaced sweet, sour and salty taste. Set aside.
- Heat just enough oil in another small saucepan or frying pan, add the eggs and fry until golden brown. Remove and drain on kitchen paper.
- Add the shallot, garlic and chili into that saucepan or frying pan and fry until all brown and crisp. Remove from the heat and drain on kitchen paper.
- Cut each egg into quarters.
- Arrange the lettuce on a large plate, put the eggs on top, sprinkle with fried shallot, garlic and chili, drizzle with tamarind mixture.
Simone (junglefrog) on Mon, 20th Jul 2009 2:51 pm
This does look delicious and certainly something worth trying but one question on this. I do have tamarind but what is tamarind water? Is that just another name or is it a different product?
peachkins on Mon, 20th Jul 2009 8:20 pm
It makes me curious as to what this dish taste like. It looks delicious!
Kokotaru on Mon, 20th Jul 2009 9:50 pm
@Simone: the tamarind you have is the right one. You just need to take the pulp from the tamarind pods (though tamarind pulp in package is available) and stir it into water to get tamarind water. 3 tbs tamarind pulp to make 150ml tamarind water, for example. It is only the matter whether you want the sauce to have strong or mild tamarind flavor and taste to use more or less water. Accordingly, adjust the amount of palm sugar to balance with the sourness of the tamarind water.
@peachkins: I was curious too and I’ve made this dish at three friends’ gatherings already. Everybody loves it. So I have no doubt about the taste of it. I think the taste is quite easy to consume.