Salted eggs and vegetables salad

November 19, 2006
Filed under Asia & beyond, Healthy veggies, Purely experimental

In the Philippines, fried fish is often accompanied by a salad made with fresh tomatoes and itlog na maalat (salted duck eggs). It’s not that there’s something wrong or lacking with the traditional combination of diced tomatoes and salted duck eggs. In fact, it’s really great. The slight sourness of the fresh tomatoes and the salted eggs go wonderfully together. But even a good thing can become tiresome without variety.

I have been experimenting by adding other ingredients to the basic tomatoes and salted eggs salad. Not too long ago, I added some kalamansi (native citrus) juice, pepper, salt and chopped basil leaves and it turned out great. Early last week, I did another experiment — I made my favorite dressing and poured it over tossed tomato and cucumber wedges, hand-torn Romaine lettuce, chopped basil and diced salted duck eggs.

lettuce, cucumber, tomatoes and salted duck egg salad

The dressing was made with kalamansi juice, sugar, a little salt, some pepper and olive oil. It’s not a traditional dressing by any standard. Lemon juice with olive oil is the popular combination. But adding sugar? Well, actually, the result is something akin to the Chinese sweet and sour sauce except that this one is not thickened with starch because it is for a salad rather than for a stir fry. The strange part is how it enhances the flavors of the vegetables. Everything just seemed to become more alive.

For those living outside the Philippines where salted duck eggs are not sold, you can make them yourself. Manang Kusinera provides very detailed instructions.

Ingredients :

a large bunch of Romaine lettuce
4-5 salad tomatoes
2 cucumbers
2 salted eggs
a handful of fresh basil leaves (or a teaspoonful of dried basil leaves)

For the salad dressing :

juice of 12 large kalamansi (or 2 lemons), strained
3-4 tbsps. of sugar
1/4 c. of extra virgin olive oil
a pinch of salt
pepper

Make the salad :

Prepare the dressing by mixing together the kalamansi juice, olive oil, sugar, salt and pepper. The amount of sugar given above is only a guide. Use more or less according to your preference.

Peel the cucumbers then cut into wedges.

Cut the tomatoes in the same size as the cucumbers.

Shell the salted eggs then roughly chop or dice them. You will have to handle them carefully since they crumble easily and they’re much better as chunks rather than minced.

Roughly chop the basil leaves.

Tear the Romaine lettuce into three or four parts. You can easily do this by hand. Just grab an entire bunch then twist the leaves.

Place all the vegetables in a salad (or any large) bowl and toss. Pour the dressing over them then toss a few more times.

Serve with fried or grilled fish, meat or chicken.

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Comments

5 Comments on "Salted eggs and vegetables salad"

Shoshana on Sun, 19th Nov 2006 11:42 pm

Is salted eggs balut?

The salad looks good, but balut is not my thing.

Connie on Mon, 20th Nov 2006 12:03 am

Oh, no, Shoshana. Link to balut entry and link to salted eggs entry.

Cath on Mon, 20th Nov 2006 4:07 pm

hi manang connie

have you tried ampalaya salad (fresh ampalaya which is thinly sliced and mixed with tomatoes and onion) with salted egg? it is one of my favourite dish specially when my sidings are either grilled tilapya or hito. it is also good with fried meat such as chicken or pork but i prefer eating it with fish.

Connie on Mon, 20th Nov 2006 9:02 pm

Hi Cath. Ummm I’m not very partial with ampalaya.

sam of kuwait! on Tue, 11th Sep 2007 2:52 pm

hmmnnn..bagay to for Ramadan Season here in the Gulf. Pwede bang hard boiled egg na lang? or kaya quail eggs? scarce kasi ang salted egg sdito eh makakita ka man hindi din ganun kaganda ang quality, it might ruin the salad..
I’ll try this with plain hard boiled eggs or quail eggs and will let you know Ms. Cons
Thanks again!