Pad Woon Sen with Shallots and Asparagus

My first introduction to Thai cuisine was with Pad Woon Sen in the Summer of 1998. I remember the time period because it was something that would change my life. There have been extended periods of time where I ate Thai food for 3 nights a week, or more. Every Thai restaurant that you come across is going to have their version of Pad See Ew. Which is a great introduction to Thai cooking and a delicious dish. Pad Woon Sen, on the other hand, is a little bit harder to find and in my mind which makes it more satisfying when you do. I was excited to make the dish with the Shallot and Asparagus inspiration. I did it a few weeks ago now. The difficult part was trying to come up with an introduction to Pad Woon Sen. Is there a way to make Thai cuisine interesting, or better yet entertaining? Pad Woon Sin? As in: it's sinfully good. I struggled with it. I asked around. I found that there's an even quicker way to end a conversation with a person than telling them you have a blog about asparagus. Ask them about how to write a funny narrative about asparagus in Pad Woon Sen. I just got looks of confusion that turned to irritability from most people. One person even told me that they were tired of listening to my asparagus musings and posed the ultimatum that it was either him or the asparagus. I think we all know how that turned out. So now I present to you Pad Woon Sen with Shallots and Asparagus!

 Ingredients:

1 bunch of bok choy
1/2 bunch of asparagus
1 large shallot
1 red bell pepper
1 lb of chicken
6-8 green onions
pepper
4 table spoons of fish sauce
cooking oil
2 eggs
chicken broth
mung bean noodles (glass noodles or bean threads)

Intructions:

I personally prefer to have everything chopped and ready when I'm cooking so when the time comes I'm not frantically trying to prep ingredients as they need to go into the pan. The French call this mise en place or "putting in place". Soak your noodles in cold water for at least 10 minutes before cooking. Cut them in half. It will make them easier to negotiate as you're stirring other ingredients in. Heat a large pan, or better yet if you have one, a Wok with cooking oil on medium to medium high heat. It's recommended to marinade your chicken in the fish sauce, but I didn't do that. Add your chicken to the hot pan. This is a quick dish that can get away from you if aren't mindful. When the chicken is cooked add in your mung bean noodles. When the noodles are clear that means they're done. As both the chicken and the noodles are getting to look like the picture below, you should begin to integrate your vegetables and eggs in. The shallots, asparagus, and bell pepper should go in first. Those will take longer to cook than the green onions or the bok choy. Use the chicken broth to keep everything moist. The fish sauce acts as the salt for this dish so add to taste. Generally it's about 4 tablespoons. When it looks beautiful, it's ready to eat. Enjoy!

Thai Yellow Curry w/ Shallots and Asparagus

Even the leftovers look good

 Last weekend I went out for Thai food with my girlfriend. I ordered the Thai yellow curry which turned out to be as delicious as expected. Midway through my meal though I had a vision of how to make my meal even more delicious. You may find it hard to believe that I eat meals that are unrelated to Asparagus or Shallots and unfortunately sometimes I do. This generally leads me to having a recurring epiphany. Each time it happens it strikes me with the same sensation of childlike wonder and amazement. "This is good," I'll typically say, "but what if..." I'm sure you get the picture. The only part of the scenario that isn't really easy to believe is each time I have this revelation it's met with openness and encouragement even from an understanding person in my life. She is subjected to a lot of asparagus.

Do you ever need to revitalize your asparagus? Try This!

Ingredients:
4 chicken thighs
2 cups of chicken stock (homemade if at all possible)
2 shallots (diced)
1 medium onion (diced)
1/2 bunch of asparagus (cut into pieces)
1/2 red bell pepper (chopped)
2 tablespoons of olive oil
3 tablespoons of curry powder
1 tablespoon of cumin
2 1/2 red potatoes (cubed)
1 1/2 cans of coconut milk
Salt/Pepper to taste
2 cups of jasmine-scented white rice
1 cup of water








                                                                                                        Instructions:

Pour some olive oil into a stock pot that's being heated on your stove. Put your chicken thighs in skin down. I recommend using chicken thighs because I feel like they're the part of the chicken with the most flavor. Use salt and pepper generously. Brown both sides of your thighs. Remove the chicken and set them aside. You can add your spices to the pan to toast them. I forgot to do this and my dinner still turned out. Put about half the spices in the pan and save the other half for later. Add your diced up onion and half of your diced up shallots to saute them. Pour some of your chicken stock into the pan and deglaze. Scrape up all of the brown pieces of chicken that are sticking to the bottom of your pan. Add your diced onion and half of your diced shallots and saute them. When they're starting to look good and everything is smelling amazing, put your chicken back in and add your chicken stock. Your chicken is going to take a while to braise. I recommend not doing this at 10 pm on a Sunday night. While your chicken is braising you should get your coconut rice going. It's really easy, just put some jasmine-scented white rice in a sauce pan add some water and some coconut milk. If you don't feel like measuring things (which I often don't) then just cap off your rice with about 3/4 of an inch of liquid above the rice. If you want it to be sweeter, add more coconut milk. If you want it to be less sweet, add more water. As the chicken approaches the end of the braising step, drop in your potatoes. They're going to need more time to cook than the remainder of your vegetables. When the chicken is tender and falling off the bone it's time to add the rest of your shallots, your asparagus, your bell pepper, the rest of your spices and the coconut milk. When you do this you should remove the chicken and pick the meat off the bone. Or you can buy boneless chicken. I didn't do either and I thought it turned out fine. At this point it's not going to take long to get the asparagus nice and tender. Once everything is done to your satisfaction then serve with the rice and enjoy!

Topped with a little fresh cilantro from our garden and a lemon