Spring Vegetable Pad Thai

What could be better than a big bowl of vegetable packed Pad Thai. Pad Thai is a classic Thai rice noodle dish tossed with a sweet and sour sauce, scrambled egg, bean sprouts, scallions, and served with lime wedges. Usually, it is made with some kind of meat, such as pork or shrimp. Being a vegetarian, I omitted these two items, and instead used an array of fresh, gorgeous spring vegetables. Of course, tofu cubes could be used as well.

My husband and I love Thai food, and especially Pad Thai, but are to frequently disappointed when we are served rice noodles swimming in that hideous, fluorescent pink sweet and sour sauce that you find in cheap Chinese food places. That is not Pad Thai. Pad Thai sauce is sweet and sour in flavor, but is brown in color, and the final dish is usually quite dry. The sour component comes from tamarind, a tropical pod like fruit that is processed into a paste. Tamarind paste can be found at any Asian grocery store. There is a great Asian grocery on the corner of Monterey and Johnson streets in San Luis Obispo. Tamarind can be bought as a paste, or as a big block of dried fruit with the seeds. If you buy the big block, just cut off pieces, soak in a couple tablespoons of hot water, and then press through a small sieve to get all the pulp but no seeds. The seeds are large, you won’t miss them. The sweet component of the sauce typically comes from palm sugar, but I just used brown sugar in mine. Fish sauce is the salty element of the sauce, but again, being vegetarian I omitted this part and replaced it with an equal mixture of lime juice and soy sauce.

I packed this Pad Thai full of beautiful spring veggies I picked up on Saturday. The asparagus still looks and tastes great, but is getting thicker by the week. The snap peas are wonderful and I had to use them here. Red scallions are showing up at the market, as well as green garlic. I also used carrots to add some color. I used the best eggs you could ever buy; Farmer Jim’s eggs from Park Organics. His hens are laying generous amounts of eggs right now, so buy them while you can. They have the orangest yolks you will ever see (yolk color is a reflection of nutrient content and of what the hens are eating; greens, bugs, and all that good stuff hens are suppose to eat), and the cleanest egg flavor you will ever taste. These are the kind of eggs I feel are worth eating. Anyways, enough with my ranting, on to the recipe! Once everything is prepped, this dish goes quite quickly, so don't be intimidated by the list of ingredients.

Spring Vegetable Pad Thai
Serves 2-4 as an entree

Sauce

-2 tablespoons tamarind pulp

-2 tablespoons brown sugar

-2 tablespoons lime juice

-2 tablespoons shoyu or low sodium soy sauce

Chili-Vinegar Sauce

-1/4 cup brown rice or rice wine vinegar

-1/2-1 teaspoons sambal olek or chili flakes

-1/2-1 teaspoon sugar, or other sweetener like agave nectar

Pad Thai
-10 ounces dry Thai rice noodles

-2 tablespoons peanut oil or other high heat oil
-1 bunch thin asparagus, trimmed and
cut into ½ inch pieces
-15 snap peas cut into ½ inch pieces
-2 thin carrots, cut in half and thinly sliced
-2 eggs, whisked

-5 red scallions, sliced

-1 cup fresh mung bean sprouts
-3 cloves garlic, minced
-1 tablespoon minced fresh ginger

Cook the rice noodles according to the package directions. Set aside.

Whisk sauce ingredients together and set aside. Whisk chili-vinegar sauce ingredients together and set aside.

Heat 1 tablespoon of the peanut oil, or other chosen oil, in a large wok set over high heat. When a whisper of smoke shows, add in the asparagus and snap peas. Toss constantly with a large spatula for 1-2 minutes. Add in the carrots and toss 1 minute more. Push the vegetables up the side of the wok and pour the whisked egg into the bottom. Stir the egg constantly for 1 minute, or until scrambled. Toss the cooked vegetables back in with the egg. Add in the mung bean sprouts, scallions, ginger, and garlic. Toss constantly for 1 minute more. Remove the vegetables from the pan and set aside.

Immediately re-heat the wok with the remaining tablespoon of oil. When hot, add in the rice noodles and toss constantly, pressing the noodles to the side of the wok to slightly brown and sear. Toss for about 1-2 minutes, add the vegetables back in along with the sauce, and toss 1 minute more to combine. Serve hot with lime wedges and the chili-vinegar sauce.

Eggs Baked with Tomatoes, Summer Squash, and Red Onions

I think eggs are highly under appreciated. They have received a bad rap for raising cholesterol, though now many studies are suggesting otherwise. I have a different concern regarding the egg; its quality. Don't worry, I'll keep it short.

Eggs have always been an important component of the small family farm. Hens not only supply a farming family with plenty of tasty, high quality protein, but also with terrific manure to fertilize growing plants, as well as some pest control. But just like dairy and meats, much of our egg production has left the small family farm to be raised by enormous agribusinesses, losing most of the beautiful qualities an honest egg has to offer. Hens no longer roam free to peck at bugs and fill up on grasses, which is what gives an egg it's bright orange yolk and omega-3 fatty acid content. Instead, they are packed into small cages and fed highly un-natural diets, making their yolks and whites pale, unhealthy, and tasteless. No wonder we insist on omelettes overfilled with meats and cheeses, our eggs have no true flavor. I truly believe an omelette should be about the egg, not the huge mess added to it. Eggs (as well as dairy, meats, and good wine), should have flavors reminiscent of the landscape in which they have been raised. There is a beautiful word for this; Terroir. Terroir means "the tastes that emerge from the natural environment where a food is cultivated" (Trubeck, A. Eating Well Magazine; 3 Questions for a Food Anthropologist. August 2008, pg 16). Shouldn't all food follow this rule? On this note, I am begging you to use good eggs. Most store bought, industrially produced eggs are not worth the $1.69 you spend. Yes they are cheap, but for good reason; they offer nothing in flavor or nutrition. Spend $4.00 at your farmers market, or $3.69 for organic, free range eggs. Forgo the hormones and antibiotics. Taste, savour, and support farmers making a difference; not only in protecting diversity and natural landscape, but human health as well. Consider the true cost of a cheap egg, which ultimately exceeds it's cheap price tag. O.k., I'll stop ranting, most of you know me well and have heard this before.

This recipe is very good and easy to prepare. I would say it easily serves 2-4 as a main dish when served with a side of creamy polenta or rice pilaf. A nice loaf of fresh, crusty bread would also be excellent.

Eggs Baked With Tomatoes, Summer Squash, and Red Onions

-1 medium sized red onion, diced small

-3 small summer squash (zucchini, gold bar, crookneck...), cut in half and sliced 1/2 inch thick

-3 medium sized tomatoes, cut into large chunks

-1/2 tablespoon minced fresh thyme

-3 tablespoons chopped fresh basil

-2 1/2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

-4 to 5 large, free range, organic eggs

-salt and black pepper to taste

Pre-heat the oven to 375 degrees.

In a heavy 9 inch square ceramic baking dish, layer the diced red onion, squash, tomatoes, and herbs. Toss with the extra virgin olive oil and season with a little salt and black pepper. Place in the oven, covered, and bake for about 25-30 minutes, or until the vegetables become tender and the tomatoes have released their liquid. Taste the vegetables and add a little more seasoning if necessary. Crack the eggs into the vegetables, letting them rest right on top (they will settle in as they cook). Place back into the oven, uncovered, and cook until the eggs reach desired doneness; about 15 minutes for a medium cooked egg. Remove from the oven, sprinkle a little fresh salt on the eggs, and serve hot.