Last weekend I had planned some French bistro style meal where white asparagus was going to be featured for our Saturday dinner if my fresh morel connection came through. But it didn't, and a trip to Costco resulted in my owning a lovely piece of fresh wild ahi, so the menu turned Asian (is it now un-PC to say 'oriental'?). I actually started out thinking Hawaiian, but I was being pulled in different directions by 1) the aforementioned white asparagus, I really really wanted to eat that) and 2) Noel Ermitano's post about the lunch in Hong Kong--specifically, fried rice made with fat chewy kernels of Calrose. Oh, and I had a bag of tiny bok choys purchased in Vancouver the week before for a meal that got pre-empted numerous times that I wanted to finally get some good use out of.
But how to include that asparagus? The problem was solved, where so many are, standing in the pantry staring at the shelves where a jar of bamboo shoots pickled in hot chili oil called out to me. That became, with but the addition of some white wine vinegar, the basis for a vinaigrette in which the cooked and drained asparagus spent the afternoon and were served as a room temperature Asian salad with some wild watercress. The result was sensational! It was my favorite dish on the table. Also served were seared ahi chunks in ponzu sauce, bok choy and shitake mushrooms with ginger and oyster sauce and, of course, the fried rice.
My second favorite thing might be what happened to the leftovers at lunch the next day. All larger than a rice kernel were diced and combined with diced avocado, finely shredded cabbage and daikon radish sprouts, plus extra vinegar, soy sauce and chili oil, into an Asian-style chopped salad. No picture of that, but here's the asparagus:
IMG_0456.JPG
You do not have the required permissions to view the files attached to this post.
