Gai Pad Khing

Time to turn the clock forward tonight – springing into the future – whatever that future may hold.  Seems pretty ambiguous these days as folks swirl around me in their own chaotic worlds.  I’m finding this year to be challenging.  I sought stability today and always find it in the garden and the kitchen.  I spent time in both this spring-like day and am better for it.  The garden looks much less like a tornado hit it after this crazy winter, and now my kitchen is a wreck.  I’ll take that trade.

This is a Week 3 Thai Class recipe and it is a winner.  I just cooked it tonight with a few modifications, but I’ll give you the original because when we had that in class it was awesome…  some ingredients are hard to find, though, so I’ll give you my version from tonight, too, because that wasn’t bad either… not bad at all.

Gai Pad Khing:  Chicken stir fry ginger - quite literally.  In a slightly more eloquent translation:  Stir fry chicken, ginger, and onion in delicate sauce.   Yum.  If you like ginger and you like chicken, this is the dish for you.

Gai Pad Khing

4 T oil (again, any kind – I used canola tonight, but pick your poison)

2 lbs chicken breast sliced into 1-1½ inch bite-sized pieces (marinade for at least 15 minutes in ¼ tsp salt, ¼ tsp pepper, ½ tsp chopped or powdered garlic and 2 T tapioca or corn starch, and half the oyster sauce if you are using oyster sauce)

½ T soybean paste

2 T sugar

½ C julienned ginger

1 C black fungus (if dry soak in water for an hour or two and use hydrated)

4 garlic cloves minced

2 T oyster sauce

2 T Thai fish sauce

½ tsp ground pepper (white)

2 medium onions coarsely chunked

4 scallions roughly chopped

Marinade chicken.  Heat oil to super hot – add garlic and then quickly add chicken.  Cook until about half done and then add oyster sauce, fish sauce, soybean paste, sugar, pepper.    Add the ginger and mushrooms and toss for a few minutes until the mushrooms start looking cooked. Add onions closer to the end as you want them slightly crunchy and not mushy (translucent is good).  Add scallions at the end.  Toss to make sure it is all hot and delish.  Add a little water along the way if the sauce is too thick and viscous.  You want the sauce a little loose to serve with rice.

My version was a little different tonight and it was still good:

    I did not use Oyster sauce…. Or soybean paste.  I used baby sliced crimini mushrooms instead of the black fungus…   I added only 2 tsp fish sauce and then with the ginger, also added a lemon grass stalk cut into 3-inch chunks and pounded.  I also added 2 Kaffir lime leaves slightly crushed between my fingers.  I have green brined peppercorns and so tossed in a tablespoon or so of those, but if you don’t have those, I would suggest a bit more pepper to compliment the heat of the ginger.    In the end I garnished with cilantro.    You will want to add more salt to the marinade or to the dish itself as it cooks because the oyster sauce and the fish sauce both add salt and if you reduce those, you need to compensate.

 I think a wedge of lime would be delightful as a garnish for this one.  In general, I think this dish is pretty flexible and easy to modify.  It is only slightly hot due to the ginger.

Enjoy!