One Great . . . asparagus and avocado salad

This spring has turned weather on its side. Chilly one morning and hot that afternoon, it barely feels like we've gotten a winter at all.

Even though it has felt like spring off and on since January, it's finally time to get in the mood for the real spring. In honor of a year that's been turned on its side, I'm going to offer a salad that turned my world on its side.

Jim Lahey's Co. in New York is a pizza restaurant. And it certainly makes fine pies. But when I went there with a friend a couple of years ago, what really blew me away wasn't the pizza, it was the salads. One taste of this combination and I never looked at asparagus the same way again. I've made a few stabs at trying to re-create it, with some luck. But even more lucky: Lahey's new book, "My Pizza," just came out and it includes the recipe.

The window is short for having all the ingredients right at the same time -- asparagus, avocado and mint. But if ever there was a spring when crazy things happened at once, this would be it. If you grow mint, check your mint patch -- mine never really stopped this winter.

Asparagus and Avocado Salad
From "My Pizza," by Jim Lahey (Clarkson Potter, 2012).

4 or 5 thick asparagus spears
1 avocado, halved, pitted and peeled
16 fresh mint leaves, chopped
1/2 lime
About 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
Pinch of fine sea salt per serving

Cut away about 2 inches of the base of each asparagus spear. Using a sharp vegetable peeler, shave the entire asparagus from bottom to top, reversing your grip and turning the spear as needed to shave as much as possible.
Divide the asparagus shavings among 4 salad plates. Cut each avocado half into 4 sections and place 2 wedges on each plate. Sprinkle with mint leaves. Squeeze lime juice over the salads, drizzle with the oil and sprinkle with salt.

Yield: 4 servings.

Green papaya happiness

Remember last Monday, when really bad storms swept over the area? Really bad, as in "call Auntie Em and grab Toto" bad?

Here's where I was: Sitting in my car, waiting it out in a safe spot and happily eating Hmong-style green papaya salad.

I was on my way back from Hickory for today's story about Hmong farmers. I had spent several happy hours tromping around rice paddies and having three-way conversations between my translator, Pahoua Xiong, and women who insisted on filling my arms with so much produce, I could barely hold on to my reporter's notebook.

While Xiong and I were talking about Hmong food and difficulty finding Hmong recipes, which are mostly handed down by word-of-mouth, she told me there is a restaurant in Hickory where you can get Hmong food. It's called Taste of the Orient on 1st Avenue SW, and the sign claims it serves Thai food. But according to Xiong, if you ask, they can point out the Hmong dishes on the menu.

Since Taste of the Orient is closed on Mondays, Xiong took us to a nearby Hmong market, K. Oriental Market on 1st Avenue SW, to get fresh green-papaya salad. Made in a little kitchen on one side of the store, it has shredded green papaya, tamarind paste, lots of lime juice, fish sauce, shrimp paste, sugar, chunks of fresh tomatoes, MSG (Hmong use a lot of MSG but you can ask them to skip it) and plenty of dry-roasted peanuts.

The woman behind the counter pounded the tamarind, limes, sugar and red pepper flakes together in a deep metal bowl, stirred in shredded papaya, stirred it all together and packed it into plastic tubs, all for $3 for small (but still pretty big) or $5 for large (very big).

On the way home, I pulled over in a safe parking lot to wait out the storm. I pulled open the tub of salad, grabbed a fork and picked my way through a delightful lunch. Outside the car, the storm raged and flashed. Inside, I kept myself calm by focusing on how every bite was different - tart papaya, salty fish sauce, fiery chile heat, crunchy peanuts, bite of lime. I made it home just fine.

And well-fed.

Green Papaya Salad

I adapted this from http://www.allrecipes.com/, changing the ingredients to the ones I saw them use at K. Oriental Market in Hickory.

3 cloves garlic, peeled
3 fresh green chile peppers

2 tablespoons tamarind paste
1 large unripe papaya, peeled
1 tomato, seeded and cut in bite-size wedges
2 tablespoons fish sauce
2 tablespoons lime juice
1 teaspoon brown sugar
2 tablespoons whole dry-roasted peanuts

Coarsely mash together the garlic, chile peppers and tamarind paste. Shred the papaya into long strips using a box grater or a hand-held shredder and add it to the tamarind mixture.

Mix in the tomato, fish sauce, lime juice, and sugar. Stir well. Stir in the peanuts. Cover, and refrigerate until serving. Can be made a few hours in advance, but it doesn't keep much longer than that.