Just Me and My Kadhai

**Girlfriend Guilt Trip Alert**

80P just finished his first year of grad school and, like a good girlfriend, I planned to take him out to celebrate. Well, Monday night in the District was cold and rainy so I found inspiration from my kitchen for our meal. While I was at my sister’s college graduation this weekend I persuaded 80 to leave the apartment for the first time in 72 hours (papers, papers, papers) to pick me up some asparagus and arugula from the opening weekend of the Mt. Pleasant farmers’ market.

I imagined a luscious spring dinner of risotto piled high on stalks of asparagus. Mine would be topped with a poached egg; 80P would get bacon strips. But, alas, the twenty two year olds texted.

80 goes to school with some straight-from-college dudes and they were down for some serious Adams Morgan (re: shit show, for out of towners) boozing. So he left before I even finished formulating (thought of subbing havarti for parm) my meal.

So there I was with my friends: asparagus, butter, garlic, egg. And you know what, I managed just fine without 80. Thanks, in part, to my Kadhai.

I bought the kadhai, this adorable stainless steel serving/cooking device, a while back but haven’t been brave enough to use it. The label swears I can use this right on the burner. But I just couldn’t believe something that cost 4 bucks could stand up to the heat. Using the kadhai for dips or other snacks would have surely been worth the price, but tonight, on my own, I dared to try it over the flame.

And total thumbs up! It heats up super fast, yet the handles stay fairly cool, and I didn’t even use any more butter than I would have used with a non-stick pan. This thing is fantastic for my solo egg dinners.

Asparagus, Swiss Cheese and Fried Egg Kadhai

There’s no need to preheat this guy, add a bit of butter and throw in half-inch pieces of asparagus. I like asparagus kinda crunchy so this quick cooking method works well (especially for the super thin variety.) When the asparagus turns bright green and browns in spots, I threw in diced garlic, salt and pepper and tossed it all around. But I got it out quick for fear of the very ugly burnt garlic monster. I then threw in about ten pine nuts and toasted them, which took all of 30 seconds and then put it in the bowl with the garlic asparagus.

I added a touch more butter and gently cracked in one egg. When the whites just started to cook, I added back in the asparagus and pine nuts and on top of that sprinkled diced swiss cheese. Once the cheese started to soften and the whites were solid I took the bowl off the burner and grabbed a fork.

No need to transfer to a new bowl. I ate everything right out of the kadhai. But do break that yolk as you don’t want the egg to keep cooking on the hot metal.