Pad Thai Picnic on a Harley

Me and my service dog went for a long ride yesterday. Today was a serious picnic ride to a local park a few towns over. I’m no chef, but I can cook decent food. Today’s menu was Pad Thai — or at least my version of it. I did all the prep work at home before we packed up for the trip. I pre sliced the bell peppers…red, yellow, and green. I used shredded carrots and long slices of vidalia onions too. I added minced garlic — about a full tablespoon. I don’t care much for kale and I couldn’t find any red cabbage so I substituted asparagus tips sautéed in butter.

The most difficult part was getting the peanut sauce made and packed for use. I didn’t want to haul the ingredients out on the bike so I premade it at home this morning, too. The recipe is fairly simple. I use all natural Teddy brand crunchy peanut butter, since it has no additives. Normal recipes call for smooth peanut butter but I prefer the crunchy and chunky stuff. This way I don’t need to add any peanuts to the dish.

I spoon out up to 1/4 cup of peanut butter. To this I add…

2 tbsp of low sodium soy sauce

I tbsp rice vinegar

2 tbsp coconut water

1/2 tbsp chili oil

Sprinkle of crushed red pepper flakes

1 tbsp minced ginger

I stir this together until it’s the consistency I want. If it’s still too thick, I add 1/4 tablespoons of coconut water until it thins down to what I like. In addition to pre sliced veggies, I sauté and shred two chicken breasts in butter, turmeric, black pepper and, and a squirt of lime juice. I let it cool then bag it in a ziplock to put in the cooler.

This is my load out in the sidecar trunk.

My portable kitchen and the stove and pans in an old canvas military surplus bread bag in the trunk.

A small cooler sits in the floorboard of the hack.

The set up on the picnic table, ready to start cooking.

I chopped up some fresh cilantro and added it to the pan.

I added the Thai noodles to the veggies that I pre sliced at home. Three colors of bell peppers, onions, minced garlic, I added about 1/2 cup of asparagus tips sautéed in butter on low heat, and simmered this on low heat with sesame oil. Water is dribbled into the pan to prevent it from burning. Next, I add the shredded chicken that I precooked at home in butter, turmeric, black pepper and a squirt of lime juice.

Once it gets nice and soft, I cracked two eggs into the pan and stirred them in until they cooked.

Of course once it hits the plate, it’s time to spoon in some of my homemade peanut butter sauce.

Now the pup doesn’t get to share this with me because there’s things in the dish that are poisonous to a dog. So she gets her own picnic food separate from mine.

Here it’s plated up and ready to devour. I chase the food with a small cup of merlot and a small cup of cold water.

The absolute ultimate of the sauce is a dabble of habanero and black truffle mix. This just puts the dish over the top with flavor.

This was so good, I had a second helping and still had plenty of leftovers to take home for dinner tonight.

Of course Maine has some wonky weather and we got rained on again today. It didn’t matter though. The picnic table I chose had a roof over it. All we had to do was wait until the rain passed and we packed up for the trip home. And dishes to wash later tonight.