Easy and Tasty Asparagus Stir Fry + How To Cut Asparagus (no chewy asparagus!)

I can't. What am I saying? What is the point that I'm making? I'm trying to make the point that people tend to waste asparagus. I was getting to the point. I know you were, but I just tried to... Hey, everyone. So today I'm going to make a really quick asparagus stir fry. Asparagus is in season right now, so we definitely wanna be taking advantage of it. Because we're doing the stir fry, I figured I would talk about how to cut asparagus. When preparing asparagus, I think a lot of people tend to waste quite a bit of it because they have seen this trick where you sort of snap the ends off. And then you end up with stringy asparagus because you sort of cut it this way. And that creates these long fibers that are, let's be honest, kind of tough to chew. So let's talk about how to do it in a less wasteful and less chewy manner. Okay, so the first step is to trim a little bit off the ends. All you wanna do is like maybe an inch, sort of more like three quarters of an inch. So that's what I'm gonna do. I just have them all bunched up. And this gets the really sort of like this tough and dry part off of the asparagus. We're gonna compost those. And now you have this part, this about like an inch or so that's probably still pretty tough. So the thing that we're gonna do is just peel the ends. And you can peel away from you if that's what you're used to. I tend to go this way and just like pull. And then you can kind of see like all this like fibrous, the fibrous part just pulls off. So you just do that. You could also do this with a paring knife. I mean, the peeler is like sort of a more friendly, universally friendly tool. And that's it. It's like the end is peeled and you've kind of taken off that tough part. I'll do another one. So I'm just gonna. So sometimes it pulls off nice and easy. And actually you kind of don't have to worry if it doesn't pull off, because if it doesn't pull off, I feel like that means that that part is sort of like on the more tender side. You're not, just wanna pull off like the bits that are really tough. I think it's actually easier to pull the peeler towards you rather than peel away, which I think a lot of people tend to do. And like pushing it this way is not bad, but what you're doing is you're kind of sliding the peeler along a smooth portion of the asparagus. So it's actually hard for the peeler to catch onto the asparagus. But if you pull it towards you this way, it catches onto the end of that asparagus really easily, which is why I do it that way. But you do you. You do whatever you feel comfortable doing. What are your thoughts on asparagus pea? I think it's gross and it's an unfortunate side effect of eating what is ultimately a delicious vegetable, but I'm not gonna not eat asparagus because of it. Well, you just don't like asparagus. I don't like the asparagus either. And what's crazy about the asparagus, because I had asparagus the other night because it's in season right now. So like we're buying it. And I went to the bathroom and I'm like literally an hour and a half after dinner. And I was like, whoa, like the speed at which that whatever reaction is happening happens is kind of crazy. Well, the crazy thing is that- Is it 10 minutes? It could be. Maybe this is TMI for a food video. I don't know. What do you think, audience? Discussions of asparagus pea. Okay, so we have our peeled asparagus. It's now all nice and tender, all up and down the stalk. And now we can cut them. So when you're slicing asparagus, a lot of people tend to just sort of go across the asparagus like this, this, this, like into segments. But in Chinese restaurants, you'll often see asparagus sliced like this, where you have a very sharp diagonal cut. And that's for two reasons. The first reason is it looks nice. It's pretty and it cooks quickly. But also the other reason is that you're actually cutting the asparagus against the grain sort of, like if you want to equate it to like cutting meat, you're cutting the asparagus fibers into very short lengths. So you're not having to chew as much. And it's like a lot more sort of crisp and less chewy and less tough. So that's what we're gonna do. We're just gonna really go on a very sharp angle here. And depending on how long you want your pieces, you can make them long like this, like that's about two inches. Or, you know, you could go a little bit shorter. It's really up to you. When I slice, I don't know, I just go along. To make this process go faster, you can just bunch all of the asparagus together. And I kind of like even just like set the asparagus on a diagonal or the bunch on a diagonal. And then you're even sharper than that really so that you can make sure that you're getting those sharp diagonal cuts. I mean, honestly, it's a little more haphazard if I'm being honest. So you know what? I'm just gonna do it individually. I think it's better. Because then you can, it's just each piece is so quick to do. You know, Chinese chefs might, to make this process faster, just cut across like this a bunch at once. You could absolutely do that. Like that's easy and works. You can do it however it makes you feel comfortable. Okay, so I'm almost finished cutting these and we are ready to go to the wok. All right, here's a quick asparagus stir fry. Let's do it. I'm heating the wok over high heat. I'm gonna wait until it starts to just smoke. Okay, the wok is starting to smoke so I'm gonna add the oil. Couple tablespoons. And I'm gonna add, immediately add the asparagus. Okay, so I'm just gonna stir fry this for a minute over high heat. And then I'm going to add this sauce that I made earlier. Got chicken stock, oyster sauce, Shaoxing wine, salt, et cetera. You can go to our website for the recipe and the measurements. I'm gonna throw in the garlic. My sister actually wrote a post on how to cook with garlic, which talks about when to add it in recipes. Go check it out. So we're gonna bring this to a simmer. So because we cut the asparagus into those short fibers, it actually cooks really quickly. So I'm just gonna thicken the sauce and then we're done. A little cornstarch slurry. I want the sauce to just coat the asparagus. I don't really want any standing sauce. And we're there. Perfect. And that's it. We can plate. And that is it. An easy and super tasty asparagus stir fry. Asparagus is all over the grocery stores right now, guys. Make sure to enjoy asparagus season. And that's it. A quick asparagus stir fry. Super easy to make and not tough, not fibrous. Most important when it comes to asparagus. It's really good. It's really tasty. It's like stupid tasty. It's like, this is a plate full of vegetables. That's all it is. But it's so just like full of flavor and really, I mean, your vegetables don't have to be boring, everyone. They can be just as exciting as the protein. Why is it like that, guys? It really is very tasty.