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Moo Shu – Daring Cooks October 2011

Simone (junglefrog) — Fri, 14 Oct 2011 07:00:27 +0000

Mu shoo pancakes

Yes, you are reading that correctly! In – what seems like forever and is probably close to it anyway – I’ve finally managed to complete a Daring Cooks challenge again! Whoohoo!! I love doing those challenges but sometimes it is just too time consuming to keep up with everything and work at the same time. After a fairly busy summer and a rather unsettling spring before that, I simple didn’t get around to doing any after the last one in March of this year. But life seems to have settled down a bit so hopefully I should be able to join in some fun challenges in the coming months!

The October Daring Cooks’ Challenge was hosted by Shelley of C Mom Cook and her sister Ruth of The Crafts of Mommyhood. They challenged us to bring a taste of the East into our home kitchens by making our own Moo Shu, including thin pancakes, stir fry and sauce.

I also particularly liked this months challenge as the Asian kitchen is one of my favorites. It’s usually quick, light and healthy and with the winter months and heavy Christmas food ahead of us, that is just what we need to stay sane and healthy.

Moo shu pancakes

This challenge was all about making specific thin Chinese pancakes and then fill them with a stirfry. In addition to that we also had to make our own hoisin sauce as well. I use hoisin sauce quite a lot when cooking (as we do cook Asian flavors a lot) but had never even thought of making my own. To start with that, as I also started actually by making this sauce first. It’s simple; you whip the ingredients together and you’re done. I did think that the taste was too salty but that could have been because I used a dark soy sauce. I never know what to use if something is too salty… Anyone?

Little jar of hoisin sauce

The pancakes took the longest as it involved making the dough, having it rest for 30 minutes and then rolling it in three separate cigar shapes, cutting that into 6-8 pieces, rolling a ball of each and then transferring that into a paper thin pancake. Right… As you can probably see by looking at the photos, my pancakes could have definitely been a little thinner. I thought they were thin but the examples made y Shelley and Ruth looked much thinner, more like crepes almost. They gave us three different ways of making the pancakes but I just stuck to the first. What I did have – and I have no idea if that is supposed to happen – was that my pancakes puffed up while baking them. Did anyone else have that? Or was that because I cooked them too thick or too long?

Cutting into the pancakes

Whatever the case; it was really delicious so in that sense it was all success. I didn’t make any photos during the making of the pancakes as it was pitch dark at that time.. Not really ideal for photos.. I will definitely be making this recipe again, although I will not be making my own pancakes. Or maybe a different kind that would be easier to work with. Have to think about that!

Here are the recipes!

Thin pancakes (for mu shoo)

Print recipe

Serves:	25
Prep time:	45 minutes
Cook time:	45 minutes
Total time:	1 hours, 30 minutes
Meal type:	Main Dish, Side Dish
Region:	Chinese
From book:	The Chinese Kitchen

Ingredients

560g all purpose flour
300ml hot (boiling) water
1 teaspoon vegetable oil

Directions


Sift the flour into a mixing bowl. Gently pour in the water, stirring as you pour, then stir in the oil. Knead the mixture into a soft but firm dough. If your dough is dry, add more water, one tablespoon at a time, to reach the right consistency. Cover with a damp towel and let stand for about 30 minutes.

Lightly dust the surface of a worktop with dry flour. Knead the dough for 6-8 minutes or until smooth, then divide into 3 equal portions. Roll out each portion into a long sausage and cut each sausage into 8-10 pieces. Keep the dough that you are not actively working with covered with a lightly damp dish cloth to keep it from drying out.

Roll each piece into a ball, then, using the palm of your hand, press each piece into a flat pancake. Dust the worktop with more dry flour. Flatten each pancake into a 6 to 8 inch (15 cm to 20 cm) circle with a rolling pin, rolling gently on both sides.

Place an un-greased frying pan over high heat. Once the pan is hot, lower the heat to low and place the pancakes, one at a time, in the pan. Remove when little light-brown spots appear on the underside. Cover with a damp cloth until ready to serve.

Alternate method for preparing the pancakes: Once the dough has rested and been kneaded again, divide it into an even number of small pieces, rolling each into a ball. Working with two balls of dough at a time, dip the bottom of one ball lightly into sesame oil and press it onto the top of the second ball. Press the double layer flat, then roll the doubled pancake layers into 6 to 8 inch circles. In a dry pan, cook on each side until dry and lightly blistered (but without browning). Separate pancakes after cooking. Alternately (I know, an alternate to the alternate...), if you would prefer not to dip the dough in the sesame oil, you can achieve a similar result with a slight modification. Again working two pieces at a time, roll each piece into a three inch pancake. Using a pastry brush, brush sesame oil onto the top of one of the pancakes, and top it with the other pancake. Further roll the doubled pancake into a 6 to 8 inch circle and cook as the above alternate method. This method was actually our favorite of the three, and yielded the best results – very thin pancakes that held up a little better and had the most authentic texture. We had the best luck brushing a bit of sesame oil on both circles of dough, then sandwiching them together. Just be careful separating the pancakes after cooking them on both sides – heat (steam) does get caught between them, so don't burn your fingers!

Note

Be sure to use very hot-to-boiling water, as it helps relax the gluten, which will aid in rolling the pancakes super thin.
Adjust the heat of your pan as needed to cook the pancakes without burning them. I had to keep my burner on medium (rather than low) heat in order for my pancakes to cook properly (low was drying them out too much without cooking them fully), so watch your pancakes carefully.
If the pancakes are not to be used as soon as they are cooked, they can be warmed up, either in a steamer for 5-6 minutes, or in a microwave oven for 20-30 seconds, depending on the power.
And, in case you are curious, we both asked our local Chinese food restaurants about their Moo Shu pancakes, and they informed us that they purchase them prepared, and simply steam them for their customers as they order the dish.

Mu shoo pork

Print recipe

Serves:	4
Prep time:	30 minutes
Cook time:	8 minutes
Total time:	38 minutes
Meal type:	Main Dish
Region:	Chinese
From book:	The Chinese Kitchen

Ingredients

150-200g various mushrooms (I used shii-take, oyster mushrooms and chestnut mushrooms)
450g pork loin or butt
100g bamboo shoots
170g Chinese cabbage (thinly sliced)
3 eggs
1 teaspoon salt
4 tablespoons vegetable oil
2 scalions (or spring onions)
1 tablespoon light soy sauce
2 teaspoons rice wine
a few dropssesame oil
12 pieces thin pancakes (to serve)

Directions


Clean the mushrooms of your choice and finely cut them. Thinly cut the pork, bamboo shoots and Chinese cabbage into matchstick-sized shreds. Lightly beat the eggs with a pinch of salt.

Heat about 1 tablespoon (15 ml) oil in a preheated wok and scramble the eggs until set, but not too hard. Remove and keep to one side. Heat the remaining oil. Stir-fry the shredded pork for about 1 minute or until the color changes. Add the fungus, bamboo shoots, Chinese cabbage and scallions. Stir-fry for about 2-3 minutes, then add the remaining salt, soy sauce and wine. Blend well and continue stirring for another 2 minutes. Add the scrambled eggs, stirring to break them into small bits. Add the sesame oil and blend well. To serve: place about 2 tablespoons (30 ml) of hot Moo Shu in the center of a warm pancake, rolling it into a parcel with the bottom end turned up to prevent the contents from falling out. Eat with your fingers.

Hoisin sauce

Print recipe

Serves:	1
Prep time:	10 minutes
Cook time:	None
Total time:	10 minutes
Meal type:	Condiment
Region:	Chinese
Website:	Epicurian

Ingredients

4 tablespoons soy sauce (I used dark soy but thought it was a bit too salty. Will use light soy next time!)
2 tablespoons peanut butter (or black bean paste)
1 tablespoon honey (or molasses)
2 teaspoons white wine vinegar
1/8 teaspoon garlic powder
2 teaspoons sesame oil
20 drops Chinese style hot sauce
1/8 teaspoon black pepper

Directions


Simply mix all of the ingredients together by hand using a sturdy spoon. At first it does not appear like it will mix, but keep at it just a bit longer and your sauce will come together.

Ceviche; Daring Cooks March 2011

Simone (junglefrog) — Mon, 14 Mar 2011 07:00:58 +0000

Ceviche

Ceviche…. for the name alone you should be liking this dish! I think it sounds exotic and fun and people look at you like you know what you’re talking about when you pronounce it correctly.. I had heard about this dish before, read about it but never actually tried it. I have to be honest here as the prospect of having raw fish only marinated in limejuice did not exactly make me go ‘wow!’ But it has been waaaay to long since I last done a Daring Cooks challenge, so I figured it was time to try this elegant little dish.

Kathlyn of Bake Like a Ninja was our Daring Cooks’ March 2011 hostess. Kathlyn challenges us to make two classic Peruvian dishes: Ceviche de Pescado from “Peruvian Cooking – Basic Recipes” by Annik Franco Barreau. And Papas Rellenas adapted from a home recipe by Kathlyn’s Spanish teacher, Mayra.

I have to confess that I took the easy way out in this challenge. I could either make cevice and/or papas rellenas and while I think I probably like the papas even better it also involves more work and well, I wanted to make sure I did at least post the challenge on time this time. So I opted for the ceviche. I have to say that this is very straightforward and easy dish to make. Most important is that you use very fresh fish. The quality of the fish will determine your end result and if it’s tasty or not. Old fish will simply not do…

I bought cod for this at our fish monger and made sure they gave me very fresh fish (not that they normally sell old fish, but I have had a rather disputable piece of tuna once so I am a little careful here!)

Adding the other ingredients was also simple, so I cannot say that his was a real challenge in terms of difficulty. I do like that Kathlyn picked this dish as otherwise I would probably have never made it myself. So now over to the taste. As is to be expected the taste is sour, but I also found it surprisingly tasty. Definitely not a dish I would make as a main but perfect for a refreshing and little starter!

Cheviche de Pescado (Fish Ceviche):

Serves 6 as a “starter” or lunch portion. Serves 2 as a dinner.

Ingredients

2 lbs. (about 1 kg) firm white fish (scallops or other seafood may be substituted)*
2 garlic cloves, mashed
1 chili pepper, minced (I recommend Aji if you can find it, but Jalapeno or other peppers can sub)
1 cup (240 ml) freshly squeezed lime juice (between 8-12 limes)
Fresh juice only, no bottled. Can use lemons in lieu of limes.
1 tablespoon (15 ml) (4 grams) (1/8 oz) fresh coriander (cilantro), finely chopped
1 red onion, thinly sliced lengthwise
Salt and pepper (to taste)

Directions:

Boil sweet potato and corn (separately) if using for garnish. Allow to cool. (Can be done hours or even a day in advance)
Wash and trim your fish. Slice into pieces between ½ inch (15 mm) cubes to 2 inch (50mm) pieces, depending on taste.
Place fish in a non-reactive, shallow pan in a thin layer. Season with salt and pepper.
Combine lime juice, chili pepper, coriander and garlic. Pour mixture over fish. Stir lightly to expose all the fish to some of the lime juice mixture.
Put sliced onion on top of fish as it “cooks”
Let fish stand for 10 minutes.*** Lift fish out of the lime juice and plate individual portions , garnishing with lettuce, slices of sweet potato and slices or kernels of corn if using.

Daring Cooks; Broccoli souffle or Rise and Shine!

Simone (junglefrog) — Sun, 14 Nov 2010 07:00:09 +0000

Broccoli ham souffle

A slight panick broke out when I saw the challenge of this month for the Daring Cooks. We had to make souffles…. Now the souffle itself was not the reason for my panick attack; I mean I have made souffle before, but only in a dessert version. But the first thing that sprang to mind when thinking about souffles is calories!! High and copious amounts of calories! So I needed to do a little research to see if I could find a souffle that would not undermine my weightloss. as it turned out; they are not so bad provided you do not make a giant version or eat more then one at any sitting. I even found a souffle recipe on the Weight Watchers website and decided to use that one. I don’t think it is much different from a normal version, but you can judge for yourself by checking the recipe below.

Dave and Linda from Monkeyshines in the Kitchen chose Soufflés as our November 2010 Daring Cooks’ Challenge! Dave and Linda provided two of their own delicious recipes plus a sinfully decadent chocolate soufflé recipe adapted from Gordon Ramsay’s recipe found at the BBC Good Food website.

Fluffy and delicious insides!

Making the souffle is really not so hard as some people make you believe. It’s merely a matter of having all the ingredients ready and at hand, but then that is true for nearly all recipes. So nothing new there. I’ve chosen a broccoli/ham souffle and it was delicious! I didn’t really run into any problems although they did plummet down after rising so beautifully. I wasn’t quick enough with taking the photos, so obviously they don’t look so pretty anymore.. O well, they did taste pretty and after all that is what it is all about right?

Here is the recipe that I used:

BROCCOLI-CHEESE-HAM SOUFFLE (adapted from Weight Watchers website)

2 tbsp olive oil

Before baking

30 gr butter

25 gr flour

225 ml milk

2 medium sized eggs

50 gr ham, small slices

75 gr broccoli, cooked and chopped finely

15 gr parmesan or other cheese

pepper and salt to taste

Split the eggs. Heat the oven to 180C. Grease four small ramekins with a little oil.

Melt the butter in a saucepan and once melted stir in the flour. Heat for about a minute and take the pan of the heat. Little by little pour in the milk while you keep stirring. once it is all in, return the pan to the fire and bring to the boil. Cook for about 1 minute or until the mixture thickens. Turn of the heat.

Stir the eggyolks in and add the cooked broccoli, the slices of ham and the grated cheese. Keep some of the cheese separate to sprinkle on top of the souffles before putting in the oven. Season as needed.

Beat the eggwhites in a grease free bowl with a little bit of salt until stiff. Carefully mix in with the other mixture.

Divide the final mixture across the four ramekins, sprinkle with the rest of the cheese and put in the oven for about 25 minutes or until golden. The souffle will rise but will sink once taken out of the oven.

Daring Cooks; stuffed grape leaves

Simone (junglefrog) — Thu, 14 Oct 2010 06:00:51 +0000

There are certain things in life that I simply cannot seem to like. One of those things is stuffed vine leaves or more specifically dolmades. I first came across this green “cigars” when we were on holiday in Greece and Tom ordered them. I took one bite and decided I did not like them at all. I have since tried many different variations but well, none of these appeal to me in any way. It’s just not something that makes me happy. It’s not that I hate it; I just couldn’t care enough about them to eat it or order them in a restaurant. So when I saw the challenge for this months Daring Cooks I had to laugh and was secretly wondering if it was a conspiracy… Did Tom send someone an email? Did he bribe someone to make sure we would at some point have to make stuffed vineleaves?? Of course he claims to be innocent and since I have an idea that he wouldn’t know where to send an email anyway, I tend to believe him. But… there still was this challenge that I wanted to complete. Let’s face it; it has been far too long since I last finished a Daring Cooks or Daring Bakers challenge and I was not prepared to miss yet another month. Even though the subject of this challenge would have me skip any other time!

Our October 2010 hostess, Lori of Lori’s Lipsmacking Goodness, has challenged The Daring Cooks to stuff grape leaves. Lori chose a recipe from Aromas of Aleppo and a recipe from The New Book of Middle Eastern Food.

Version 1 of the stuffed grape leaves

So the first thing I had to do was to find vineleaves, which turned out to be quite easy in the Turkish section of our local supermarket, even though getting them out of the jar in one piece was a bit of a challenge, but nonetheless… I found them. I opted to go for the first recipe that Lori was mentioning with the ground beef but without the tamarind sauce. I sort of was under the wrong impression that I still had tamarind somewhere but that turned out to be something else entirely, so I had to leave the sauce out. I first had to rinse all the grapeleaves and untangle them from eachother. I think doing that was actually the biggest amount of work! But then came the filling part; I tasted the ground beef after having added all the spices and it tasted fine, but unfortunately once cooked; the taste was very bland. My thinking is that it must have washed away part of the flavor maybe? I am not sure but regardless of the blandness I also didn’t think that it was a very exciting filling. Tom – who is after all the dolmades expert – agreed that they were bland and while he did mention that he had dolmades on occassion tasting exactly like mine; I am not sure that that was supposed to be a compliment… lol..

I actually have to confess that the taste of the vine leaves was not as bad as I seemed to remember it. Once cooked it was very soft and easy to eat; it was just the filling that did not do it for me or anyone else (Tom had friends over so I let them all taste; they all agreed it needed to be spicier).

I did start the search for a better recipe and I think I have found one in one of the books by Tessa Kiros, but I have not had time to make them so that will have to wait for a later time. In terms of photos… well, I’ve done better to say the least but it will have to do!

Filling prior to using

If you’re interested in the recipe to try it out for yourself you can go over to the Daring Kitchen website and have a look here for the recipes used!

The final roll, cooked

Daring Cooks; nut butters

Simone (junglefrog) — Wed, 14 Jul 2010 06:00:24 +0000

Almond nut butter

I am nuts about nuts… Love them all, although I have a slight allergy for them. Ever heard of the most common allergy which is apple, raisins and walnuts? Well, I have it.. Really nothing serious; but whenever I eat a raw apple or walnut (once used in something I’m fine) my throat, ears and chin start to itch and if I make the mistake of touching my eyes before I wash my hands…. the fluids in my eyes start to swell up making me look like something from outer space.. I’ve only had that once but it was not a pretty sight! Ever since I make double sure to wash my hands immediately after eating an apple. Yes, I still eat them. I like them too much and the itching is something that passes quickly.

Lately though I have noticed that the allergy seems to have spread to other nuts besides walnuts… Hmm…. I’ve always thought I wasn’t “made” properly.. too many weird allergies, but thankfully nothing all too serious. So… I was quite happy to read about the challenge for the Daring Cooks for this month.

The July 2010 Daring Cooks’ Challenge was hosted by Margie of More Please and Natashya of Living in the Kitchen with Puppies. They chose to challenge Daring Cooks to make their own nut butter from scratch, and use the nut butter in a recipe. Their sources include Better with Nut Butter by Cooking Light Magazine, Asian Noodles by Nina Simonds, and Food Network online.

Almonds

When I was reading through our various options for the recipes I really wanted to make the Asian salad as that just sounded perfectly for the current hot weather, but… Tom didn’t feel like eating any salad. For some weird reason he always feels that dinner should be positively warm. Even if the weather is +30°C, he still insists something should be served hot. He’s ok if it is only a sandwich, as long as it is one prepared in the oven and eaten hot… How weird is that??

So I do tend to eat my salads for lunch rather then dinner, although I do occasionally just ignore him and prepare a salad for dinner. I mean seriously; what is wrong with a salad??

But for this particular challenge I really liked all four of the options so I decided to please my guy and made the chicken with curried tomato almond sauce.

Making the butter is really a breeze. Just pop everything in the magimix and keep on grinding until it becomes smooth and buttery. I did add a bit more oil as almonds are by their nature rather dry. I did not roast them beforehand but I can imagine that it would be an enhancement to the flavor. The nuts were unsalted to begin with, so I just added salt to the final dish prior to eating it. Which worked fine for me as I felt it would be easier to adjust the levels of saltiness when doing it this way. The finished dish was also very flavorful.

I do tend to forgot to read recipes very thoroughly, so what happens is that I scan through it, check my ingredients and then just start cooking. I sure do check the recipe occasionally but as it turns out; I also forgot to do certain things that are spelled out. Simply because I do not read it thoroughly enough.

In this case I sort of forgot to make it a smooth sauce, as I just chopped the onion into fine bits and left them in the sauce. There was no way I would have been able to remove them anyway and I liked the final result. Not a smooth sauce by any means, but very tasty nonetheless. The almonds you could taste very well in the dish but not in an overpowering way. Really loved the dish!

Chicken tomato almond curry

Chicken with Curried Tomato Almond Sauce
Yield: 4 servings

Recipe notes: Substitute the protein of your choice for the chicken. This is a smooth sauce, so the onion is removed before serving. If you prefer, dice the onion and leave it in the sauce or substitute a bit of onion powder.

Ingredients:

1 Tablespoon (15 ml) olive oil
4 (6 oz / 170 g) boneless, skinless chicken breast halves
Salt to taste

Spice Blend:
1.5 tablespoons (20 ml) garam masala seasoning
1 teaspoon (5 ml) ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon (2 ml) ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon (1 ml) black pepper

Sauce:
4 tablespoons (60 ml) butter
1 large onion, cut in half pole to pole
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 (15-ounce/425 g) can tomato sauce
⅓ cup (80 ml) almond butter
⅓ cup (80 ml) milk
½ to ¾ cup (120 to 180 ml) chicken broth or water, more as needed
1 cup (240 ml) frozen peas (optional)

Hot basmati rice for serving
Chopped parsley (optional garnish)
Sliced almonds (optional garnish)

Directions:

Cook the chicken. If desired, pound chicken to ¼ inch (6 mm) thickness to promote even cooking. Sprinkle with a bit of salt and pepper to taste. Heat 1 teaspoon (5 ml) olive oil a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add half the chicken; sauté 3 to 5 minutes on each side or until cooked through. Cook the chicken in 2 batches, adding more oil if needed for second batch. Dice chicken into bite-sized pieces; set aside on clean plate and keep warm.
Prepare spice blend. Stir garam masala, ginger, cinnamon, and pepper together in a small bowl. Set aside.
Melt the butter in large nonstick skillet over medium-low heat. Add the onion and cook gently for several minutes to infuse the butter with onion flavor. Keep the heat low to avoid burning the butter; a little color is fine. Add the spice blend and garlic and cook for 1 minute or till fragrant, stirring constantly. Add the tomato sauce, stir well, and bring to boil. Reduce heat to simmer. Whisk in almond butter and milk until thoroughly combined with tomato sauce. The almond butter is thick so it takes a while to make a smooth sauce. Return to simmer. Add broth (or water) to sauce to reach desired consistency; return to simmer. Add more broth (or water) as needed to thin sauce as desired.
Remove onion from sauce and discard. Stir frozen peas (if using) into sauce. Transfer sliced chicken to sauce. Simmer gently for a few minutes until peas and chicken are heated through.
Serve chicken and sauce over rice. Garnish with chopped parsley and/or sliced almonds if desired.

Junglefrog Cooking » Daring Cooks

Moo Shu – Daring Cooks October 2011

Thin pancakes (for mu shoo)

Ingredients

Directions

Note

Mu shoo pork

Ingredients

Directions

Hoisin sauce

Ingredients

Directions

Related Posts:

Ceviche; Daring Cooks March 2011

Cheviche de Pescado (Fish Ceviche):

Ingredients

Directions:

Related Posts:

Daring Cooks; Broccoli souffle or Rise and Shine!

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Daring Cooks; stuffed grape leaves

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Daring Cooks; nut butters

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