Vietnamese-Style Moo Shu Chive Pancakes (mù xū bǐng) with Turkey

Vietnamese food is all about the five senses: the visual explosion of colors in green basil and red chilies, the crunching sound of fresh carrots and bean sprouts, aromatic mint and fish sauces, the variety of textures for mouthfeel, and... oh yeah, taste is pretty important, too.  In fact, Vietnamese dishes rarely leave out any part of the tongue with spicy/sweet/tangy mixed with bitter herbs and salty condiments... commence Homer Simpson drool... NOW.

It seemed a natural progression for leftover turkey or any roast fowl (I used chicken, duck would probably be fantastic if I'd had some... doh!).  Turkey not being the most flavorful of meats on it's own, the kick of some cilantro and ginger sounded pretty good.  Since the leftover meat is easiest to remove from the carcass in shreds, I also thought some moo shu would work, and that would mean pancakes.  I didn't have the ingredients on hand to make Vietnamese pancakes like bánh xèo, which require rice flour and coconut water.  Therefore, I decided I'd have to go rogue and mix some Chinese moo shu pancakes (mù xū bǐng).  

I know technically this dish is a "fusion" dish, but I'm not a fan of this term, mainly because I see it over-used by restaurateurs looking to up the hip-o-meter in their menu.  I am not hip - I don't own an iPod since my last one was stolen over a year ago and I don't even miss it, I don't wear jeans that cost more than $40, and I don't get my hair cut into a style named after a celebrity.  Therefore, I feel as ill-suited to the term "fusion" as I do to, say, diet pills or Red Bull/vodkas.

So okay, the "fusion" part will stay in sarcastic little quotes, if that's okay with you guys.  Now, about these pancakes.  I found the basic recipe from Emeril Lagasse and I must not've read thru it properly the first time because I didn't realize I was essentially making pastry dough pancakes.  If I'd known that before making them, I probably would've closed the page and looked for something else to make.  Why?  Because I'm afraid of pastry dough.  Everyone makes it sound like some huge ordeal of rolling and buttering and layering... as someone who cooks way more than bakes, I just imagined myself collapsing in a tearful mess about halfway through - covered in flour with bits of dough mashed into my hair.  I'm wearing a chef's hat in this dream sequence, and it's slumped in defeat, too...

I'm glad I didn't read the recipe through properly as it turns out.  By the time I got to the layering part, I was having too much fun to care.  Yes, again this might be because I am not hip, and therefore have fun doing not-hip things like rolling dough on a Friday night, but who cares?  I was giddy with the realization that this was far from "work"; I was humming and I rolling out little disks, brushing them with sesame oil, and sticking some chives in between the layers... then a little sizzle on the griddle pan and there they were!

Pastry dough, watch out, cause I'm coming for you next...

Recipe: Vietnamese-style moo shu turkey and pancakes

What you need for the chive pancakes*...

1 1/2 cups flour (plus a little extra for rolling)

Pinch of salt

1/2 cup boiling water

2 - 3 tablespoons cold water

3 tablespoons sesame oil

A few sprigs of fresh chive, chopped coarsely

*makes 12 pancakes

What to scrounge around for for the filling...

2 cups of shredded, cooked poultry (leftover turkey, chicken, duck, etc)

1 cup each of shredded veggies (carrots, corn, cabbage, mushrooms)

1 egg, beaten

1/2 cup of onions, scallions, etc

3 cloves of garlic

Nob of fresh grated ginger or 1 1/2 teaspoons powdered

A few dashes of fish sauce

Equal parts soy sauce and brown sugar (dissolve brown sugar in soy sauce), amount to your taste and quantity of other ingredients

Sesame oil for cooking

Salt & pepper

What you need for the garlic/chili sauce...

2 parts red chili sauce (such as sambal oelek or sriracha )

1 part sesame oil

Crushed garlic and fresh ginger (to taste)

What you need for other accompaniments...

A handful each of fresh mint, Thai basil (or sweet), and cilantro (any or all)

Fresh bean sprouts (optional)

Shredded carrots (optional)

Lime wedges (optional)

Crushed peanuts (optional)

How to make moo shu pancakes...

Combine flour, salt, and boiling water in a medium bowl, stirring with a heat-proof spoon (whisks get gummy, not recommended).  Add cold water, one tablespoon at a time, and stir until you have a slightly sticky dough (you may find you need less than 3 tablespoons for this).  Turn it out onto a floured surface and knead for 10 minutes until smooth (see figs. 1 and 2).  Cover and let rest for 30 minutes.

Divide your dough in half, roll each half into a ball and divide each into sixths (see fig. 3).  You should have 12 pieces (fig. 4).  Roll each piece into a ball.  Using a rolling pin on a lightly-floured surface, roll out each ball into a 2-inch disc (see background of fig. 5).  Stack discs in pairs, brushing some sesame oil and sprinkling a few chopped chives in between the 2 discs.  Roll out your disc "sandwiches" into 7 - 8 inch pancakes (foreground of fig. 5).  Heat a heavy skillet or griddle, brush lightly with sesame oil, and add pancakes one at a time.  Cook on both sides until blistered but not browned (fig. 6).  There will be several air pockets.  Set aside finished pancakes, covered to keep warm.

What to do for the filling...

In a wok or medium skillet, heat some sesame oil and add any uncooked vegetables and onions, adding those with longer cooking times first.  Cook until tender but still crisp.  Add your cooked shredded meat, any cooked veggies, plus ginger, garlic, soy/brown sugar, fish sauce and salt/pepper to taste.  Add your beaten egg and and toss/stir.  Heat until everything is heated thoroughly and egg is cooked (shouldn't be more than a couple minutes). 

How to serve...

Combine all the ingredients for the chili/garlic sauce.  Serve along side the other accompaniments and pancakes.  Everyone can grab pancakes, add hot turkey filling, accompaniments, and a little sauce.  ENJOY!

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Brussels Sprouts w/Walnuts and Bacon: 3 Ingredient Recipe #10

3 Ingredient recipe: Brussels Sprouts with Walnuts and Bacon

I've read that a lot of the elaborate sauces invented by the French, and Roman sauces like garum , were concocted to mask the flavor of spoiled meats.  I thought about this as I worked thru the 10 days of this challenge.  Normally happy to be cooking with a spectrum of spices, I was now forced to focus on the details of my paltry ingredient lists... and while it's not like they were rotten or anything to begin with, they did have to be even better quality than the usual "it's gonna go so let's make stir fry out of it".

I'll admit this was intensely frustrating at first.  I found it amusing when friends would suggest dishes and it would be a conversation much like the process I'd go thru in my own head while putting these together: "Well you could just make a salsa and, wait, no that has 4 ingredients already... well I had this pesto cream with chicken and CRAP that's not going to work..."  You don't realized just how long the ingredient lists run in most recipes until you do something like this.

There are great things about it, though, obviously.  It's easy to go shopping for a recipe.  It has tendency to be less expensive.  It forces you to really think about each ingredient you choose.  

I think maybe my palate had been too spoiled before this.  We have so much flavor thrown at us in our food that  it can be easy to forget what the chicken tastes like outside the Kiev or the peppers before they've been stuffed.  This experiment, for me, has been like putting my taste buds on "time out" to think about just how much privilege they've had in their short lives, what with all the tandoories and tagines and tazikis available to them.  Except it turned out to be anything but a punishment.  The dishes were surprising flavorful and rich, much of that owing to the fact there was a sincere concentration, both in the cooking and in the dining process.

I really think I'll do this again sometime, and I hope you'll join me and at least watch the fun...

I thought I end this challenge with the recipe that put the idea in my head in first place: an impromptu side dish that turned into a meal.  All because Jason bought me these...

For a refresher on the rules of my 10 day, 3 ingredient challenge, check out the first post.

3 Ingredients...

1. 1 pound of Brussels sprouts, quartered (or 1/2 the sprouts of one large stalk)
   
2. 2 strips of bacon (diced)
   
3. 2/3 cup walnuts (chopped and toasted in dry pan)
   

What to do with it...

• Heat a large saute pan on medium heat and add your bacon, sautéing for 3 mins or until you have a some grease to cook your sprouts in
  
• Add sprouts and cook for 15 mins, stirring occasionally - you want some of the sprouts to get a nice golden color and the bacon to cook (it won't get crunchy, though)
  
• Add walnuts and salt and pepper
  

So easy, and so good!  Thanks so much to everyone who read along or contributed comments on this challenge, it's made all the difference!

Persimmon Cheesecakes: 3 Ingredient Recipe #9

3 Ingredient Recipe: Persimmon Cheesecake Cups

Ok, so I'm really excited about this one.  I wanted to do a dessert for one of the days in this challenge, but I just couldn't think of anything that didn't require lots of baking (too many ingredients) or was just fruit or gelatin or something (too easy).  One thing that makes it more difficult is that I am dessert-challenged.  While I can riff my way thru a 5 course meal without so much as glancing at a recipe, trying to make cookies without notes more often results in globby, burnt, or in some other manner inedible sweets than I'd care to admit.  No amount of pleading, threatening or tears seems to convince my ingredients to submit to my whims.

One especially memorable attempt was a batch of icebox lemon cookies that I deviated off the recipe for and ended up with more of a batter than a dough that when you placed them in the oven WOULD NOT BAKE.  They would just turn to runny, shapeless stubborn blobs and then, out of contempt for me, finally set themselves ablaze and left me with a tray of something resembling the s'mores that fall into the campfire.  I abandoned the notion of making cookies out of the remain raw paste, but since it really did have more the consistency of batter, I decided to show the goo I wasn't going down that easy and I made what I now call Cookie Dough Pancakes out of it.  They're actually quite a hit with Jason and he requests them from me all the time... so take THAT stupid jerk cookies...

Even if I manage to make a success out of my sweets experiments, however, they rarely turn out as they are originally intended.  Rather like children. So imagine my utter shock, my elation, as I removed perfect, gleaming little cheesecakes from the muffin tin.  A crossed-fingers bite confirmed it:  it was eatable.  It tasted like cheesecake.   It tasted like REALLY GOOD cheesecake!  And it had only three ingredients!  Shaking my tiny fists at the dessert gods who have for so long forsaken me, I was triumphant... and for any of my neighbors watching me from their windows from across the way, also a complete cackling lunatic.  But what did it matter?  I had perfect, airy, decadent persimmon cheesecake, and they could just watch me eat it...

For a refresher on the rules of my 10 day, 3 ingredient challenge, check out the first post.

3 Ingredients:

1. 2 persimmons, hulled
   
2. 1 8 oz package of cream cheese (softened)
   
3. 1 14 ounce can of sweetened condensed milk

What to do with it...

• Spray a standard 6-cup muffin tin with cooking spray or grease with butter
  
• Puree one persimmon in a standard blender or with an immersion blender
  
• With a hand mixer, whip together your cheese, persimmon puree, and 3/4 of your can of condensed milk until creamy/airy
  
• Divide mixture into your muffin cups, cover with plastic wrap, and pop into the freezer for 30 mins (but not much more than that or they'll get too hard)
  
• Slice your remaining persimmon into thin crescent wedges and dip in condensed milk to get a thin coat
  
• Heat a little butter in a small nonstick skillet and place into the pan to "caramelize" for a moment
  
• When your cheesecake cups are solid enough to remove, slide a butter knife dipped in hot water around the edges and pry each one out gently and plate
  
• Arranged your persimmon wedges in a star shape on top of each cake
  
• Finish them off by caramelizing persimmon tops further with a kitchen torch, or a quick moment under the broiler on high (test this on one as your broiler may not get hot enough and will just melt the cake)
  

NINE DOWN, JUST ONE TO GO!