Moo shu fo sho
Today I decreed that we shall eat more tortillas.
There are so many different combinations of foods to put into a tortilla. This morning? A banana and sliced strawberries with peanut butter. Tonight? Moo shu! (Scroll all the way down for all the pics!)
“Real” moo shu is usually made with pork (or some other meat) and wrapped up into an authentic Chinese homemade pancake. The Dana version is vegetarian and uses a store bought wheat tortilla.
The results? Moo-velous. The happy cook with her burri-YO!
The recipe? I looked at various recipes and sort of winged it: I chopped up onion, garlic, fresh ginger, broccoli, bok choy, and mushrooms — all very fine. Sauteed in batches in a little Pam spray and drizzle of sesame oil. Put this together at the end and added one beaten egg and a dash of soy sauce, rice vinegar, fish sauce and a pinch each of sugar and red pepper flakes.
When the mixture was ready, I zapped two tortillas in the microwave, spread each with about a tablespoon of Trader Joe’s General Tso sauce, and lined them with crispy fresh lettuce from the farmer’s market. Then I added a nice heap of filling, rolled them up, and YUM!
And that wasn’t all. Originally I’d planned to put some tofu into each burrito, but just before dinner I was inspired to attempt crispy “fried” (baked) tofu. It’s our favorite thing at our neighborhood place, The Beanbag Cafe.
I sort of winged this part of dinner too, looking at several recipes. First, I drained and pressed the tofu, then let marinate (briefly) in a mixture of soy sauce, fish sauce, rice vinegar, fresh ginger, and a little sugar. Here’s the tofu in marinade:
Then I did a bit of an experiment to see what would be the best coating: I dipped a portion of the marinated tofu into fresh breadcrumbs (left over from yesterday’s Memorial Day BBQ, when I made some fabulous chicken burgers from ground cajun chicken from the farmer’s market) and a portion into cornstarch. Also tried dipping a few in beaten egg before coating, and a few without. Here’s the before-baking image, with breadcrumbs on the left and cornstarch on the right:
Neither coating stuck well to the tofu, and the presence or absence of egg didn’t seem to make any difference. This resulted in a patchy “crisp” on the tofu. The finished cornstarch coating was more even than the breadcrumb coating, though the breadcrumbs had a better crunch (and the cornstarch had a bit of a powdery taste and texture — though not unpleasant). Here is our tofu after baking in a 350 degree oven for about 35 minutes, flipping halfway through:
It was definitely just as good as pan fried tofu, if not better. But I won’t be giving up on Beanbag anytime soon. My crispy tofu was good, but no replacement for the real, fried thing. (Duh?)
Dinner success fo sho! Here’s my favorite taste-tester with a full plate of moo shu burrito, crispy tofu and oven roasted sweet potato slices:
