March 10, 2012 Dinner – Vegetarian Mu Shu and Ma Po Do Fu

March 10, 2012 Dinner – Vegetarian Mu Shu and Ma Po Do Fu

We were invited to Debbie and Jeff’s new home in Sandia Heights for dinner.  Suzette wanted to test a new recipe for Vegetarian Mu Shu (she intends to cook it as a food demonstration at the Greenhouse Bistro and Bakery in the spring).  We used the recipes on Page 304 and 307 of the Mastering the Art of Chinese Cooking by Eileen Yin-Fei Lo.  Suzette adjusted the ingredients for the Mu Shu to include only fresh vegetables, like bean sprouts, baby bok choy, scallions, garlic and ginger, Kubota squash, and mushrooms sliced in threads.  I chopped some green onions for the Mu Shu and as a garnish for the Ma Po Do Fu and seeded some Szechwan Peppercorns and the Suzette and Debbie made Mandarin Pancakes while Jeff and I watched the Lobos win the Mountain West Basketball Championship against San Diego State University.  

The pancakes are magical to make because you brush sesame oil between two rounds of dough made with only flour and boiling water and then roll the rounds out and cook them in a wok.  When cooked, the pancakes magically pull apart into two thin delicate pancakes.  They have a unique alive texture with a chewy tensile strength.  We rolled the pancakes around a mound of Mu Shu topped with a sauce made with Hoisen sauce, chicken stock, double dark soy sauce, rice cooking wine, sugar, cornstarch, and a pinch of salt and threads of fresh scallion.  A poor man’s Peking Duck made with stir fried vegetables instead of duck. 

We served the Mu Shu with some of the Ma Po Dou Fu and rice that I had made Thursday evening and we washed the food down with beers.

After dinner we had lattes and Oreos. 

A fun filled food and basketball evening.

Bon Appètit