Mu Shu Vegetables with Pancakes

In my mind, nothing says 'Happy St. Patrick's Day' quite like a nice steaming hot plate of Mu Shu Vegetables! OK, so we sort of overlooked the holiday from a food standpoint. But that is not to say we were disappointed with this dish. It was quite good. Also, doing the pancakes from scratch was kind of cool, and I learned something in the process.

I have a hard time with doing a lot of Chinese recipes as they are written (except for anything by Fuschia Dunlop, she knows how to do it properly). I always have to sex 'em up somehow. In this case, I threw in some Sichuan peppercorns at the beginning and some red pepper flakes. I gotta have a little heat in these sorts of dishes.

This is pretty straight forward stuff and great food to eat with your hands. Top with a nice, sweet Hoisin sauce and away you go.

MU SHU PANCAKES
240 g flour, sifted
250 milliliters boiling water, as needed
3 teaspoons sesame oil
MU SHU VEGETABLES
3 tablespoons sesame oil
14 g garlic, minced
14 g ginger, minced
1 tablespoon Sichuan peppercorns (optional)
1 1/2 teaspoons red pepper flakes (optional)
225 g celery, julienne
225 g carrot, julienne
225 g fennel, julienne
225 g Chinese cabbage leaves, chiffonade
285 g red pepper, julienne
4 tablespoons soy sauce
6 tablespoons hoisin sauce
280 g scallion, grilled

PANCAKES
Sift the flour into a large bowl, add 3/4 cup boiling water to the flour and stir it in immediately, adding a little additional water if necessary to make a dough. Knead the warm dough until smooth. Wrap the dough and let it rest at room temperature for 30 minutes.

Turn the rested dough out onto a floured surface. Cut the dough in half. Use a lightly-floured rolling pin to roll each half out until it is 1/4-inch thick. Use a cookie cutter to cut out 3" circles of dough.

Brush 1/2 teaspoon of sesame oil over the tops of 2 dough circles. Lay one pancake on top of another, so that the oiled sides are together. Roll out to form a 6" circle. Repeat with the remainder of the pancakes. Use a damp towel to cover the prepared pancakes.

Heat a skillet over low heat. Add one of the pancake pairs and cook until barely golden. dry and blistered, about 1 minute. Turn and repeat on the second side. Remove from the pan and pull apart . Repeat with the remainder of the pancakes. serve immediately or wrap to hold at room temperature. Reheat the pancakes in a steamer or a microwave before serving.

VEGETABLES
Heat the all in a wok or large saute pan. Add the garlic, ginger, peppercorns and flakes and stir-fry until aromatic, about 15-30 seconds.

Add the vegetables in sequence listed (starting with densest vegetable) and stir-fry until tender. Stir in the soy sauce and hoisin.

Cover the pancakes with a damp towel and warm in a 250°F/120°C oven for 4 minutes.

For each portion: Place 70 g stir-fried vegetables In the center of each of 2 warmed
pancakes. Fold the ends of the pancakes inward and roll to completely to encase the vegetable mixture. Garnish each roll with 28 g grilled scallions.