Daring Cooks October Challenge

A really yummy one from the Daring Cooks this month: Moo Shu, which is stirfry pork with Hoisin Sauce and Pancakes.

I'd never even heard of Moo Shu before this challenge was set, let alone cooked it, but I do generally love Chinese food so I was definitely up for trying it out. The brilliant thing about this recipe is that almost all of it can be made ahead. I made my hoisin sauce in the morning, chopped my vegetables ahead of time, and even made my pancakes earlier in the day. I knew that we'd be cooking late and in a hurry that night, so being able to have everything ready to go was great.

I made my pancakes several hours early and kept them under a damp cloth, just reheating them in the microwave for a few seconds when we were ready to eat. The pancakes weren't as soft as I would have liked. Maybe this is because I made them ahead, or maybe I rolled them too thin? I'm not sure of the reason, but they tasted good anyway.



For my stirfry I chose a mixture of thin sliced Sweetheart Cabbage, baby corn, mangetout, bamboo shoots and spring onions, with about 200g pork and 2 medium sized eggs for the 2 of us. I added a shake of Chinese 5 Spice powder to the recipe given by Daring Cooks but otherwise didn't meddle with it.



With a couple of spoonfuls of hoisin sauce on top of the stirfry, and everything folded into the slightly sesame flavoured pancakes, the flavours blended beautifully.



This is a very messy dinner to eat - even worse than fajitas - but really tasty. For nights when there isn't time for making pancakes I think the stirfry would go well with rice instead: And with that version you wouldn't end up with hoisin sauce dribbling down your arms!

We were having a very oriental week this week - ealier in the week we'd had spicy cured swordfish with noodle broth from the Wagamama cook book - a recipe which I highly recommend.



So the message of the week? Go forth and explore the Orient!

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.