Copycat PFChang, Jackfruit and Rambutans revisited.

This week I was tasked by Lady Sally to re-create the PF Chang Vegetarian Lettuce Wraps, for our vegan friends Susan & Patrick.  Sally and Susan had had them at the PFC at the Atlanta airport on their way to and from Spain a couple weeks back.

A quick search gave me a couple of copycat recipes, which I compared to the copycat version of the PFC Asian Beef Lettuce Wraps I'd made some time ago for Sally's daughter Holly.  Then I tweaked the recipes to create mu own version.



CopyCat PF Chang Veggie Wrap
The idea is simple - "stir fried" diced Asian veggies and a protein, served in a fold of leaf lettuce like a soft taco.  You can do this with beef, chicken or tofu, and all are very tasty.

Although the recipe sounds complicated, it really isn't.  But you do have to make two sauces and a stir fry oil blend.  If you like this dish, I might suggest making up, say, a cup or more of each sauce and storing it in your fridge for future cookings.

I suggest visiting your very best local Asian market to obtain most of the ingredients for this dish.  Baked tofu (a different from regular tofu) is not readily available in megamarts.  Do not substitute firm or extra firm regular tofu, or you'll regret it!

Also things like soy sauce, cellophane noodles, bamboo shoots, water chestnuts, hoisin and oyster sauces (and their vegetarian counterparts) are generally much cheaper, available in much greater variety, and overall "better" than the Westernized stuff you find in a megamart.

If you're making this for non-hardcore vegetarians, you can, of course, use regular Hoisin and Oyster Sauces.

Serves 4

Cooking Sauce

1 tablespoon Vegetarian Hoisin sauce

1 tablespoon Soy Sauce

1 tablespoon Mirin, rice wine, or dry sherry

2 tablespoons Vegetarian Oyster sauce

2 tablespoons Water

1 teaspoon Asian style Toasted Sesame oil (not the plain stuff)

1 teaspoon Sugar

2 teaspoons Cornstarch

Marinade

2 teaspoons Cornstarch

1 Tbsp Mirin, rice wine, or dry sherry

1 Tbsp Soy Sauce

2 teaspoons Chinese Chili Sauce (Sriracha, or any hot pepper sauce)

1 Tbsp Water

StirFry Oil

1 Tbsp Vegetable Oil or peanut oil plus 1 Tbsp Toasted Sesame Oil, shaken or stirred to blend

Filling

2 cups Baked Tofu, 1/4" diced (use 5 spice flavored tofu according to a former employee)

2 teaspoons fresh minced Ginger

3-4 Garlic cloves, minced

1 bunch Green Onions, minced

1 Red Bell Pepper, 1/4" diced

1/4 large Red Onion, 1/4" diced

1 can Bamboo Shoots (8oz), diced

1 can Water Chestnuts (8oz), diced

Serving Items

1 package Cellophane Noodles (rice noodles or bean thread vermicelli, 8 ounce) 

2-3 heads Romaine Lettuce, leaves separated and trimmed

Mix the Cooking Sauce in a bowl and set aside.   Mix the Marinade in a medium bowl. Mix well and marinate the tofu in the sauce for at least 15 minutes.

Start heating a pot of water.  When it boils add the cellophane noodles, turn off the heat, and let the noodles soften while you cook the filling.

Heat wok, griddle or skillet to medium-high heat. Add the StirFry oil and fry tofu for 2-3 minutes, turning constantly. Set cooked tofu aside.

Add the ginger, garlic and onion; and fry for about a minute. Add the other ingredients and stir-fry for another 2 minutes.  Return the tofu to the heat. Add the Cooking Sauce and cook until thickened (about 2 mins).

Drain the cellophane noodles and arrange them on a platter. Spoon the filling mixture over them and serve with lettuce leaves.

Jackfruit, plus Bananas and Rambutans revisited

Last week when I stopped at the Thursday Farmer's Market, I visited my friends from Pine Island Botanicals/The Sprout Queen -- a local organic farm that offer year-around gourmet greens, sprouts, and seasonal tropical fruits and veggies as well as free-range chicken eggs.

This week I got a large slice of ripe jackfruit from them.  And at another both I found some Rambutans that had been imported.  

Jackfruit can be intimidating.  First off, they are HUGE!  At least the size of a bowling ball.  They can get as big as 80 pounds and 30 inches in diameter.  I bought a slice a bit over an inch thick that weighed a pound and a half and was nearly the diameter of a dinner plate.  Finding a vendor that will sell you slices by the pound, is a GOOD THING unless you know you love jackfruit and have some ideas of what to do with the ripe fruit.

Green Jackfruit can be used as a protein substitute for vegetarian cooking.  The ripe fruit, with its heady scents of pineapple and banana, is fabulous for smoothies and other purees, or for simply eating out of hand.  They do require a bit of preparation before indulging however.  See those yellow pockets of yumminess?  Each one contains a seed the size of your thumbnail, that are easy to remove.  But then the pockets have to be dissected away from all the other bits and pieces:

That being done, you can combine them with other fruits and milk products to make fabulous smoothies.  The first two smoothies were made from one half of that slice of jackfruit pictured above, a splash of half & half, and two bananas we'd ripened from the banana patch behind Sally's house:

Bananas

From one stalk of bananas we obtained nearly three dozen 6" bananas that are super tasty.  I discovered that you should freeze bananas individually after peeling them.  Then put several frozen bananas in a zip top bag and seal for long term freezer storage.  The neighbor just brought me two more stalks of bananas to ripen!

Rambutans

 Here are the rambutans I found at the market.  Had to get some so I could photograph them for my food photo collection!  And taste, them of course.  These weren't quite ripe, so they were a bit hard to peel.  Not nearly as juicy or meaty as lychees or longans.

Unfortunately rambutans are too "cold sensitive" to grow here -- even in Keysian Florida!  But at least here we get some imports from Costa Rica and other nearby tropical countries.  I added these and some yogurt to the remaining of the jackfruit for a second round of smoothies.