Moo Shu Pork Pockets

Hey everyone! Well, I'm back in the land of the living after four days in bed and almost a week of being sick. Ugh! That strep throat really kicked my butt. I did end up cooking towards the end of last week but it was all pretty basic, lame stuff, so I didn't bother posting.

This was actually our dinner last night. The boy didn't nap like I had hoped, so I didn't get a chance to post it. We haven't had this in FOREVER, but it's one of our favorites. It's a Rachael Ray recipe from one of her first cookbooks. We love Moo Shu at Chinese restaurants, so when I saw this I had to try it. It's so good and pretty easy, too. I'd imagine the ground pork could be substituted for ground chicken, but honestly ground chicken seems so weird to me I couldn't imagine using it. I don't know, just one of those things.

Moo Shu Pork Pockets
1-1/2 pound ground pork
1 can sliced water chestnuts, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
12 gingersnap cookies, ground in food processor
2 Tbsp soy sauce
1 egg
1 cup hoisin sauce
6 large (12-inch) flour tortillas

Toppings:
Shred up a pile of your favorite raw vegetables or
2 cups shredded cabbage
Shredded carrots
Fresh bean sprouts
Thinly sliced scallions


Combine the pork and next five ingredients in a bowl. Form mixture into patties. Heat a large, nonstick skillet or grill pan over medium high heat. Grill patties approximately five minutes per side.

Heat tortillas on a nonstick surface over high heat for 30 seconds on each side. Paint the tortillas with hoisin sauce, leaving a 1-inch rim from edge. Pile shredded mixed veggies in center of tortilla and top with cooked pork patty. Fold the tortilla up on all four sides and wrap burger in a square package. Invert pork pocket and cut on diagonal.

*****

I only use one pound of pork, and for the toppings we had cilantro and carrots, mostly because I forgot to buy any of the other stuff. Oh, and I heat my tortillas in the microwave. Why dirty an extra pan! I've also cooked the patties on the grill outside, and that worked great. I generally make six patties out of mine. The recipe in the book called for eight patties using 1.5 pounds of meat, so I guess that makes sense.