Tuesday, April 1, 2008

Moo Shu Pork Pockets

We have this new market near our house called Freash & Easy. I heart it very much. Apparently it's originally a British market, and they've recently expanded to the US. It's a lot smaller than a regular grocery store, but they have a lot of organic foods, meat without preservatives, etc. The prices are ridiculously low--which is good for a single income family like us! My friend Heather found out that at 10:00 each morning they mark down meat that's still there from the previous day (because there aren't any preservatives in it), then again at 3:30 I think it is. I was there around 5:00 a couple weeks ago and scored big time--a pound of veal cutlets for $5 and a pound of ground pork for $2! I almost had a heart attack when I saw the veal. I love me some veal. Yeah, yeah, it's so inhumane and wrong...but have you ever eaten it? Lordy mama it's good. My brother thinks it's so good because it's so wrong to eat it.

Anyway, we don't have ground pork very often, but when I do buy it, I always make this recipe with it. The husband and I love Moo Shu, and this is a great way to have it at home. I made a Weight Watchers Moo Shu one time, and it was okay, but I seem to remember it requiring a lot of chopping of things. This you just throw most of the stuff into the patties and grill 'em up. It's from one of Rachael Ray's first cookbooks.

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'm only using a pound of pork, so I'll scale everything back a little bit. The gingersnap cookies in it give it a neat little crunch and spice. I think I'm going to cook them on the grill outside, too. Then I have one less pan to clean. I'm hoping my pork defrosts in time because I forgot to get it out earlier. I don't like defrosting meat in the microwave...some of it always ends up cooking and gets gross. Not sure what we'll have with it, I think some rice and I'll see what I have in the way of frozen veggies.

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