We decided to take a long overdue trip to Chinatown last weekend. It was great to find some hard to find items, including pickled mustard green. Here’s an incredibly addictive Sichuan recipe from Wei-Chuan’s Chinese Cooking cookbook, modified to be vegetarian. The ginger and pickled mustard green are the stars in this recipe, and pair perfectly with the fake meat and vegetables.
Ingredients:
- 6 oz Morningstar Vegetarian Sausage Patties
- vegetable oil
Marinade
- 1/2 salt
- 1 t rice wine
- 2 T water
- 1/2 T cornstarch
Spices:
- 1/2 bunch green onions, sliced on an angle in one inch lengths
- 1 T ginger root, shredded
- 1 T hot red pepper, shredded
- 1 small green pepper, shredded
Vegetables
- 1/2 c Sichuan pickled mustard green, shredded
- 4 oz can bamboo shoots, shredded (can be substituted with lo mein noodles for a different taste if you don’t like bamboo shoots)
- 4 carrots, julienned
Sauce
- 1 t salt
- 1/2 t MSG
- 1/2 t black pepper
- 1/2 t sesame oil
Instructions:
Prepare the ingredients as described in the above Ingredients list. Place the Marinade ingredients into a large bowl, the Spices ingredients in a medium bowl, and the Sauce ingredients in a small bowl.
Toast the patties for 12 minutes at 350ºF. After they cool, slice them width-wise, in half diameter-wise, and then into thin strips. Toss the patty strips in the Marinade. Let them sit, marinating for 5 minutes. Drain and set aside.
Boil 6 cups of water in a pot. Add the julienned carrots, return to boil, and cook for 1 minute. Drain and set aside.
Heat 2 T of vegetable oil on high heat in a wok. Add the drained, marinaded patty strips to the wok and stir-fry for 1 minute, constantly stir-frying to keep the strips from sticking to the wok. Remove from the wok and set aside.
Heat another 2 T of vegetable oil on high heat in the wok. Add the Spices and stir-fry for 1 minute. Add the Veggies and the stir-fried patty strips and stir-fry for 1 minute. Add the Sauce and stir-fry for 1 minute.