P.F. Chang's Vegetarian Lettuce Wrap

Tuesday, January 6, 2009

Along with the durian purchasing in Albany, I went to P.F. Chang's China Bistro for the first time. I was impressed. It was very well decorated and our server was absolutely perfect. She asked about allergies or diet restrictions right off the bat and jotted down what I didn't want in my food on her pad. I'm very sure I ate vegan there and it was a great experience merely because of that. I flat out do not trust restaurants anymore.
We also had dinner entertainment, a poor server named Evan (I think) who kept dropping people's drunks, he did it twice within the thirty minutes we were there. But that's not why I'm posting.
My mission before leaving for college is to replicate the appetizer dish I had.
Vegetarian Lettuce Wrap.
"Wok-seared tofu, water chestnuts, with mint and lime. Served with cool lettuce cups."
I think the menu lies because the dish was not minty. I saw no signs of mint there, so I'm leaving it out. Plus, mint is so out of season, and in the summer I can pluck it from my lawn like weeds, so I refuse to spend money on fresh mint plants.
While looking online I found that there are so damn many imitation recipes online, each with mixed reactions. Some love it, some don't think it's the same. I'm sure if you really knew how much oil they put in it, then you'll realize why it tastes so amazing. My mouth felt like an oil slick, but my mind was so happy.
I've adapted a recipe from three different recipes online. One, two, three. They are all, in essence, the same. I took tidbits from each, paying close attention to the comments from people who've made the recipe. Here's my adaptation.

Stuffing:

Teeny cubed tofu lin. They look huge but they're the size of my pinky finger nail.

1 pkg Soy Boy Tofu Lin tofu, minced into teeny squares
a handful of baby bella mushrooms, minced the same (shiitaki would be better but the store had none)
1 small clove garlic
half a thumbs worth of ginger
1/4 to 1/2 of an onion, any kind you want
4 oz (half a can) of sliced bamboo
1 8oz can of water chesnuts
thumb sized piece of carrot

For wrap:
iceberg lettuce, leaves cut off head but intact or
romaine lettuce, the same way (I'm using romaine because I loath iceberg)

Throw everything except the lettuce, minced tofu and minced mushrooms into a food processor and process until a mostly uniform minced-consistency. If you don't have a food processor then chop, grate or microplane the garlic and ginger and chop the other ingredients into small cubes as well. Set aside.

Marinade:
2 T Hoisen sauce, or less, this makes it very sweet and I don't think I like hoisen at all
2-5 T soy sauce, some of this is to make up for the lack of oyster sauce and the sweet hoisen
1-2 T sherry
2 t sesame oil
a few splashes of vegan Worcestershire sauce, I did this for no real reason, hoping it would mimic oyster sauce
1 t hot mustard
1 small clove garlic, microplaned
2 t ginger, microplaned
1 t cornstarch

Mix everything together making sure to whisk cornstarch well. Set aside.

Special Sauce:
At P.F. Chang's the server mixes your own special special sauce. The mixture is potsticker sauce with hot mustard and chili paste mixed in.

The culprits.

Potsticker Sauce:
1/4 c soy sauce
1 T sesame oil
a few splashes of hot chili oil- kind of unnecessary because of the chili paste
1 T rice/sushi vinegar (sweet vinegar)
pepper to taste

Add in chili paste (this stuff is HOT) and hot mustard to taste. I used about 1 T of hot mustard and a little less of chili paste. I didn't like the consistency of it, hot the mustard was all goopy, so I threw it all into my Magic Bullet to mix it thoroughly and it turned out perfect. Set this aside also.


Almost P.F. Chang's Vegetarian Lettuce Wrap:
Since I'm actually making it tomorrow and all I did today was prepare the ingredients, I'll just write what I probably will do tomorrow.

You'll need (obviously):
Stuffing
Marinade
Special Sauce
Lettuce
Wok/Pan
Oils
Empty Stomach

Heat the wok or pan to medium-ish with any oil you like. A mixture of peanut and sesame will do me good. Be careful to note that sesame has a lower smoking temp than peanut, you don't want to smoke yourself out of your kitchen like I have many times. And don't use olive oil. Ew.
When it's good and hot, add all the stuffing ingredients (besides lettuce, duh) and saute for 3-5 minutes, heating through everything and cooking down the mushrooms. Add the marinade sauce over the top and cook until the sauce is concentrated and thick and everything has come together nicely.

Serve in lettuce cups with the Special Sauce drizzled on top.

At the restaurant you get crispy cellophane noodles as well, but I didn't really like them and they add too much fat so I didn't put them in my version. You can get cellophane noodles to puff like that (so I've heard) my throwing bits of them into hot oil for barely a few seconds.

If I were to change the recipe next time I made it I would chop up the other stuffing ingredients rather than process them for a crunchier bite. Otherwise it was very delicious.