SC - pre-1500 cookery

[Kathleen M Everitt]

Brid wrote:
 
> When I had "mongolian" bbq, it was served with wrappers that started out as
> large, translucent brittle inflexible sheets of some rice-flour concoction. 
> These were dipped into hot water which turned them into flexible, slightly
> elastic wrappers, slightly similar to freshly made "mu-shu" wrappers, or the
> soft wrappers that thai food sometimes uses for things.  I think you can get
> them in asian markets...
> - -brid

Those sound like Thai or Vietnamese spring roll wrappers, which are
essentially a variation on rice paper. I've also seen mu xi pork served
in steamed, commercial Chinese spring roll wrappers, which are made in a
manner pretty similar to phyllo dough. When you make these wrappers at
home, you hold a ball of dough in your hand, and slap it on the hot
surface of a pan or griddle. You then pull it off, and the film that
remains on the pan is your wrapper. Commercially, they are made by
shooting steam through stainless-steel rollers, which is, I believe, how
phyllo dough is made most of the time. I don't know how the rice paper
wrappers are made.

However, the idea that spring roll wrappers, of any type, belong with mu
xi pork, or Peking duck, or whatever, is pretty much an abomination in
the eyes of God and man ;  ) . I guess the biggest objection I have is
that a cuisine is based, to some extent, on the available foods.
Probably the simplest reason you don't find too many dishes in, say,
Southern China, calling for hard winter wheat flour, is the simple fact
that wheat isn't grown there. Conversely, where is all this rice that
the Mongolians are supposed to be eating, coming from? Well, the fact
is, from nowhere, for the most part.

I think the choice to use rice-paper spring roll wrappers is based
mostly on the fact that they keep for years, and are easy and quick to
prepare, so there is little or no waste, since the cooks don't have to
prepare huge amounts at once, and hope they get eaten before they get
funky.

Like I said, I think the Old El Paso, or whatever, flour tortillas, "in
the refrigerated section of your favorite grocery" is probably a more
viable alternative for recreating Mongol food for SCA purposes. Unless,
of course, somebody absolutely needs a recipe for bao bing. I think I
have one around here someplace, although many good Chinese cookbooks
have them.

Adamantius

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