Asian Ravioli- MMAZ

Happy Monday everyone!  How was your weekend??

Mine looked a little something like this....

 

Sorry, is that too much rainbow for your Monday??


Don't answer that.


Confession- I didn't eat cabbage (except in egg rolls!) until like, 3 years ago.  How sad!  I freaking love cabbage!

So for this week's MMAZ I thought that I would go on back to my Asian roots with cabbage, but make a nice hearty, veggie asian ravioli.

Full disclosure:  The raviolis are really good.  And I don't like to toot my own horn.  But!  The sauce may not be everyone's cup of tea.  I had a 50% likeability factor (out of 4 people).  I really, really loved it, but I wanted to put it out there that if feeding to a crowd (especially a crowd that's not too keen on asian cooking like my sample audience), you might want to find a more.... mild, less aggressive sauce to use.

I can ramble about running forever, but when it comes to food, I just want the recipe.  So that's what I'm gonna do.

Asian Raviolis with Peanut Hoisin Sauce
makes 24 raviolis

For the Raviolis:
1 package wonton wrappers
1/2 T sesame oil
1 T rice vinegar
1/2 tsp fresh minced ginger
1 T olive oil
1 T tamari
1 c fresh mushrooms, chopped
3 c cabbage, chopped (I totally cheated and used coleslaw mix)
1/4 c bamboo (in a can)
1/4 c water chestnuts, chopped
1 T freshed chopped cilantro

In a medium sauce pan over medium heat, saute sesame oil and garlic for about 2 minutes.  Add rice vinegar and ginger, and saute for another 3-5 minutes, until ginger softens.

Add in mushrooms, tamari, bamboo, water chestnuts, and 2 1/2 cups of the cabbage.  Cook for 8-10 minutes, or until the cabbage and mushrooms are soft and completely cooked.

Add in cilantro and remaining 1/2 cup of cabbage, and cook for an additional 2-3 minutes.  (you can add all of the cabbage at once when you add the mushrooms, but I enjoy the texture of a little of the cabbage being undercooked- whatever your preference! :)

Take a heaping teaspoon of mixture and plop it onto your wonton wrapper.  I am TERRIBLE at explaining things, so you should go here or here or here if you'd like a step by step on how to fold those babies up.

I cooked my raviolis in an asian steamer, but you could boil them in shallow water, fry them in a little olive oil, or even bake them!  The choice is yours, and yours alone my friends.

For 'da Sauce:
3 T rice vinegar
1 T tamari
1 tsp sesame oil
1 tsp minced garlic
1/2 T peanut butter
1 tsp lime juice
1 1/2 T hoisin sauce
7 T half and half (or non dairy product of your choice)
1/2 T cornstarch
1/2 c vegetable stock

Combine rice vinegar, tamari, sesame oil, garlic, peanut butter, lime juice, and hoisin sauce in a medium sauce pan and bring to a simmer.

Add 6 tablespoons of half and half slowly, whisking as you do.

In a small dish, mix remaining 1 tablespoon of half and half with cornstarch.  Sloooooowly add to the simmering sauce, stirring constantly as you do.

Stir sauce until thickened.  Now, slowly add vegetable stock until desired consistency.

These were even better the next day.  I heated them up and threw some left over cabbage on top for a little bit of a crunch!

Head over to Heather's blog to see all the other amazing cabbage dishes everyone cooked up this week!!