Tortilla Wraps For Sesame Pancake

There are a few variations of Asian/Chinese wraps that I crave for from time to time. The Nanjing crispy scallion pancake, Taiwanese pancake beef roll ups, and the ever popular Chinese Moo Shu wrap. I guess today was one of those days when I needed an escape from rice and noodles, so some kinda pancake wrap it is. Well I certainly didn't really feel like going out and getting something too greasy nor did I feel like rolling out some pancake dough. Maybe a simple chinese pancake recipe to conveniently finish up some leftover tortilla wraps will suffice.

For the health-conscious, there are actually low-carb tortilla skins (which are the kind I used). This isn't exactly the traditional way of making Asian pancake wraps, but after a light coating of egg white wash and toasted seame seeds and a quick pan-fry, I definitely find myself preferring this over the thick chinese sesame pancake bread or the fragile thin Moo Shu wraps.

As for the filling, I went with some slow-cooked boneless beef short ribs. Slow cooking or braising enhances the exchange of flavors between the meat and the sauce and is a great way to soften the meat too, especially if you are using a tougher cut. For this chinese-style braised beef recipe, I used aromatic spices like cloves, cinnamon and star anise. They are the traditional spices used in stewing beef flank ("Ngau Lam") chinese-style. If you have leftovers, you can even serve it with egg noodles. Braised beef flank with egg noodles is actually quite a popular Hong Kong dish. Lastly, I added a few szechuan peppercorns for that extra punch.

Well, that's it for my chi-mex chinese burrito gone wild episode. If you have any great wrap and roll ideas, don't hesitate to share them. Check out my other Tex-Mex tortilla wrap here.

P/S : Messing around with my wraps on flickr. Enjoy !:)

Melting Wok : Sesame Pancake With Beef Wrap.

Braised Beef Recipe

Ingredients :
4 pc beef short ribs ( boneless )
1 star anise seed
2 cloves
5 szechuan peppercorns
sliced ginger
shredded green onions
3/4 cups low-sodium soy sauce
1 cup water
2 tbsp ABC sweet soy sauce
3 pc rock sugar ( or regular sugar )
salt and white pepper to taste
shaoxing cooking wine
sesame oil

Method :
1) Dump all the ingredients into a crock pot and slow cook for 4 hours or until tender.

Pulled Beef Wraps

Ingredients :
Mission brand low carb tortilla wraps
toasted sesame seeds
egg white wash

Method :

1) Lightly coat one side of the tortilla wraps with egg white wash. Sprinkle some toasted sesame on it and pan-fry on that side until light golden brown.

2) Shred or pull beef and wrap.

Note : Hmm .. I have some leftover braised beef from this recipe. How should I make use of them ?