Chop Suey de Verduras Mexicalense

Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •14-inch carbon steel wok, or a wide heavy skillet if you do not have one
• •Long-handled wok spatula or a sturdy metal spatula
• •Sharp chef's knife for prep
• •Small bowls for premixed sauce and slurry

Instructions

1. 1

   Prep everything first

   Cut every vegetable before you turn on the burner. Once the wok is hot, you have eight minutes from start to finish and no time to chop. Line up the vegetables in the order you will add them: garlic and ginger first, then the dense ones (onion, celery, carrot), then medium (bell pepper, broccoli), then quick (snow peas, cabbage), then last-second (sprouts, green onion). The Chinese cooks of La Chinesca call this mise en place by another name, but the principle is the same. No me vengas con atajos.

2. 2

   Mix the sauce

   In a small bowl, stir together the soy sauce, oyster sauce, rice vinegar, sugar, and broth. Set the cornstarch slurry next to it in a separate cup. Two bowls, ready to pour. The sauce goes in hot and fast at the end and there is no time to measure once the wok is screaming.

3. 3

   Heat the wok until it smokes

   Set a carbon steel wok or a wide heavy skillet over the highest heat your stove can give. Wait until you see a thin wisp lift off the dry surface, that is the wok ready. Add the manteca or peanut oil and swirl it around the sides. The fat should shimmer and move like water within two seconds. If the oil sits still, the wok is not hot enough. Pull it off and wait.

   Home stoves do not produce restaurant wok heat. To compensate, cook in two batches if your wok is smaller than 14 inches. Overcrowding steams the vegetables and you lose the wok hei, the breath of the wok, that defines this dish.
4. 4

   Build the aromatic base

   Throw in the garlic, ginger, and whole chiles de arbol. Toss constantly for about 15 seconds. The garlic should turn pale gold and the chiles should darken at the edges and perfume the kitchen. If the garlic goes brown, the wok is too hot and you start over. The chile de arbol from Yahualica or Sinaloa is what you want here, dry, brittle, deep red. This is the chile that bridges the Cantonese and the Mexicano on the same plate.

5. 5

   Stir-fry the dense vegetables

   Add the onion, celery, and carrot. Toss with a spatula or by jerking the wok. Cook 90 seconds. You want the edges to take on a little char without the centers softening. The Cantonese call this the breath of the wok. The vegetables should still snap when you bite them at the end.

6. 6

   Add the medium vegetables

   Add the bell pepper and broccoli. Toss for one more minute. Keep the heat on the highest setting. If you see steam pooling at the bottom of the wok, the vegetables are releasing water faster than the heat can evaporate it. Spread them out and let the wok catch up.

7. 7

   Add the quick vegetables and sauce

   Add the snow peas and cabbage. Toss for 30 seconds. Pour the sauce mixture in along the rim of the wok, not into the center. The sauce hits the hot metal first and caramelizes on contact, which is where the depth comes from. Toss everything to coat. Stir the cornstarch slurry one more time and pour it in. The sauce will thicken and glaze every vegetable in about 20 seconds.

8. 8

   Finish and serve

   Add the bean sprouts and green onion. Toss exactly five times. The sprouts should warm through but stay crisp. Pull the wok off the heat immediately. Slide everything onto a wide platter. Scatter the toasted sesame seeds across the top. Bring it to the table with warm flour tortillas and a small dish of salsa de chile de arbol. In Mexicali, you wrap a few spoonfuls into a tortilla and eat it like a taco. Asi se hace y punto.

Chef Tips

• •The single most important variable is heat. A home burner on its highest setting is the minimum. If you have an outdoor wok burner or a portable propane unit, use it. Restaurants in La Chinesca cook over jet-engine flames for a reason: the wok hei, the slight char on the vegetables, is impossible to fake at low temperatures.
• •Manteca de cerdo or refined peanut oil are the right fats. Olive oil burns at this temperature and tastes wrong with soy sauce. Vegetable oil works in a pinch but is flavorless. La manteca es el sabor, even in a Cantonese-derived dish.
• •Use chile de arbol from Yahualica, Jalisco, or from Sinaloa if you can find it. The arbol grown in Baja and Sonora is fine. What you want is brittle, deep red, intensely fragrant. Old chiles taste like nothing.
• •Flour tortillas, not corn. This is the north. Mexicali eats wheat. The chop suey gets wrapped in a tortilla de harina the same way carne asada does.

Advance Preparation

• •All vegetables can be cut and refrigerated separately up to one day ahead. Wrap the leafy ones in a damp towel so they do not wilt.
• •The sauce mixture can be combined and refrigerated up to three days ahead. Stir before using.
• •The dish itself does not hold. The vegetables go soft and the sauce breaks. Cook it the moment you intend to eat it. Recetas probadas y garantizadas, but only when served immediately.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 195g)