This all-in-one meal is wrapped up in flavor.

Byline: HOME COOKING By Jim Boyd The Register-Guard

Steve Davey of Eugene, the owner of River Roofing, offers recipes today for Moo Shu Duck Breast With Shiitake Mushrooms and the Peking Moo Shu Wrappers that are part of the dish.

Davey got the recipes from chef, cookbook author and cooking instructor Hugh Carpenter of Oakville, Calif. Carpenter is the author of 13 cookbooks that include "Asian Flavors," "Chopstix" and "Hot Wok."

Specialty: "Asia-style cooking and sushi," Davey said.

Davey developed the specialty because he and his wife, Joy, travel a lot to Thailand, Indonesia and Japan. His travels prompted him to enroll in two weeklong classes in Asian-inspired cuisine from Carpenter in California's Napa Valley.

"We really like that flavorful, healthy, quick style of cooking," Davey said. "It's a lot of wok cooking. We use a lot of fish."

Davey has become the primary cook for his wife and himself. His wife does the baking and he cooks their dinners.

How he began cooking: "I first became interested as a kid. There were eight of us. My dad would take us all fishing in the high Sierras two or three times a year. We would catch a mess of trout, put them on dry ice, haul them back to Los Angeles. Into the freezer they went, and then my mom and dad would cook up fried trout all the time.

He said the kids would cook the fish as well. "And I still make it the exact same way with cornmeal, lemon pepper, garlic powder, and it's just fried in butter and oil."

His biggest cooking success: "I belong to a gourmet group that meets every couple months," Davey said. "The host gets to pick out the menu, and it can be complicated. It's usually a gourmet menu.

"I decided to do seared sushi-grade yellowfin tuna as our entree as hosts. But I had to cook 12 inch-and-a-half steaks all at once, and have it all ready and cooked properly for everybody. And it worked! It was perfect.

"I got everything going - I usually use Grey Poupon and a lot of cracked pepper on the fillets. Get those going in a really hot skillet. Turn it down until it gets seared right to where I want it, and flip it.

"I didn't think it would work at all because tuna is really easy to overcook, but it actually turned out great. We had a nice little wasabi-soy-ginger sauce. Everybody raved about it. So that was probably one of my better successes."

His biggest cooking failure: Davey's biggest failure occurred about seven years ago because he was unfamiliar with the limitations of an electric wok.

He said he had some friends over to his place in Sunriver. He had chopped everything up and was ready to cook vegetables and chicken.

"I threw everything into this electric wok, thinking I really knew what I was doing. And, of course, everybody was starving. And, of course, nothing gets seared in an electric wok because it's overloaded and gets cooled down. So it turned out mushy."

Furthermore, Davey said, "At the end, I threw in some store-bought hot wok sauce that I didn't taste. So it was way too hot. You could barely eat it."

However, Davey said his friends graciously ate almost all of the stir-fry, "followed by a lot of ice water."

His favorite cookbooks: "My favorite, really, is 'Hot Wok' by Hugh Carpenter," Davey said. "His recipes in there are simple. They can be done within about 30 minutes."

Davey's other recommendations are "Sushi" by Ryuichi Yoshii and "Thailand: The Beautiful Cookbook" with recipes by Panurat Poladitmontri and Judy Lew.

Why this recipe was chosen: Davey chose moo shu duck with homemade Peking moo shu wrappers because, he said, "It is just flat-out delicious.

"If you make these wrappers from scratch, they can be frozen indefinitely, thawed and refrozen. They're just fantastic," he said. "We've made moo shu twice in the classes in Napa. The first time we used pork and the second time we used duck.

"I would serve a good wine with it, like a zinfandel," Davey said. "It's really an all-in-one meal. You've got your huge dish of moo shu - veggies and duck and everything - ready to go.

"And then you've got your wrappers that you put a little bit of hoisin sauce in the bottom, and then put in your filling, roll them up and eat them. We've never served it with anything else. It's pretty filling."

Moo Shu Duck Breast

With Shiitake Mushrooms

1 pound raw duck breast, fat removed, thinly sliced and cut into pieces about 1-inch by 1/2 -inch

2 tablespoons hoisin sauce

2 tablespoons Chinese rice wine or dry sherry

4 ounces fresh shiitake mushrooms, shredded

2 zucchini, shredded

4 whole green onions, shredded

4 eggs, well beaten

3 cloves garlic, minced

2 teaspoons ginger, minced

5 tablespoons flavorless cooking oil, divided

3/4 cup hoisin sauce (to serve on the table)

12 moo shu wrappers (recipe follows)

For the sauce:

3 tablespoons chicken broth 

1 tablespoon Chinese rice wine or dry sherry

1 tablespoon dark soy sauce

1 tablespoon oyster sauce 

2 teaspoons cornstarch 

1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper 

1 teaspoon chili sauce

Advance preparation: Combine the meat with the 2 tablespoons hoisin sauce and rice wine, mix well and refrigerate. Shred the vegetables and mushrooms. Refrigerate the eggs. In separate containers, set aside the garlic, ginger, cooking oil and 3/4 cup hoisin. In a small bowl, combine the ingredients for the sauce. Prepare the pancake-like moo shu wrappers. Recipe can be completed to this point up to 8 hours in advance of last-minute cooking.

Last-minute cooking: Preheat the oven to 325 degrees. Wrap the moo shu wrappers (pancakes) in aluminum foil, and heat in the oven for 15 minutes. Place a wok over highest heat. When the wok is very hot, add 2 tablespoons of oil to the center. Tilt the wok to coat the sides with oil. When the oil just begins to smoke, add the meat. Stir and toss until the meat just loses its outside color, then slide the meat onto a platter.

Immediately return the wok to highest heat. Add 1 tablespoon of cooking oil, rolling it around the sides of the wok, then add the eggs. Scramble the eggs until they become firm, about 1 minute. Slide the eggs onto the meat.

Immediately return the wok to highest heat. Add the remaining 2 tablespoons oil to the center, then add the garlic and ginger. Saute for a few seconds, then add the vegetables, stir-frying until the green onions brighten, about 1 minute.

Return the meat and eggs to the wok, then stir the sauce and add it to the wok. Taste and adjust the seasonings. Tip the food onto a heated platter.

Serve with the hot pancakes and a dish of hoisin sauce. Each person spreads a little hoisin sauce across the center of the pancake, places about 1/2 cup filling on top the sauce, then rolls the pancake into a cylinder, folding the bottom end upward to keep the filling from escaping. Filled pancakes are eaten with the fingers.

Serves 4 as an entree.

Peking Moo Shu Wrappers

1/4 cup lightly chopped fresh cilantro

1 teaspoon dried red chili flakes

4 cups unbleached white flour

1 3/4 cups boiling water

1 cup dark sesame oil, divided

Place cilantro, chili flakes and flour in a bowl. Stir in boiling water. Turn dough onto lightly floured board, flour your hands and knead dough until smooth and no longer sticky, about 5 minutes. Rub 1 tablespoon sesame oil around outside of dough, covering all the surface. Cover for 15 minutes.

Using a rolling pin with handles, roll dough out on a lightly floured surface until 1/4-inch thick, occasionally turning dough over. Then, with a 3-inch diameter round cookie cutter, cut dough into circles.

Thoroughly clean all flour from surface. Rub 1/2 tablespoon sesame oil over surface. Place 1 disk (pancake) on oiled counter. Rub about 1/4 teaspoon sesame oil over top of the disk. Lay another disk on top.

Using your palm, gently press the two disks together. Roll the pair into an 8-inch diameter circle. Always roll from the center of the disk out to the edge, changing directions after each rolling motion in order to stretch the dough into a large circle. Do not turn dough over during this process.

Heat a 12-inch saute pan over medium heat. Place the double pancake in the ungreased pan. Cook about 45 seconds on one side, and after flipping pancake over, about 20 seconds on the other side.

Pancakes are done when they lose their raw color. Pancakes should not have any brown spots - this is a sign of too high heat or cooking them too long.

Remove from pan and, starting at one edge, gently pull pancakes apart. Stack directly on top of each other (they will not stick together) and cover with a towel. Repeat rolling and cooking process with rest of dough. Wrap the stacked pancakes with plastic wrap or foil. Refrigerate up to 5 days or freeze indefinitely.

Last-minute reheating: If frozen, thaw pancakes at room temperature. Refreeze any extra pancakes you do not intend to use. Within 4 hours of serving, wrap the stack of pancakes with foil, sealing the edges so that the package is air tight.

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Reheat in the oven for 20 minutes. Do not reheat in the microwave oven, which toughens the dough. Serve immediately.

Note: Moo shu wrappers may be purchased at Asian markets, but they are worth the time to make from scratch, Davey says. The recipe makes 30 to 40 wrappers.

To nominate a cook for this feature, mail to Home Cooking, P.O. Box 10188, Eugene, OR 97440; fax [phone]; contact Jim Boyd at 338-2363, or [phone]; or e-mail [e-mail]. Include the nominee's name and phone number as well as your name and phone number.