April 9, 2011

Asian Lettuce Wraps

I've probably tried 5 different recipes for lettuce wraps over the years. All were okay, but none were repeatable. I've finally found a keeper! The vegetables and seasoning for the meat mixture is just right. The original recipe called for ground chicken, but I used ground pork instead.


Asian Lettuce Wraps
adapted from Our Best Bites

2 tsp canola oil
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 Tbsp minced fresh ginger
1 lb ground pork
3 ounces mushrooms, finely chopped (about 8 small mushrooms)
1/2 tsp kosher salt
4 cups thinly shredded cabbage
1 8-oz can sliced water chestnuts, drained, rinsed, and finely minced
1/2 cup thinly sliced green onions
4 Tbsp soy sauce
1 tsp sesame oil
1/2 lemon, zested and juiced
1/2-1 tsp sriracha or other hot sauce, to taste
1/3 cup roughly chopped cilantro
1-2 heads iceberg lettuce, separated into leaves and washed

Sauce
4 Tbsp soy sauce
4 Tbsp rice vinegar
3 Tbsp water
2 tsp honey
1-2 tsp finely minced fresh ginger

Heat a very large skillet to medium-high heat on the stove top. When hot, add vegetable oil and then garlic and ginger. Saute for about 30 seconds, until fragrant, and then add ground pork, chopped mushrooms, and kosher salt. Cook for about 5 minutes, stirring often, until pork is cooked through. Add cabbage, water chestnuts, and green onions. Cook for about 2 minutes, until cabbage starts to wilt. Add soy sauce, sesame oil, the zest from the lemon and the lemon juice, and hot sauce to taste. Remove from heat and stir in cilantro.

To prepare sauce, combine all ingredients and whisk to combine.

To serve, carefully remove the individual leaves from the head of lettuce. Place pork mixture in the leaves and serve with sauce.

2 comments:

Suzanne said...

How do you keep all those ingredients around?

Denae said...

Hmmm...I have a well-stocked pantry and condiment items in the fridge. For the fresh ingredients, I try to plan several meals to use them up. For example, I bought mushrooms for these wraps, but have pizza and eggs planned this week where I can use the mushrooms as well. Plenty of times I do not coordinate well, and have to throw out items, but I try really hard to prevent that.