Lettuce Wraps
*Frugal Recipe
For the first time out of 3 pregnancies, those cravings have all gone to my husband. No joke. He gets all sorts of food cravings...hot dogs at midnight, ice cream at any time of the day, chocolate cake, sweets in general....I wish I had the cravings because I can control/handle my cravings a bit better than my husband. At least that's what I like to think. I've had more practice anyways.
Can you imagine a grown yoke Samoan man with the appetite of a lion having the food cravings of a pregnant woman? And yes...with emotional side effects included (i.e. frustration and sadness because food cravings aren't satisfied, gazelle-like intensity to obtain desired food) LOL....it's been kinda funny watching him though.
It's unfortunate for Aljay's cravings that my food preferences have translated over in my cooking...which means healthier meals for our family! Which makes me happy.
And happy wife = happy life....for everyone.
Anyways....that recipe? The Lettuce wraps? I'm getting there.
So one night I really wanted to eat lettuce wraps. Just lettuce and meat and veggie toppings. But of course I did make rice on the side so Aljay wouldn't feel so incomplete.
I've seen several different recipes before but decided to just go in the kitchen and have a go at it.
The crisp light lettuce and meat turned delish but the real star of the dish is the sauce.
It's still a work in progress but this is roughly what I did...you can adjust everything to your own taste of course.
Sauce
soy sauce (3/4 cup )
Good squeeze of ketchup (maybe 1/4 cup or so)
Sugar (1/2 cup)
garlic (4 cloves chopped)
vinegar (1 T)
Pepper (1/4 tsp)
Hot sauce (few drops or however much you like)
If I had the ingredients I would have also added
sesame oil (few drops)
Red pepper flakes (1/4 tsp)
and maybe some rice or red wine vinegar.
Heat the sauce in a small pan over medium-low heat for about 10-15 mins.
Cool and store in the fridge.
Use the sauce for anything- marinade, glaze, topping...
Meat Filling
You can use any meat you like...minced meat, chicken, beef, etc...
I had pork cushion meat on hand.
I chopped up the meat into small pieces. (Had about 1-2 pounds)
Salt and peppered it.
Added about a Tablespoon of cornstarch and tossed the meat a bit till all the meat was coated.
Fried in a pan with a Tablespoon of oil.
Added in chopped onion (1/2 cup), chopped garlic (3 cloves), a splash of soy sauce (1 T),
and seasoned with salt and pepper.
Once the meat was cooked, I added a splash of chicken broth (less than 1/4 cup) to pick up the yummies on the bottom of the pan and threw in some green onion.
Turned off the heat and set it aside.
*You could add anything to it- chopped mushrooms, bamboo shoots, ginger, whatevs..go crazy.
Assembly
I used iceburg lettuce leaves and filled each with a little bit of the meat mixture, topped with some grated carrot, drizzled with a bit of sauce, and munched away.
You can have any other toppings you like really...mmm maybe some noodles or cucumber next time?
You can also mix the sauce and the meat together but I like them separate.
 |
| Leila's lettuce wrap. |
Comments