Saturday, July 29, 2006

A lettuce wrap that husband will eat........

**I adapted a recipe that I found on my local grocery store web site Publix and Lea at Copperpots posted a lettuce wrap recently.

First let me say that husband is a great eater and will eat just about anything I place in front of the dear boy. He just happens to have a couple of limitations. I know I do as well as most of the people in this world. I digress….Knowing that the husband is not fond of the idea of stuffing food in a piece of lettuce and wrapping it up and eating it, go figure, I decided to do lettuce cups. Husband loves salads and pretty much all varieties.

Remembering that Copperpots made a tasty sounding lettuce wrap and Publix had a similar version but in boston lettuce cups. I had that AHA!!! moment.To say he loved it was putting it mildly. I won another round there folks. See this is what makes cooking fun and challenging. It’s not just getting the ingredients right and the preparation, it’s the pleasing factor. We as humans want to please another human soul by preparing a food item and hope to hell they like it.
Oh yeah it’s great for the ego!

So I took Copperpots recipe that follows

INGREDIENTS
1/2 rice your choice I used sushi rice
2 teaspoons sesame oil
1 pound ground turkey I used ground chicken
1 tablespoon minced fresh ginger
1 large red bell pepper, finely diced
a couple of handfuls of cashews, rough chopped
1/2 cup chicken broth
2 tablespoons hoisin sauce
1 teaspoon five-spice powder
salt to taste if necessary
2 heads Boston lettuce, leaves separated
1/2 cup chopped chives I used green onions
1 large carrot, shredded

METHOD
1. Cook your choice of rice according to package directions.2. Meanwhile, heat oil in a large nonstick pan over medium-high heat. Add chicken and ginger; cook, crumbling with a wooden spoon, until the chicken is cooked through, about 6 minutes. Stir in the cooked rice, bell pepper, cashews, broth, hoisin sauce, five-spice powder and salt; cook until heated through, about 1 minute.3. To serve, spoon portions of the chicken mixture onto lettuce leaves, top with a few green onions sliced at a diagonal for pretty, shredded carrots and some chow mein noodlesand a splash of tamarin sauce low sodium version.

I served a nice fresh fruit salad for a side dish and voila – happy eaters.
As Copperpots said “Yum!!!”

**adapted = my version of a couple of recipes I have found to be usable then melded them together.


3 comments:

Laura Rebecca said...

Great recipe -- I'd love to bite into one right now!

Just a question: how do you think it would be without the cashews? (Not their biggest fan...)

Deborah Eley De Bono said...

That recipe is good basic for lots of things, I'm thinking stuffing it in pot stickers and giving a fry.

I've stuffed many a leftover into some sort of wrapper in my time.

barb said...

laura rebecca - I think it would be fine without the cashews. Give it a try and please report back.