I started by making and setting aside the dipping sauce. I didn't have Chinese mustard, but I used a hot mustard I had from France and it was fine. I used 1 teaspoon of garlic paste and 1 teaspoon of Sambal Oelek for the last ingredient. I'm pretty sure I forgot the two teaspoons of water.
- DIPPING SAUCE (optional)
- 1/4 cup sugar
- 1/2 cup water
- 2 tablespoons soy sauce
- 2 tablespoons rice wine vinegar
- 2 tablespoons ketchup
- 1 tablespoon lemon juice
- 1/8 teaspoon sesame oil
- 1 tablespoon hot mustard
- 2 teaspoons water
- 1-2 teaspoon garlic and red chile paste
The sauce was delicious and would make a great sweet salad dressing too. Once it was done, into the fridge it went.
Next I washed and spun dry the butterhead lettuce leaves. These are the very best for lettuce wraps--sweet, tender, and flexible enough to wrap without breaking. That OXO salad spinner is the best at spinning off that water!
Just like with a stir fry, I get everything prepped before beginning. I chopped one onion, minced two cloves of garlic, and sliced some green onions.
The recipe called for water chestnuts. I don't particularly like them, and I don't keep any on hand. If I had thought of it, I could have sliced up some Bok Choy. It was fine without them though.
I also measured out all the other additions that would be needed for the meat mixture--soy sauce, hoisin sauce, Sambal Oelek and ginger paste (recipe called for Chili paste and for pickled ginger--didn't have chili paste and don't like pickled ginger), toasted sesame oil, and rice wine vinegar.
The recipe didn't call for it, but I had cilantro and Thai basil so I chopped some up to top my lettuce wraps.
I'm sure you could make these with ground chicken, but I had really good quality ground beef from Barham Family Farms (www.barhamfamilyfarm.com) and I wanted to use that.
But I also wanted to have that fine crumble that Bo Ling and Taco Bell get with their ground meat. So I asked my online friends and they told me to process my ground beef in the food processor first.
So I did.
After pulsing several times, it looked like this.
I was a little skeptical as I started to brown it and it looked like this.
Put I persevered, kept working it with a spoon, and darned if I didn't get that fine crumble I was looking for.
Once it was browned, I removed it to a bowl and added the onions to the same pan, cooking over medium heat about 6 minutes until softened.
Once softened, in went the garlic, stirring until fragrant (around 30 seconds) then added everything from the hoisin sauce to the toasted sesame oil.
After mixing that well, add in the green onions and cook just until wilted--about 2 minutes.
And add back the ground beef, mixing throughly until all is heated through.
The recipe suggests lining a platter with the lettuce leaves, and mounding the meat mixture in the center.
I had the Thai Basil and cilantro at the side.
Scoop the meat into the lettuce leaf, top with the herbs, and dip in the special sauce.
A few things learned for next time--I only had some of the smaller lettuce leaves left. Definitely would have been a little easier with larger leaves. With these small leaves I couldn't really wrap the meat like a burrito, and I was basically dipping my entire hand into the sauce!
In a pinch, I I think this could easily just be done as a salad. Top the lettuce with the meat mixture and herbs, and use the dipping sauce as salad dressing.
Like I said, lessons learned for next time, because I will definitely be making this again.
I forgot the link for the recipe! You can see my edits above: