Lettuce Wraps

Ingredients

• 1 pound Ground Beef Or Turkey
• 2 Tablespoons Peanut Oil, Or Other Light Cooking Oil
• 1 whole Onion (small)
• 1 clove Garlic, Large
• 1 piece Fresh Ginger (1 Inch Long)
• 1 whole Red Pepper
• ½ cups Diced Water Chestnuts
• 3 Tablespoons Chinese Cooking Wine
• 4 Tablespoons Soy Sauce
• 1 Tablespoon Oyster Sauce
• 1 Tablespoon Peanut Chili, Or Satay, Sauce
• 1 Tablespoon Hoisin Sauce
• 1 teaspoon Sesame Oil
• 1 head Iceberg Lettuce

Preparation Instructions

The prep for this dish takes the longest, so get everything chopped and ready beforehand. Once you get cooking, you add ingredients fairly quickly.

Prep the veggies:
Dice the onion and red pepper. Drain and rinse the water chestnuts. Mince the garlic and the ginger. Cut out the core of the iceberg lettuce and give it a rinse. Allow the lettuce to drain, and carefully loosen the leaves.

Prep the sauce:
Mix together the soy sauce, oyster sauce, peanut chili sauce, hoisin sauce and the sesame oil.

Heat a wok or large saute pan over medium-high heat. Add the peanut oil to the pan, allow it to heat up for a minute, then add the diced onion. Cook the onion for a few minutes. When it starts to become translucent (after 4 or 5 minutes), add the garlic and ginger. Stir fry for 30 seconds, then add the ground meat. Brown the meat, then add the red pepper and water chestnuts, stirring constantly. After another 3 or 4 minutes, add in the Chinese cooking wine. Allow this to sizzle and cook for about a minute, then add in the sauce. Stirring frequently, let this cook for 2 or three minutes. The sauce should thicken a bit. If it doesn’t, you can add a teaspoon or two of cornstarch.

Serve with the iceberg lettuce: take one leaf and add a few heaping spoonfuls of the meat mixture, fold up, and enjoy! I recommend serving this with steamed rice.