Sunday, August 28, 2011

chicken lettuce wraps


Sometimes it feels like I'm the only person out there who has no clue where her life is going. I'm surrounded by people who are well on their way or are already fully launched into stable, successful careers and have no reason to question their professional future. I know I can't possibly be alone - the many times I've googled "what should I do with my life?" over the past few years, Google has finished the sentence for me. It's a ten year old question and let's face it, as much as I love my Art History degree, it didn't help me find any realistic answers to that other cliché question - what would you be happy spending your days doing without getting paid?

The best thing to do when you start to get professionally existential is to get out of the house, spend time with your amazing friends, eat exceptional food and drink watermelon mojitos. To excess, of course.

amazing friends


 watermelon mojito

These amazing chicken lettuce wraps star one of my favourite ingredients ever, hoisin sauce! I have to admit that my only role with these was selecting a head of lettuce at Provigo. I was on drinks duty, so the lettuce wraps were entirely prepared by lovely Liz and Paige. This post is kind of cheating in that sense, but I'm not bothered.

chicken lettuce wraps

1 lb ground chicken
1 tbsp cooking oil
1 large onion, chopped
2 cloves fresh garlic, minced
1 tbsp soy sauce
1/4 cup hoisin sauce
2 tsps finely minced ginger
1 tbsp rice wine vinegar
Asian chile pepper sauce (optional)
1 (8 oz) can water chestnuts, drained and finely chopped
1 bunch green onions, chopped
2 tsps sesame oil
1 head iceberg or butter lettuce

Cook the chicken in the cooking oil until no longer pink, then remove from pan. Cook the chopped onions in the same pan, then add the garlic, soy sauce, hoisin sauce, ginger, rice wine vinegar and chili sauce. Add the water chestnuts, green onions, sesame oil and dump the chicken back in the pan.

Remove the core of the lettuce and separate it into leaves. Spoon some chicken into a lettuce leaf, douse it with more hoisin if you're like me, then eat. Repeat until you can't possibly eat any more.

No comments:

Post a Comment