Pork and Mushroom San Choy Bau
1½-inch piece ginger root
2 cloves garlic
1 or 2 small red "finger" chiles or bird's-eye chiles
3½ ounces fresh shiitake mushrooms
3½ ounces fresh oyster mushrooms
4 scallions
2 tablespoons safflower oil
1 pound lean ground pork (see note)
2 tablespoons Chinese rice wine
Low-sodium soy sauce or dark soy sauce
2 heads gem lettuce, "artisan" small-head lettuce or 1 small head iceberg lettuce
Peel the ginger, then mince it. Crush the garlic cloves. Stem and seed the chiles (to taste), then mince them.
Stem the shiitakes; coarsely chop all the mushrooms or cut them into very thin slices. Cut the white and light-green parts of the scallions on the diagonal into thin slices.
Heat half the oil in a large skillet or wok over medium-high heat. Once the oil shimmers, stir in the ginger, garlic and chiles. Stir-fry for 20 to 30 seconds. Add the remaining oil and the mushrooms. Stir-fry for about 3 minutes, or until they have released their moisture, then discard the garlic. Add the ground pork; stir-fry for 3 to 5 minutes, breaking up any large clumps, until it loses its raw look.
Add the Chinese rice wine and season with the soy sauce (to taste); reduce the heat to low and cook for 5 minutes. The meat should be cooked through.
Meanwhile, separate the lettuce leaves, rinse, pat dry and place on a platter.
Transfer the pork mixture to a serving bowl. Sprinkle the scallions on top and serve right away, with the lettuce leaves. Serve with steamed rice.
Note: Pork is the ground meat of choice here, because we like its fat content for flavor (typically 20 to 25 percent). We tested this with ground dark-meat turkey and the mixture was a bit drier.
Serves 4
Nutrition | Per serving (using 1 tablespoon low-sodium soy sauce): 250 calories, 27 g protein, 12 g carbohydrates, 12 g fat, 2 g saturated fat, 65 mg cholesterol, 290 mg sodium, 3 g dietary fiber, 5 g sugar
Adapted from "Harvest: 180 Recipes Through the Seasons," by Emilie Guelpa (Hardie Grant, 2017).