San Choy Bao

Makes 1 serve.

Equipment

• Small container for mixing sauce
• Cutting board
• Knife
• Veg peeler
• Measuring spoons
• Grater/microplane
• Frypan or wok
• Spatula or wok shovel
• Spoon

Ingredients

Sauce

• ½ tsp cornflour
• 1 tbsp water
• ½  tsp dark soy sauce
• ½ tbsp black vinegar (optional)
• 1/2 tsp sesame oil
• 1 tbsp oyster sauce (or vegan oyster sauce)
• 1/2 tbsp light soy sauce
• 1 tbsp Chinese cooking wine or mirin (or stock, if preferred)
• ¼ tsp caster sugar

Filling

• 1/2  tbsp rice bran oil
• 1 clove garlic
• 2 cm piece of ginger
• 120g pork mince – can substitute chicken or beef (vegan option – 120g firm tofu)
• 1/4 onion
• 3 cm piece of celery stalk
• 1/2 small carrot
• 30g canned water chestnuts
• 2 mushrooms
• 4 small lettuce leaves, cup shaped
• 1 handful roasted unsalted peanuts
• 1 tbsp crispy shallots
• 1 green shallot (scallion/green onion)

Method

Mix the cornflour and water together to make a slurry.  Add all other sauce ingredients to the slurry and set aside.

Mince the garlic and grate the ginger.  Put next to your wok.

Finely dice the onion and put next to your wok.  Keep separate from the other vegies.

Finely dice carrot, celery, water chestnuts and mushrooms.   Put next to your wok.

If using tofu, finely chop it.  Put pork/tofu next to the wok.

Pull apart the lettuce to get 4 leaves  or ‘cups’ and set aside.

Roughly chop the peanuts and put in a container with the crispy shallots.  Set aside.

Finely slice the green shallot on an angle and set aside.

Heat the wok or frypan until it is smoking. 

Add oil, heat for 10 seconds then add ginger and garlic.  Stir fry very quickly (about 5 seconds) then add the onion.  Stirfry for about 30 seconds – keep the onion moving (lift and drop).

Add the pork/tofu.  If using a wok, push the pork/tofu up the sides and leave it there for about a minute, then stirfry (lift and drop).  Cook for about 2 minutes – if using meat/chicken mince cook until it is no longer pink and before it goes brown. 

Add the rest of the veg and cook until the carrot is soft (remember to taste!).  This takes about 1 minute.

Pour in the sauce and continue to lift and drop until it thickens and goes shiny.

Pile into lettuce leaves, top with peanuts, crispy shallots and green shallots.

NOTE – cooking times are for a small batch.  If you triple this recipe for a family of 4, then you will need to approximately double the cooking times indicated.  You can ‘bulk’ this out using cooked hokkien or rice noodles, or cooked white or brown rice (either add when you add the sauce, or put into the lettuce leaves and spoon the mix over).