As I mentioned in my turnip post, I love food. I lovelovelove it. I’m one of those people who finishes breakfast and thinks about what she’s going to have for lunch. And about 5 minutes after lunch, I’m fantasizing about dinner. I also love to cook, and I’m so lucky to live in Northern California where we have an abundance of amazing ingredients to choose from.
A couple of years ago I signed up for an organic produce delivery service that delivers a box of fruits and vegetables to my door every week. Then this year, I also decided to sign up for a meat CSA, which means I get a box of grass fed, free range, pasture raised protein – beef, lamb, goat, and poultry. It’s an assortment every month, and you never know exactly what you’re going to get.
In any case, I get a lot of meat in my box. (hehehe)
So now the bulk of my groceries arrives in 2 different boxes. Hence the inspiration for Cooking From My Box.
Every month I get 5 pounds of ground meat in my box, so this week I’m sharing my new favorite use for ground pork. If you’ve eaten at PF Chang, you’ll recognize it as a riff on their chicken lettuce cups. But instead of iceberg lettuce, I like a sturdier romaine leaf, and I also like to serve siracha sauce on the side. If you don’t have/don’t want ground pork, use ground turkey or finely chopped chicken instead. But if you use poultry, skip the step where you drain the meat after cooking. And if you want to give the recipe some extra spice, mince 1 jalapeno pepper and add with the scallions, garlic, and ginger.
Asian Pork in Lettuce Cups
Ingredients:
1 lb ground pork
1 T sesame oil
2 scallions, chopped fine
1/2 can water chestnuts, chopped fine
1 T minced ginger
1 T minced Garlic
3 T soy sauce
1 T rice wine vinegar (if you don’t have rice wine vinegar, substitute any vinegar but balsamic)
2 T brown suger
1 head romaine lettuce, separated into leaves (tip – Trader Joe’s sells whole romaine leaves prewashed and bagged)
heat a wok or saute pan to medium high heat. Cook pork until browned. Transfer pork into colander and let the fat drain (ground pork has major fat content and will turn your lettuce wraps into grease slicks if you don’t drain it.) Combine soy sauce, rice wine vinegar, and brown sugar in a small bowl and set aside. Add sesame oil to pan and let it heat, add chestnuts, scallions, ginger, and garlic. Cook for about 1 minute, stirring constantly so garlic and ginger don’t burn. Add pork back to pan, stir to combine. Add soy sauce mixture and stir to combine. Let sauce cook 2-3 minutes, until sauce is cooked down and slightly thickened. Serve with lettuce leaves and spicy sriracha sauce on the side.
