I'm loving my lettuce cups at the moment! It's such a handy way to devour my food, all wrapped up in a one-handed little parcel of joy. I prefer baby cos (just cos :P) as it has a bit more flavour than boring old iceberg. These pork skewers were inspired by an episode of Luke Nguyen's Vietnam that I caught on the SBS Food Network the other night (P.S.... never even know that channel existed before the lockdown. What a pleasant surprise!) and are drizzled in a tangy nuoc cham dressing for extra freshness!
Serves 2
Prep: 10 minutes
Cook: 10 minutes
Ingredients
For the skewers:
6 bamboo skewers
250g pork mince
2 garlic cloves, crushed
1 red shallot, diced
1 stalk lemongrass, white part only, diced
3 kaffir lime leaves, very finely chopped
1 tbsp fish sauce
1 tsp caster sugar
For the nuoc cham dressing:
4 tbsp fish sauce
4 tbsp lime juice
2 tsp chili flakes
2 tsp caster sugar
1 garlic clove, crushed
6 baby cos lettuce leaves, washed
1 carrot, peeled and julienned
1 Lebanese cucumber, deseeded and sliced into matchsticks
1 red chili, thinly sliced
Handful fresh herbs (I used coriander and mint)
1 tsp sesame seeds
Method:
Mix the dressing ingredients together. Set aside.
To prepare the pork skewers, place mince, garlic, shallot, lemongrass, kaffir lime, fish sauce and sugar in a bowl. Use your hands to mix everything vigorously together. Divide the mixture into 6 equal portions. Use your hands to shape each portion into a meatball, then squeeze it into a sausage shape. Insert a bamboo skewer and finish shaping the meat around it.
Heat a grill pan until very hot. Place the pork skewers in a single row and cook for three minutes. Carefully use the bamboo skewers to swivel them, and continue cooking the other side for three minutes. After they're set I like to shake the pan a bit to get them nice and dark on all sides - the sugar in the mix will caramelise slightly to give them a nice deep colour. They need about ten minutes all up.
Set out your lettuce leaves and fill them with a pork skewer, carrot, cucumber, chili and herbs. Pour over the nuoc cham dressing and sesame seeds and enjoy!
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