Asian Lettuce Wraps

To finish off my kick of Asian recipes I bring you, P.F. Chang's inspired lettuce wraps. I have only been to PF Chang's once, and it was few years ago so I couldn't really tell you if these taste like the real thing. But I can tell you that these are delicious.

We start with this luscious, beautiful thing called Butter Lettuce. This particular lettuce came from our bountiful basket, courtesy of Jake and Richelle who picked ours up for us. Isn't it beautiful? I hear you can also use something called Bib lettuce.

We fill it with a tasty combination of chicken and mushrooms with a nice crunch of water chestnuts. This savory filling has been cooked to perfection with an assortment of asian spices and sauces.

Asian Lettuce Wraps

Ingredients: 

1 head butter lettuce (10 leaves)
1 pound ground chicken breast
1/2 large onion, chopped
1 Tablespoons minced garlic
2 Tablespoon soy sauce
4 Tablespoons hoisin sauce
1 Tablespoon fresh ginger
1 tablespoon rice wine vinegar 
1 teaspoon chili powder
1 can (8 ounce size) sliced water chestnuts, drained, finely chopped
1 cup chopped mushrooms
2 teaspoons Asian sesame oil

Directions:

Rinse lettuce leaves, keeping them whole. Set aside to drain.

Cook chicken in a large skillet over medium heat, stirring often to break up the meat. Add onion, garlic, soy sauce, hoisin sauce, ginger, vinegar and chili powder. Cook until the meat is crumbled and brown. Add water chestnuts and mushrooms.

Stir in sesame oil. Arrange lettuce leaves on the outer edge of a platter. Spoon meat mixture in center. 

Panang Curry

I adore Thai Food. There is something unique about thai cuisine which makes it more sophisticated somehow. I think it is the coconut milk.

The only problem with thai food is that it can be quite expensive. I found a solution to this when I discovered this recipe a couple summers ago. All the ingredients could be found at an asian market, they weren't too expensive, recipe wasn't hard and the end result was delicious. I fell in love. I made this recipe for everyone. Multiple times. Ask my family or my roommates from that year, I was obsessed with it. But I guess I kind of got over it, or maybe I just forgot, or found new recipes to try. In any case, I realized that I had never made my Panang Curry for Matthew. And so I whipped out the recipe, made a trip to the Asian market and got busy.

It was just as good as I remembered. We had our neighbors over for dinner and we all deemed it a success. If you like thai food, I really hope you try Lettuce Wraps that I will post soon...

Lime leaves have a very strong flavor and don't soften much with cooking. This is why you remove most of the leaves before serving. But I still like the continued flavor, so I chop two very finely and leave them in.

Panang Curry Recipe

Ingredients:

3 large chicken breasts,

1-2 Tbsp Panang Curry Paste (depending on how spicy you like it)

2 cans coconut milk coconut milk (about 4 cups)

8 kaffir lime leaves, 6 whole, 2 finely chopped (see above picture)

Dash of salt

3 tbsp brown sugar

3 tbsp fish sauce

2 bell peppers- red, orange or yellow, cut into thin julienne strips and halved

8-10 cups cooked rice

*curry paste, lime leaves, fish sauce and coconut milk can all be found at most Asian markets

Directions:

1. Wash the chicken and cut into thin, bite size pieces, and fry until barely done.

2. In separate pan, fry bell peppers until al dente, soft but with a crunch to them, set aside.

3. Heat 1 can of coconut milk over medium heat until the oil surfaces. Add curry paste, stir constantly for 2 minutes until fragrant and red oil surfaces. Add the chicken, and cook for a further 2 minutes or until done. Add the remaining coconut milk.

4. Season to taste with salt, fish sauce, sugar and whole lime leaves. Reduce the heat and simmer for 10 minutes or until chicken is thoroughly cooked. Add chopped lime leaves and bell peppers and let simmer for 5 minutes. Remove whole lime leaves and let curry rest for 3-4 minutes before serving.

5. Spoon 1-2 cups rice in each bowl and top with curry.  

Baked Crab Wantons

This last week I have been on an Asian food kick. I love Asian foods but have always been a little afraid to try and make them on my own. After a complete and utter failure at trying Orange Chicken in the crock pot, my fears were further confirmed.

This last week has renewed my hope however as I have found some tasty and easy oriental food to try out. This first recipe was an appetizer I made for the fireworks party up in Bountiful.

I tried the recipe a couple different ways and found a winner. The plate of wantons was empty in seconds, and they got pretty good reviews. And so without further ado, Asian Kick Recipe #1

Baked Crab Won Tons (Rangoon)

Ingredients:

1 can (8 oz.)? white crabmeat, drained and chopped
1 package cream cheese (8oz), softened
3 tablespoons mayonnaise
1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
5 green onions chopped

A dash or two of garlic salt
fresh ground pepper to taste
24 won ton wrappers

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 375°F. Spray a mini muffin tin with nonstick cooking spray.

2. In a medium bowl, combine crab meat, cream cheese, mayonnaise, Worcestershire sauce, ½ of green onions, garlic salt, and pepper. Mix until well combined.

3. Push 1 won ton wrapper in each mini muffin cups. The edges of the won ton wrappers will extend beyond the mini muffin tin cups and may need to be folded slightly. Spray all wantons down with cooking spray. Bake empty wantons for 10-15 minutes, until edges are lightly browned and bottoms look baked.

4. Fill the center of each won ton cup with crab mixture. 

5. Bake an additional 10-15 minutes or until edges of cups are golden brown and filling is heated through. Top with additional green onions and serve. 

*Note: It may be tempting to just fill the crab mixture in the unbaked wanton wrappers and bake it all at once. I tried this. I ended up with soft wantons. I guess they tasted ok, but there wasn’t that lovely crisp and crunch that you need in a wanton. 

Thai Chicken Noodle Salad

We have officially moved out of our old apartment! I would say that we have moved in to our new place, but I am holding off on declaring that until we have unpacked a few more boxes. Our living room currently looks like we are hoarders. I might post some before and after pictures. 

Luckily we have unpacked a couple of our kitchen boxes and I found some time to make one of my favorite recipes. It's an Asian inspired chicken salad with angel hair pasta and a super awesome dressing. I got the recipe from my mom who got it from a friend who cuts our hair. I love recipe sharing. And friends.

In other news, Matthew has been down to Moab twice this week (rescue missions both times). I never really like it when he is out of town, but because of our lack of TV combined with our lack of internet I got quite a few boxes unpacked. It's amazing how productive I become without technology. 

I hope everyone is enjoying summer as much as I am, if not you should make this salad. It is a perfect summer food. 
p.s. We are going to the Avengers tonight with Mark and Neeley! I will tell you what we think. 

Thai Chicken Noodle Salad 

 from Kristen Powell

4 chicken breasts, grilled and shredded or sliced thin 

1 lb angel hair pasta, cooked al dente

1 tsp sesame oil, toss w/ pasta after cooking

1 cucumber, sliced thin

Bean Sprouts

Green onions, sliced

Cilantro, chopped

Peanuts, chopped

Dressing – blend the following:

¾ cup rice vinegar

½ cup soy sauce

3 Tbsp sugar, (honey would work too)

2 Tbsp sesame oil

2 Tbsp minced fresh ginger

1 tsp crushed red pepper (or less if you don’t like the heat)

2-3 tsp minced garlic depending on your preference

Prepare ingredients and arrange in separate bowls.  Let everyone make their own salads – starting with the noodles on the bottom and topping with the dressing.  

* A note about ginger: it is from this friend that I first learned the wonders of frozen ginger. If you keep your ginger in the freezer, not only does it last much longer, but it makes it possible to zest the ginger/ grate it on a fine cheese grater. Try it, you will never mince ginger again.