Category: Side Dish

Lettuce Cup Appetizers
The Steamy Kitchen Cookbook: 101 Asian Recipes Simple Enough for Tonight’s Dinner – Jaden Hair

Serves 4 to 6 as appetizer or snack

3/4 lb (350 g) ground chicken, turkey, beef or pork
2 teaspoons soy sauce
1 teaspoon Chinese rice wine (or dry sherry)
1 teaspoon cornstarch
2 teaspoons high-heat cooking oil
1 to 2 cloves garlic, finely minced
1 teaspoon fresh grated ginger
1/3 cup (150 g) chopped red onion
4 to 6 fresh shitake mushrooms, diced
4 peeled water chestnuts (fresh or canned), diced
2 teaspoons rice vinegar
1 1/2 tablespoons oyster sauce
16 cup-shaped lettuce leaves (Boston Bibb, Butter head, iceberg or any lettuce with cup shaped leaves)
One 11-oz (312-g) can mandarin orange sections, drained

1. In a bowl, marinate the ground poultry or meat with the soy sauce, wine and cornstarch for 10 minutes at room temperature.

2. Heat a wok or large frying pan over high heat and when hot, add the oil. Swirl to coat and add the garlic, ginger and red onion. Fry for 15 to 30 seconds until fragrant. Add the ground meat. Cook until lightly browned, about 2 minutes. Stir in the fresh shitake mushrooms, water chestnuts, rice vinegar and oyster sauce. Simmer for an additional 1 to 2 minutes until the meat is cooked through.

3. You can assemble the lettuce cups by spooning a heaping tablespoonful of filling into each lettuce cup and topping with the mandarin orange slices or you can serve the ingredients separately for your dinner guests to assemble themselves.

The onions for an onion soup need a long, slow cooking in butter and oil, then a long, slow simmering in stock for them to develop the deep, rich flavor which characterizes a perfect brew. You should therefore count on 2 1/2 hours at least from start to finish. Though the preliminary cooking in butter requires some watching, the actual simmering can proceed almost unattended.

1 ½ lbs. or about 5 cups of thinly sliced yellow onions
3 TB butter
1 TB oil
A heavy bottomed, 4-quart covered saucepan

Cook the onions slowly with the butter in the saucepan, covered for 15 minutes
1 tsp salt
½ tsp of sugar
3 Tb flour
Uncover, raise the heat to moderate, and stir in the salt and sugar. Cook for 30-40 minutes stirring frequently, until the onions have turned an even, deep, golden brown. Sprinkle in the flour and stir for 3 minutes.
2 quarts of boiling brown stock, canned beef bouillon, or 1 quart of boiling water and 1 quart of stock or bouillon. (I used 2qt chicken stock)
½ cup of dry white wine or dry white vermouth (I used white wine)
salt and pepper to taste
Off heat, blend in the boiling liquid. Add the wine, and season to taste. Simmer partially covered for 30-40 minutes or more, skimming occasionally. Correct seasoning. (This is why you skim)
A fireproof tureen or casserole or individual onion soup pots
2 ounces Swiss cheese cut into very thin slivers
1 Tb grated raw onion (I didn’t use this)
12-16 rounds of hard-toasted French bread
1 ½ cups Swiss, or Swiss and Parmesan cheese
1 Tb olive oil or melted butter (I didn’t add this)
reheat oven to 325 degrees. Bring the soup to a boil and pour into tureen or pots. Stir in slivered cheese and grated onion. Float toast rounds on top of the soup, and spread the grated cheese over it. Sprinkle with oil or butter. Bake for 20 minutes in the oven, (Oops, I forgot to to this) then set for a minute or two under a preheated broiler to top slightly.

I didn’t do this last part
A 2-quart bowl
1 tsp cornstarch
1 egg yolk
1 tsp Worcestershire sauce
3 TB cognac
Beat the cornstarch into the egg yolk, then the Worcestershire and the cognac. Just before serving the soup, lift an edge of the crust with a fork and remove a ladleful of soup. In a thin stream of droplets, beat the soup into the egg-yolk mixture with a fork. Gradually beat in two more ladlefuls of soup. Again, lifting the crust, pour the mixture back into the soup. Then reach in under the crust with the ladle and stir gently to blend the mixture into the rest of the soup. Serve.