ひき肉のレタス巻き - Minced pork lettuce roll

This is my family recipe, it was my favourite dinner since I was small and today it’s my son's favourite. The picture is the meal that my son cooked because I was with cold yesterday. A bit of lazy part is to add green beans noodle, and that's optional. Otherwise it's very difficult to make it wrong. It’s nice and light meal, I usually serve this without anything else because when you dig in to this with your hands, you won’t need anything else.

Ingredients: (2-3 people)

500g minced pork

15cm bottom whiter part of leak minced

2 large slice of ginger minced 

2 medium size dried Shitake mushroom (see prep)

3 tbsp soy sauce

1 tbsp sake

2/3 Tbsp sesame oil

1 tbsp potato starch

salt & black pepper

1 large head of lettuce

1 small pack of glass noodles/green beans noodles (optional)

vegetable oil for deep fry (optional)

Preparation

1. In a small soup cup, place the dried Shitake mushrooms – stem side down, add a pinch of sugar (not included in the list of Ingredients) then pour some boiling hot water to cover the Shitake as much as they can float in the hot water. Leave it aside for about 15 min. Cut off the stems when it become enough soft.
* This is the quick way to restrain the Shitake - it is good enough when you want it for stir fry, etc. Otherwise it needs to be left in some cold water for over 1 hour - that drains better aromatic juice with complete Shitake taste.

2. Cut off the bottom stalk of the lettuce for about 0.5- 1cm, to loosen the first few leaves. Put it under running water, the stalk side up, then carefully remove the lettuce leaves one by one. Try not to break the leaves. Repeat the process until pealing all leaves. Leave it on a strainer to drain the water.

3. Chop the leak in to mince. Place the leak on a cutting board, hold the greener side of the stalk then cut a slit at the center along the leak stalk leaving but where you are holding without cutting it to pieces. Roll the stalk for 90 degree, do it again. Then make additional slits between the slits - so it will have a cut looks like an asterisk when you look the leak from the bottom. Now slice them in about 2-3mm from bottom side. Keep repeating this until all minced.

4. Chop ginger in to mince. Ginger has strings inside along with its growing direction. Unless you want to mince all the piece, you slice them in a right-angle to the string direction. Take off the first bits out (skin bits) then cut 2 of 2mm slices. Cut off the skin part, place one over another slice, then slice from one side to another to make 2mm threads. Turn them 90 degrees then cut them into cubes.

5. Once the Shitake mushroom is softened entirely until where was the stalk, then take them out from the water, squeeze them gently to drain out the liquid. On a cutting board, place them one over the other one, slice them into about 5mm threads. Turn them 90 degrees and cut them into cubes.

  

Method

1. Put all ingredients from the Ingredients list until salt in a bowl, following the list order. 

2. Mix them well using your hands. Leave it aside.

3. Optional step: deep frying the green beans noodles

It is nicer if you add some deep fried glass noodles, but this takes time. I do omit when I don’t have time, it is totally optional to add it or not.

3.0 Place a kitchen paper on strainer, ready another few kitchen papers aside of it.

3.1 Open the package, take the noodle out from the package, and take off the string holding the noodles together. Give some wagging to the mass and try to lose it a bit (don't need to be loosen all free, just to make it a bit loose so the oil can go into the center easier).  

3.2 Using a Chinese wok or a large deep pan heat up some vegetable oil, enough amount for deep frying the noodles (about at least 2 cups).

3.4 Wait until the oil gets enough hot. Firstly do the test: drop a small string of the noodle into the hot oil. If the heat is enough high, then the noodle should start popping to rough whiter and thicker noodles. If not, keep heating the oil until the noodle gets popped. Once the oil is enough heated then place the whole noodle mass in. Turn over the noodles in the oil few times and allow all around the noodle mass to pop. 

3.5 Once the popping stopped and see that the most of the noodles are popped, take the noodles out from the oil, keep it over the wok/pan for another 5-10 sec to drain the remaining oil out from the noodle well, then place it on the kitchen paper on the strainer. 

3.6 Using the extra 2 kitchen papers, wag the noodle and make them into loosen threads - be careful, the noodle must be very hot and some hot oil may come out! 

3.7 If the center of noodle mass remained not popped then put that remaining mass back in the hot oil and repeat the process again. 

3.8 You may find some center bits cannot pop at all - that's fine, once the noodles start to get brownish, then the noodles are fried enough anyway. You should be able to break that down to small pieces by the kitchen paper. 

4. If you've done the step 3, then take all oil out from the wok/pan to other pot, then place the pan on a hob and turn it on to high heat. Pour about 1 tbsp of oil in the wok/pan. 

If you skip the step 3, Place the Chinese wok or deep pan on a hob, turn the hob to high heat. Once the wok/pan is heated enough then pour about 3 tbsp of oil in the wok/pan. Move around the wok/pan to spread the oil all over the wok/pan. Discard 1/3 of the oil.

5. Put all the mixture of step 2 into the wok/pan. 

6. Using the turner, separate the mixture into smaller meat ball bits. Push down the mixture in the wok/pan, then cutting them through to small bits using the turner. Once the bottom side of minced pork are cooked, then using the turner, little by little turn them over roughly. Repeat separating them by the turner to small bits. If all became roughly a small bits, then stir fry until all get cooked.

7. Add the deep fried glass noodles into the wok/pan, stir fry them together for another 1 minute and done.

8. Serve the minced pork in a pot with few large spoons – the meat is nice serving in hot as well as cold depend on the weather. Serve the fresh lettuce separately. Everyone use your hands to build your own rolls.

* Additionz: I prefer to add some mayo in my roll. Chili oil is also nice if you like to have some kick. 

Japanese version here: http://misaskitchen-jp.blogspot.co.uk/2014/07/blog-post_6.html