San Choy Bau

Cantonese lettuce cups: savoury minced pork stir-fried with water chestnut, shiitake, and spring onion in oyster and soy, spooned into chilled crisp cups of iceberg lettuce and eaten by hand

Origin: Guangdong, Southern China

From the journey of Lettuce.

San choy bau, which means simply 'raw vegetable wrap' in Cantonese, turns the lettuce leaf into a vessel. A savoury, finely diced filling of minced pork shot through with crunchy water chestnut, fragrant rehydrated shiitake, and spring onion is stir-fried hard and fast in a wok with oyster sauce, soy, and a splash of Shaoxing wine, then spooned into cool, crisp cups cut from a head of iceberg lettuce. The diner takes a cup in the hand, perhaps adds a little hoisin or chilli, folds it loosely, and eats it whole, the hot, salty, umami-rich filling set against the cold, watery snap of the raw leaf. The contrast of temperature and texture is the whole pleasure of the dish, and it is precisely that contrast, hot against cold and soft against crisp, that the Cantonese kitchen prizes. Like its cousin the lettuce in oyster sauce, san choy bau carries the auspicious overtone of the word sang choy, 'lettuce', which echoes the phrase for 'growing wealth', and the dish is a favourite at banquets and festive meals. Carried abroad by the Cantonese diaspora, it became one of the best-known Chinese restaurant dishes in the English-speaking world, where it is often made with a scattering of crisp pine nuts or crushed peanuts over the top.

Ingredients

The Cups

  • 1 large head iceberg lettuce, cut into 8 to 12 neat cups, chilled

The Filling

  • 6 dried shiitake mushrooms, soaked in warm water until soft, then finely diced
  • 500 g minced pork (not too lean)
  • 100 g drained tinned water chestnuts, finely diced
  • 3 spring onions, finely sliced, white and green kept separate
  • 2 cloves garlic, finely minced
  • 1 tbsp fresh ginger, finely minced
  • 2 tbsp neutral oil

Sauce

  • 2 tbsp oyster sauce
  • 1 tbsp light soy sauce
  • 1 tbsp Shaoxing rice wine
  • 1 tsp caster sugar
  • 1 tsp toasted sesame oil
  • 0.25 tsp ground white pepper

To Finish

  • 3 tbsp pine nuts, toasted, to garnish (optional)

Method

  1. Carefully separate the iceberg into cup-shaped leaves: cut around the core, then peel the leaves away and trim into neat round cups. Keep them in iced water or the refrigerator so they stay rigid and cold.
  2. Stir the sauce ingredients together in a small bowl: oyster sauce, soy, Shaoxing wine, sugar, sesame oil, and white pepper.
  3. Heat the oil in a wok over high heat until shimmering. Add the garlic, ginger, and the white parts of the spring onion, and stir-fry for 20 seconds until fragrant.
  4. Add the minced pork and stir-fry, breaking it up, for 4 to 5 minutes until browned and cooked through. Add the diced shiitake and water chestnut and stir-fry for a further 2 minutes.
  5. Pour in the sauce and toss for 1 to 2 minutes until the filling is glossy and the liquid has mostly evaporated. Stir through the green parts of the spring onion.
  6. Spoon the hot filling into a serving bowl and scatter with toasted pine nuts. Bring to the table with the cold lettuce cups, letting each person fill their own cup and eat it by hand.

Notes

Minced chicken or finely chopped firm tofu and mushroom both make good alternatives to pork. The classic vessel is iceberg for its rigid, bowl-shaped leaves, but butterhead cups are softer and also work. Keep the dice of the water chestnut and shiitake small and even so the filling holds together on the spoon and in the leaf.

The Gastrographer

The Gastrographer

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