Sang choy bao with crispy veg
Hello Community
I’m bringing you a special collaboration this month between Food For Everyone and myself. Founded by Melbourne Artist Gemma Leslie, Food For Everyone is a social enterprise donating 50% of all profits to food-banks across Australia. Gemma created a beautiful visual dissection and interpretation of my wonton noodle soup from To Asia, With Love - a beautiful piece of artwork which I’m proud to hang on my walls and I hope others will love it too. It’s printed on 130 gsm Extract paper, made entirely from 100% recycled coffee cups. And each poster makes a social impact too - one A2 poster provides 90 meals while one A3 purchase provides 75 meals. Grab yours while you can here.
This month, I’ve been loving a favourite “special occasion” dish from my childhood - sang choy bao (lettuce cups). Growing up, we ate it a lot at my uncle’s restaurant; it is often the dish served to use up the extra meat from peking duck. At home, my mother’s version was filled with lots of crispy vegetables like celery and water chestnuts. My job was to separate the lettuce leaves into cups and, to be honest, I dreaded this task. Iceberg has a heap of crunch which makes it perfect for this dish, but it is also really hard to separate the leaves without tearing them. My mother taught me to use scissors to snip off the frayed edges to form a neat cup. A task as onerous for a 10 year old as it is for a 40-something year old.
Now, though I do love and in many ways prefer iceberg lettuce, my propensity for ease sees me using butter lettuce for my sang choy bao. Their leaves are the perfect size to hold a bundle of savoury filling, and because they are much softer in texture, they don’t tear as easily and can be easily folded up to enclose the filling. I double up on leaves for each parcel, to make a sturdier vessel. It delivers a slightly different mouthful that every much as satisfying.
Of course, use whatever lettuce you have on hand for this recipe. Cos/romaine is another option. You create boats instead of cups, but it is crunchy and refreshing like iceberg.
This recipe makes a generous serving. It will feed 4 hungry diners. Leftover filling can be kept in the fridge for up to five days – I generally like to make a large amount of filling because I eat it during the week, just topping up with more lettuce. You could turn this into a stand-alone dinner party meal by serving it alongside rice or sticky rice and adding bowls of herbs like coriander (cilantro), perilla, shiso, sliced makrut lime leaves, Thai basil, or Vietnamese mint (called Vietnamese coriander or Rau Răm in the US) for guests to add to their parcel, similar to Korean ssam wraps. The fried mung bean vermicelli topping is how it is served at many restaurants but is completely optional. You could easily subtsitute with store-bought crispy fried onions.
Sang choy bao with crispy veg
Serve 4-6 generously
neutral oil such as grapeseed or canola
1 carrot, washed and finely diced
2 sticks celery, trimmed and finely diced
2 garlic cloves, peeled and finely chopped
1 piece ginger (1 inch / 2.5cm) peeled and finely chopped
150g fresh shiitake mushrooms (or other variety), trimmed and diced
½ teaspoon white sugar
450g extra firm tofu (preferably super firm), drained and diced into 1cm cubes
140g water chestnuts, finely chopped
1 tablespoon soy sauce or tamari
1 tablespoon vegetarian stir fry sauce (or oyster sauce for non-vegetarians)
2 tablespoons pine nuts
sea salt and white pepper
2 scallions, finely sliced
2 teaspoon sesame oil
2 butter lettuce (or iceberg, romaine/cos), leaves separated, washed, drained and patted dry
chilli oil or crisp, to serve
1 lime, cut into wedges, to serve
Optional crispy topping
20g mung bean vermicelli (bean thread), broken up and cut into shorter pieces
neutral oil
Heat a wok or medium frypan on medium-high. When hot, add 1-2 tablespoons of oil, along with the carrot and celery. Stir-fry for 1 minute until slightly softened. Add the garlic, ginger, mushrooms, sugar and cook for 2 minutes until the mushrooms have softened.
Add the tofu, water chestnuts, soy sauce or tamari and vegetarian stir-fry sauce and toss to combine for 2 minutes. Add the the pine nuts and toss for 1-2 minutes. Taste and season with sea salt and white pepper.
Turn off the heat and add the scallions and sesame oil. Toss and set aside.
If you are making the crispy vermicelli, pour some neutral oil into a small pan, so that the oil comes 2-3cm up the sides. Drop in the vermicelli and fry for 30-60 seconds, turning the noodles so that they all crisp up, until they turn white and crispy. Remove and drain on a paper towel-lined plate.
To serve, lay out sets of 2 lettuce leaves (I double up on leaves to create a stronger cup), top with a tablespoon or more of filling. If using, top with chilli oil or crisp, along with crispy mung bean vermicelli. Serve with lime wedges on the side.
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