Thai Lettuce Wraps!

I’m quite a spoiled girl. When I was younger, my mom owned and operated a successful Thai food restaurant in my small home town. She and my grandma were the chief chefs and cooked everything that was Thai. I was born in the states and had a very picky palate, consisting of fast food junk. In my 20’s, I realized all the good food that I’d been missing, especially since I had a gourmet Thai chef (2 in fact) a fingertip away. Mom’s always wanted to write a cook book and I’ve always wanted to get her recipes. I think this is a good start and I have a feeling my aunt’s on the east coast will love me even more! 😉

Thai Lettuce Wraps is one of my favorites, known as Laap. Especially in the very hot summer months when you want a light dish to savor. Thai food is known to be spicy, but since I have 3 little ones and a husband who would prefer their meals mild rather than spicy, I always reserve the side of spice just for me. Also, you can serve this over steamed JASMINE rice (puh-leeze, look for the “Jasmine Rice”, not “long grain rice”. Nothing against long grain, but it’s the Jasmine rice that rocks the Thai dishes.

What you’ll need: Fish Sauce (you should be able to get it at your local large grocery chain- I’ve seen it on the shelves), Cilantro, a few garlic cloves, green onion, 2 limes, red bell pepper, red onion (not pictured), a package of ground turkey (ground pork, ground chicken or ground beef will be fine), about 1/3 cup of jasmine rice grains, sugar, salt and pepper and red pepper flakes (optional). If you don’t have the jasmine rice grains, that’s ok. You can get away with not having it for this dish.

A word about Fish Sauce…if you are going to be checking back here for Thai recipes, (because I will be featuring them a lot) you’ll need a bottle of fish sauce. It stinks to high heaven, but is a staple in Thai cuisine. It’s really not Thai food without the fish sauce…it is the salt in Thai cooking, yet it lends a depth to the dish that salt alone could not accomplish.

Warm up a small pan on medium high heat. Place your jasmine rice grains on the pan to roast. Yes. Roast.

I didn’t know you could roast them grains either, but apparently you can. Swish them around. An amazing thing happens…they go from translucent to opaque and creamy and actually start to fatten up a wee bit.

Can you tell that they’ve fattened up a wee bit?

Swish them around until they get golden. Careful not to burn. Isn’t that pretty?

Transfer the golden rice grains into your blender to make the grains into a course powder. I have the “Magic Bullet”, this thing is really handy.

Pulse away until….

you get this… Pretty cool, huh? The smell of the transformed rice grains is a nutty aroma that lends itself ever so slightly to this dish… Set this aside.

Let’s move on to preparing everything, shall we? We shall… I’m not a big garlic fan, I know, one of the few out there. Well, neither is my husband. So we like to use just one little clove of garlic, but you could use as much as you like. Usually 3 cloves will do the trick. Chop it….

Mash it…

Mince it…Then set it aside somewhere…

Grab about 3 green onions and chop them up. Set aside.

Grab a small bunch of cilantro…I LOVE cilantro!

And chop it up. Set aside.

Cut this much red onion and….

That’s right! chop it up…set it aside….

Cut this much red bell pepper….and….

That’s right! You’re getting the theme here…

So when you are finished chopping everything up, keep it close by and ready to go… we transferred the powdered rice grains into a bitty dish.

Place your pan on med-high heat, with about a tablespoon and a splash of olive oil. I’ve got nicer pans, but for some reason this is my mom’s favorite to cook with when she visits…

Warm up the oil until it’s nicely heated.

While your pan is heating, break up the strands of ground meat. I’m using ground turkey for my dish…they were having a sale of it and I’m on a budget so it’s ground turkey. Momsie would have preferred ground chicken. I would have to agree, but use whatever mince meat you have… When the pan is nice and hot, throw in your ground meat.

And move it around until it’s cooked.

Once it’s cooked, usually about 3-4 minutes. Take it off the heat….

And transfer it into a large mixing bowl.

Remember this stuff? The stinky to high heaven? Hey, I’m not knockin’ it. I grew up on the stuff and couldn’t live without it..yes, it’s that good!

Get about 2 and ½ tablespoons of it ready to go…. Ready for the fun stuff? Here we go…

Pour the fish sauce in the bowl…

Add about ¾’s of the rice grain powder…

Give it a quick mix…

Squeeze in the juice of 2 limes…

Add about 1 tablespoon of sugar… and give it another good mix…

Woowee! We’re on a roll now… add the red bell pepper and red onions…

It’s looking good now babe… give it another quick toss…

Throw in the green onions…

Add the cilantro…reserving a bit for garnish… can you smell it? Toss again.. Mmmmmm!…

Crack in some pepper to taste….

And a couple of dashes of salt to taste… if you like it spicy, here’s where you can add some crushed red pepper flakes to spiciness or set it aside to sprinkle on your portion. Look out! (In our case, I’m the only one that likes spicy, so I’ll dish my portion out and add some peppery flakes.)

Give it a good final mix to let the flavors meld into each other… so good for you!….

Voila…plate it up..garnish with some cilantro, red leaf lettuce leaves (iceburg lettuce is just as good) and a side of lime (in this case a slice of lemon since I ran out of lime…it’s all good!) Grab a leaf of lettuce, top with Laap, hit it with some lime…

Soo refreshing and delicious! Enjoy! Have a great weekend!