Ground Turkey in Lettuce Cups
Lettuce cups, traditional in Asian cuisine, make for a fashionable and fun family meal. Though they’re called cups, they can be shaped more like burritos. If you want to delight the kids, seal each one with a toothpick for added presentation. Pretty soon they’ll want everything served in lettuce.
This version uses ground turkey, but you can substitute any ground meat. You can also use white mushrooms instead of portabellos, if you prefer.
I like to serve these with cold Asian beer.
Combine the soy sauce, oyster sauce, 2 tablespoons of hoisin sauce and the cornstarch in a small bowl and set aside.
Heat the oil in a large skillet over high heat until very hot. Cook the garlic and white onion until soft, 30 seconds. Add the turkey, salt and pepper and cook the turkey until lightly browned though still slightly pink in the center, 2 to 3 minutes.
Stir in the mushrooms, bell pepper and water chestnuts. Add the sauce and continue cooking, stirring, until the sauce thickens and the turkey is cooked through, 2 to 3 minutes. Add the green onions and cook for 1 minute.
Transfer the turkey mixture to a large serving bowl. To serve, place 1/2 cup of the turkey into a lettuce leaf. Spoon some of the remaining hoisin sauce on top, then roll the top and bottom edges of the leaf toward the middle while tucking in one of the sides to make a package similar to a burrito. Repeat with the rest of the lettuce leaves and turkey mixture. Serve the lettuce cups on individual plates or seal with a toothpick and serve on a platter.
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