Hoisin Pork Lettuce Cups

📝 Ingredients

• 450 g minced pork
• 1 iceberg lettuce (about 500 g)
• 200 g button mushrooms
• 2 carrots (about 100 g each)
• 2 spring onions
• 3 garlic cloves + 15 g fresh ginger
• 4 tbsp hoisin sauce
• 2 tbsp soy sauce
• 1 tsp sunflower oil
• 1 tbsp sesame seeds (10 g)
• Black pepper

🍴 Utensils

• Large frying pan or wok
• Chopping board
• Chef's knife
• Grater
• Wooden spatula
• Bowl

📖 Steps

1. Carefully separate the leaves of the iceberg lettuce, starting from the base, to get whole cups. Rinse them in cold water, then dry them thoroughly: wet leaves dilute the sauce. Keep them in the fridge until serving.
2. Peel the carrots and grate them on the coarse side of the grater. Wipe the mushrooms with damp kitchen paper, without soaking them, and cut into small 5 mm dice. Slice the spring onions, keeping the white and green parts separate.
3. Peel the garlic and ginger, then grate them finely. In the bowl, mix the hoisin sauce and soy sauce: making the sauce in advance saves you hunting for bottles during the cooking, which goes very quickly.
4. Heat the oil in the frying pan over a high heat. Add the minced pork, flatten it and let it brown for 2 minutes without touching it, then break it up with the spatula. Continue for 4 to 5 minutes, until well browned with no pink remaining.
5. Add the mushrooms and the white part of the spring onions. Cook for 3 to 4 minutes over a high heat, stirring, until the liquid released by the mushrooms has evaporated and the pan sizzles again.
6. Add the garlic, ginger and carrots, then stir for 1 minute: the garlic should release its aroma without burning, so lower the heat a little if it colours too quickly. Pour in the sauce, season with pepper and stir for 1 to 2 minutes, until the meat is glazed and glossy.
7. Off the heat, scatter over the spring onion greens and sesame seeds. Taste before adjusting the seasoning: hoisin and soy sauces are already quite salty, so extra salt is rarely needed.
8. Put the pan in the middle of the table with the lettuce leaves. Fill each leaf with two spoonfuls of the filling, fold it like a taco and eat it with your fingers, while the meat is hot and the lettuce nice and cold.