Recipe | San Choy Bow

San Choy Bow is possible one of my favourite dishes of all time. I remember it being the most exciting part of dining at my family's local Vietnamese restaurant...aside from the karaoke of course. I made this dish recently when two dear friends came over for dinner to save me from loneliness that is an empty house. 

Serves 3 - 4 
Ingredients
1 iceberg lettuce 
peanut oil
500 grams pork mince
2 red chilis, finely chopped
5cm piece of ginger, finely chopped or grated
2 garlic cloves, finely chopped or crushed
2 shallots, finely chopped
1 can of whole water chestnuts, finely chopped
4 tbsp oyster sauce
3 tbsp fish sauce

To save losing any heat in the meat when serving the dish, it is best to wash, dry and separate your lettuce at the beginning. I find that chopping the bottom off the lettuce makes separating the leaves somewhat easier. Be as careful as you can to break as little of the leaves as possible so that your delicious parcels are easier and not so messy to eat. 

Heat some peanut oil a large frypan or wok (whatever you have available). Add the chili, ginger and garlic and cook until aromatic. Add the shallots and cook until soft or translucent. Add the mince and cook through, breaking it up with a wooden utensil, until it begins to brown. Once the mince is cooked add in the chopped water chestnuts and stir through. Add the sauces in either the proportions I've listed above or to whatever taste you prefer. It really depends on how much of those flavours your desire. I'd recommend half those amounts if you're unfamiliar with them and then continue to add until you're happy.

Now all thats lef tot do it serve it up. This is a fairly communal dish to eat so fill a bowl with the meat mixture and give everyone a decent number of lettuce leaves. Two or three spoonfuls of mixture per leaf normally does the trick depending on the size of the leaf. Fold it up like a little package and munch away!

This is a super easy and fun dish to make and eat. I hope some of you try it or already know and love it. 

Hope you've all had a great weekend! 

Erin xx