Chicken San Choi Bau

by Jemma at Time for a Little Something

We've had really up and down weather here in Wellington, New Zealand, this week. A couple of cracker days with blue skies, warm sun and light breeze, and others with gale-force winds and sideways rain. Our summer is officially over tomorrow... and I have to say, it definitely feels that

way.

But I'm going to cling on to summery flavours in the kitchen for a while yet. We have a glut of beautiful stone fruit available at the moment, which I'm eating with delicious yoghurt for breakfasts, and grilling or roasting for snacks or desserts. I might bring you a recipe for something stone fruity next time.

Today though, I thought I'd share my chicken san choi bau recipe with you. I had a weekend of the house to myself while my husband was away for work. I felt like something light, healthy, zingy and fresh, and this very much hit the spot.

I can in no way vouch for its authenticity, because, well, I made it up, and I'm no expert in Thai cooking. If you can get hold of some (free range) chicken mince, an iceberg lettuce, a few staple asian pantry ingredients and a few herbs, you're away laughing, as we say here.

Chicken San Choi Bau of sorts

Serves two

2 tsp sesame oil
300g chicken mince (free range is kindest)

1-2 tsp crushed or minced garlic
1-2 tsp grated fresh ginger
1 stem lemongrass, bruised and chopped finely

1-2 kaffir lime leaves, finely chopped

1/2 a red onion, finely chopped
1 tsp minced chilli

1 Tbsp lime juice
1 Tbsp fish sauce
1 Tbsp soy sauce

1 Tbsp sherry

2 tsp finely grated palm sugar

fresh mint and coriander, chopped

iceberg lettuce leaves, to serve

Heat the sesame oil in a wok over high heat. Add the chicken, garlic, ginger, lemongrass, lime leaves and onion. Stir-fry until the chicken is just cooked through. Add the chilli, lime juice, fish sauce, soy sauce, sherry and sugar, and heat through. Take the wok off the heat and stir through the chopped herbs.

Serve in iceberg lettuce leaves, which you can roll up to make little easy-to-eat parcels. Or, you could leave the bowl of cooked mince on the table with a pile of appropriately sized lettuce leaves and let your diners help themselves. An extra squeeze of lime juice over the chicken before eating never goes astray, either!