San choy bow, or pork lettuce wrap is becoming a popular appetizer in the US. The dish is made with minced pork (and sometimes chicken or tofu) stir fried with various vegetable ingredients to create a fun texture, and then finished up with a brown sauce that’s slightly sweet. It’s served on lettuce leaves as a bite-size appetizer.
Ingredients
I love to make san choy bow at home because it is extremely fast and easy to make and uses mostly pantry ingredients.
The sauce
There are many ways to make a delicious brown sauce. To create the most flavorful and balanced sauce for san choy bow, my secret ingredients are oyster sauce and Shaoxing wine. Both add a complex umami to the dish, lending it more depth of flavor. They balance very well with the hoisin sauce to create a sauce that’s not too sweet, just the way I like it.
The filling
A good san choy bow has a fun texture from the tender juicy pork and crispy crunchy vegetables. There are many options when it comes to the selection of vegetables, but my favorite ones include onion, pepper, and water chestnut. The water chestnuts are very important because of their crispness, which adds textural contrast to the dish. You can easily find the canned ones at most grocery stores these days, in the ethnic or Asian aisle. Bamboo shoots are a great alternative as well if you cannot find water chestnuts.
Mise en place
When you’re ready to cook, your table should have: Lettuce leaves, mixed sauce, ground pork, chopped onion, garlic and ginger on a plate, chopped peppers and water chestnuts, and roast peanuts. I like to group ingredients together according to the recipe, which makes the cooking and cleanup easier.
How to cook San Choy Bow
To cook san choy bow:
How to serve San Choy Bow
The filling for san choy bow is so versatile that you can use it in/on almost anything.
Wrap it up using lettuce leaves to make a healthy meal or appetizerUse the pork filling and a lettuce leaf over moo shu pancake or tortillas to make a more filling wrapAdd the filling onto steamed rice to make a rice bowlAdd the filling over a super simple noodle soup to make the meal more substantial
You can always add extra hoisin sauce or chili garlic sauce on the side, if you prefer. Although I think this dish is super flavorful and tastes great without additional sauces. San choy bow freezes well and can be used for meal prep as well. If you’re unsure about what to cook this week, try this one out and leave a comment below to let me know what you think! I hope you enjoy this one as much as I do!
