Appetizers are some of the most looked over meal components. Whether people are anxious to get to main star of the show or simply want to drink the calories rather than ingest them, appetizers get the short end of the stick on most occasions. I, on the other hand, think a well-paired appetizer can set the stage for a great meal and should never be skipped! I'm not talking about wings or nachos, though. Today's recipe, Asian Pork Lettuce Cups, are a light meal introduction with a ton of flavor packed into a single bite! Current low and/or no carb trends make this appetizer a great choice to lead off your next Asian-inspired dinner so sit back and relax a few while I walk you through your next tasty endeavor....Let's Get Cooking!
Begin by sauteing some ground pork with soy sauce over medium-high heat for 10 to 12 minutes. Be sure to toss on some black pepper for seasoning as well. The soy sauce acts as our salt for now so there is no need to add any additional salt. One thing to note at this point. Make sure you are using plain ground pork and not a pork breakfast sausage or something that is already seasoned. Sure, it will work but the flavor profile will be wildly incorrect. Seems obvious, but check out the ground pork next time you're at the store. There will likely be several pork sausages packaged almost identical to the plain ground pork. I tend to always have a bit of leftover pork shoulder when I make sausage at home so I'm careful to label my excess and use it for quick little recipes like this to avoid any issues with availability at the store. It's definitely way cheaper to grind your own meat as well, but I realize not everyone has the time or equipment.
After 10 minutes or so, the pork should be about 3/4 of the way cooked through. Add your minced garlic at this point and let it continue to sauté for 2 minutes. Since there were minimal ingredients for this recipe, I prepped the next step's ingredients on the fly as the pork was initially cooking. That being said, toss in the onions once the garlic is aromatic and let everything continue to cook for another 2 minutes. If you tend to get sidetracked or are cooking other dishes simultaneously, it never hurts to knock out all the prep work before starting. There is no need to make things harder than necessary so run your kitchen with ingredient prep and cook times in mind. Make the recipe work for you and not the other way around!
As the onions just begin to become translucent, we are going to finish up this easy appetizer by adding the remaining ingredients. As for the red chilies, traditionally a small and hot Thai chili works best, but jalapenos, serranos, or any other chili works just as well. Be sure to spend a minute and finely chop them up as we are only giving them a quick cook and don't want a big bite of raw, hot pepper burning our tongues, lol. I used a red jalapeno, myself, and diced it down to about the size of a pencil eraser. Other than the chilies, add the sesame oil, fish sauce, brown sugar, and lemongrass paste. You can find lemongrass paste in just about every market in the fresh veggies section with the packaged herbs in squeezable tubes. They are great when you only need a little here and there and don't want to be wasteful. Those packaged herb squeezable tubes will remain fresh for weeks in your refrigerator and are nice to keep on hand for a fresh hit of herbs in anything you're cooking., especially during the winter months when keeping fresh herbs alive is nearly impossible!
Let the pork mixture sauté 4 to 6 more minutes until the pork is fully cooked through and most of the liquids have evaporated from the pan. In fact, you can turn the heat to high for the last 2 minutes or so to help boil off those extra liquids and give a bit of crispiness to the pork itself. The whole recipe only takes about 20 minutes making it a quick and easy appetizer anyone can pull off. Of course, now that the base meat filling is done, we need to stuff it into lettuce and down our gullets, eh? Well, yes and no. While the meat serves as the main filling, topping options can be nearly limitless; Crispy fried garlic chips, fresh mint or coriander, green onion, cilantro, toasted peanuts, and the list goes on. One thing I love about this appetizer is the ability to make each bite unique by using various toppings! Of course, even just a splash of sriracha can do the trick when you're feeling lazy and just want a tasty bite.
What do you think? Are these Asian Pork Lettuce Cups the perfect appetizer for your next meal? Keep service simple and lay out a bunch of butter lettuce leaves, fresh herbs, and whatever other toppings you like along with the meat and let your guests create their own perfect bite! Yes, these little delicious flavor bombs should be limited in size to a single bite to prevent a mess of filling going everywhere. Each small butter lettuce leaf only needs about a tablespoon of meat filling to become the perfect bite-sized portion! Of course, you can go hog wild and make them a meal in themselves if you so wish, but I still believe they are the perfect tastebud warmup for a different Asian-inspired entree, whatever that may be for you on that particular day. Honestly, these Asian Pork Lettuce Cups are quite light and stand on their own so you could probably pair them with just about any meal you like so give them a try and let me know how you enjoyed yours! However you choose to enjoy your next meal, get in the kitchen and try something new...Just Keep Cooking!
ASIAN PORK LETTUCE CUPS
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