Asian Beef Lettuce Wraps

Asian food wasn’t something we had in my house growing up, but I was enthralled with a Chinese restaurant over the bay in Mobile. It was across from the mall–which didn’t hurt a bit–and I thought it was beautiful. To tell the truth, it was actually a little gaudy and very out of place; it had a red footbridge on the way to the big, red-lacquered doors, and lots of stereotypical Chinese decoration all over the building, all topped by a Peking-style roof. I can’t remember that bridge crossing over anything but the parking lot, and inside it was the same story: over-the-top Chinese restaurant decor all the way, right down to the enormous bronze gong.

I learned to eat sweet and sour pork and egg rolls with my friend Polly when her family went there and invited me along. This happened a few times as I recall, but then came that fateful day when my initiation into the rarified world of the Chinese restaurant was complete. Polly’s father Fred agreed to drive us to Mobile after school to shop for presents for our moms. It must have been Mother’s Day, though I suppose it could have been Christmas. I do remember that somehow we managed to cajole him into taking us to the Chinese place for dinner. He finally agreed. But when the lo mein hit the table, something big happened. Fred made the waitress take the flatware away. We would learn to eat what we ordered with chopsticks, or we wouldn’t be eating dinner at all.

I remember that lesson very well, and still have trouble eating General Tso’s Chicken with a fork. Thank heavens for sticky rice, I was starving. And I’m sure I was mighty relieved to find out that fortune cookies could still be broken in half and eaten with your fingers.

I made my children learn to use chopsticks at an early age, too, and went so far as including them in lunchboxes as appropriate. They both were very good sports about it all. The Princess OG was a chopstick pro right out of the gate, and now uses them in places like Seattle and Atlanta to wave around grilled octopus and the like. Her younger sister, Princess Persnickety, deftly uses chopsticks to eat Cheetos out of the bag when she’s not using them for sushi.

My love for Asian food continues unabated, and I’ve particularly enjoyed branching out to Vietnamese and Thai cuisine, both in restaurants and here at home. We don’t have an Asian grocery here in town, so I’m still taking baby steps with Asian recipes. Several years back I went hunting for lettuce wrap ideas when I was planning a low-carb class. I needed something delicious that would keep well and require no far-out ingredients. After hunting and trying out recipes, I finally took the things I liked from several places, streamlined the method, and arrived at the easy and terrific recipe below.

The spicy beef in these wraps is essentially a simplified larb, made to suit my Gulf Coast pantry. Larb is sort of a seasoned meat salad, often served in lettuce cups, and it originated in the Orient–first China, then Laos, and Thailand, apparently. Conveniently, the lettuce wrap setup requires no chopstick skills whatsoever, what with the lettuce cups and all.

Asian Beef Lettuce Wraps make a quick and lovely light dinner with a gingery cucumber salad on the side. I often make a double batch so we have enough left for lunches. Sometimes I freeze a batch for crazy days when there’s no time to make dinner. You can defrost it in the microwave and heat it right up from there. The spicy beef is also quite good over jasmine rice if you’re out of lettuce.

Asian Beef Lettuce Wraps

1 lb. ground beef
1 T. olive oil
3 scallions, thinly sliced
1 garlic clove, minced
1 T. grated fresh ginger
1 T. toasted sesame oil
3 T. soy sauce
1 T. Sriracha, plus more to taste
½ t. honey
Pinch each of salt and pepper
1 ½ T. fresh lime juice
Butter or romaine lettuce leaves, for serving
½ cup chopped roasted peanuts, for garnish
⅓ cup chopped fresh cilantro, for garnish
Lime wedges, for garnish

Cook ground beef in a skillet over medium heat until no longer pink. Drain fat, put beef into a bowl and set aside.

Add olive oil to the skillet and sauté scallions, garlic, and ginger for 2 minutes. Turn the heat to medium low and stir in sesame oil, soy sauce, Sriracha, and honey. Combine quickly and return the ground beef to the pan and add the lime juice. Stir. Cook for a couple of minutes until heated through.

Serve in lettuce leaves garnished with chopped peanuts, cilantro, and lime wedges.

The cooked beef mixture freezes beautifully and defrosts and reheats just fine in the microwave. Just make sure to have fresh lettuce leaves and garnishes at serving time.