Lettuce cups filled with mince, veg and chilli next to lime wedges and sauce

San choy bau

Name: San choy bau
Prep time: 20 min
Cook time: 10 min
Total time: 30 min
Yield: 8
Cuisine: Chinese
Ingredients: 500g minced pork; 500g minced beef; 1 tbsp vegetable oil; 4 shallots finely sliced; 100g ginger minced; 3 garlic cloves thinly sliced; 200g green beans chopped into ½cm pieces; 4 tbsp oyster sauce; 3 tbsp fish sauce; 2 tbsp soy sauce; 1 tbsp sesame oil; 2 limes zested and juiced; 32 Little Gem leaves (you will need 2-3 lettuces); 100g hoisin sauce; 50g sriracha; coriander leaves; salted peanuts chopped; red chilli finely chopped; lime wedges; steamed rice (optional)

Tim Spedding

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Serves 8

Easy

Prep: 20 mins

Cook: 10 mins

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Dig into this perfect dinner party dish – it's cheap to make, flavoursome and fragrant. Juicy mince lies atop lettuce cups and optional steamed rice

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Make this san choy bau, then check out our pork biang biang noodles, char siu pork rice bowl and more Chinese recipes.

It’s no surprise that a recipe from Tim Spedding and Louise Rødkjær, founders of food delivery service Lola’s in Cornwall, would be an ideal dinner party dish. “We love to cook san choy bau when we have friends round. It is simple yet very flavoursome and fragrant, easy to adjust to larger numbers, cheap to make and can be made vegan/vegetarian-friendly as well as meaty. We serve our baus with rice in a bowl underneath, so when you eat your bau the juices will drip onto the rice and you have that after you finish.” @lolas_cornwall

Ingredients

Nutrition

500g minced pork
500g minced beef
1 tbsp vegetable oil
4 shallots

finely sliced
100g ginger

minced
3 garlic cloves

thinly sliced
200g green beans

chopped into ½cm pieces
4 tbsp oyster sauce
3 tbsp fish sauce
2 tbsp soy sauce
1 tbsp sesame oil
2 limes

zested and juiced
32 Little Gem leaves

(you will need 2-3 lettuces)

Dipping sauce

100g hoisin sauce
50g sriracha

Accompaniments

coriander leaves
salted peanuts

chopped
red chilli

finely chopped
lime wedges
steamed rice

(optional)

Nutrition: per serving

kcal349
fat19.5g
saturates7g
carbs14.4g
sugars10.6g
fibre2.8g
protein27.5g
salt4.3g

Method

step 1

Put a large wok over a medium-high heat. Fry the meat with 120ml of water for 5 mins, using a wooden spoon to break up any clumps. Once the meat is no longer pink, use a slotted spoon to transfer to bowl, cover and discard any remaining liquid.
step 2

Wipe the wok clean and add the oil. Put over a high heat and, once hot, cook the shallots, ginger and garlic for 1-2 mins or until just softened. Add the beans and cook for a further minute – don’t let them fry for too long as you want them to still have bite – before adding back the meat with the oyster, fish and soy sauces, and sesame oil. Remove from the heat and stir in the lime zest and juice.
step 3

Combine the hoisin and sriracha for the dipping sauce. Double up the lettuce leaves and divide the meat mixture between them. Garnish with the accompaniments, with lime wedges for squeezing over, not forgetting to drizzle with the dipping sauce. Serve the baus on steamed rice, if you like, with more dipping sauce alongside.

Check out more Chinese recipes

Authors

Tim Spedding

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