On last nights recording of Cooking in the Dark,
we made lettuce wraps.
Here is some great info on making them!
Bold flavors, crunchy vegetables, cool and crispy
lettuce combined for delicious, hands on meals!
In addition, they are healthy! Lettuce wraps are turning
up in
restaurants across the country these days. Most
often offered as an appetizer, many are happy to
make a meal out of them - which is a wise idea.
Five Quick Tips:
list of 5 items
1. Pick large, pliable leaves
2. Dry lettuce before serving
3. Vary textures, color and flavors in filling
4. Make fillings and sauces ahead
5. Leave assembly to the diners
list end
The secret to good wraps is bold spicing, along
with good texture and crunch in the fillings.
Those who find themselves reluctant to eat too many
carbohydrates
love lettuce wraps. They are refreshing, cool,
and cleanse the palette, says an executive chef in Beverly Hills.
Lettuce wraps are a great way to deliver a main
dish meal. You can easily create lettuce wraps in
an almost endless array of variations at home. You can
use the same ingredients you use in burritos, tortillas, pita bread,
spring roll
, or phyllo dough as a good candidate for a lettuce leaf.
Leftovers work great as well. Chicken, fish or
steak or vegetable combinations as filling bases
are excellent choices. If you are watching your weight,
fill your lettuce wrap with low-fat fillings and lean meat.
In short, the only limit you have with lettuce
wraps is your imagination! Following are some
recipes
to get you started, but do not hesitate to try
anything that sounds good to you.
You can use lettuce leaves as a jacket for all
kinds of meats, seafood, poultry, vegetables and
cheese combinations. In additions, along with tuna, caprese,
Greek, egg, Cobb, nicoise, chicken or shrimp
salads and rice mixtures, jambayla mixtures, hot
fajita blends, kung pao combos and more.
Diners do love wraps - even kids can learn to
love them for one simple fact: You get to play
with your food, eat with your hands and it is okay!
How to Wrap Things up in Lettuce
Here are a few tips for lettuce wrappers:
list of 8 items
For best results, pick the largest, most
pliable lettuces leaves. Iceberg, red lettuce and
radicchio leaves or cups along with large spinach leaves are
other possibilities.
Core the lettuce and soak in ice water for an
hour or two for easy removal of intact leaves.
Separate the leaves and drain each one individually, then
refrigerate on a towel for a couple of hours to
crisp them. Lettuce leaves or cups can also be
rinsed, dried and stacked, wrapped in a plastic bag and
refrigerated several hours or overnight. Be sure
to dry the lettuce well before serving lest you
will have a messy and watery mixture running out of the
wrapped-up lettuce leaf.
Filling possibilities are endless. Think about
ingredient combinations you favor and wrap them up in lettuce leaves.
Vary texture, colors and flavors in fillings
and sauces. Depending on the mixture, you might
want to have cool and hot, sweet and spicy, and crisp and
tender in some of your creations. Make fillings
as appealing in looks as in taste. Use colorful
vegetables, sauces, etc. There is nothing worse than a
bland, uninviting filling.
Be sure to season fillings well, as the flavors
must stand up to the lettuce wrapper. Peruse the
seasonings you have on hand and experiment until you
have something that tastes good. The bolder and
spicier the better. Do not forget that vinaigrette, Dijon and other mustards,
yogurt
, a wide range of dressings, plum sauce, soy
sauce, oils, vinegar's, sesame oil. In additions,
you can jazz up fillings with Tabasco sauce, capers, green
onions and more.
Make fillings ahead and keep refrigerated until
shortly before serving. If you want to take the
chill off or serve them warm, simply zap covered, in a
glass bowl or dish, a minute or two in the
microwave oven. Watch carefully to avoid
overheating and changing the texture of the meat or other ingredients.
Prepare dipping sauces
in advance and keep refrigerated, if desired.
If time is limited, use prepared sauces from the
supermarket , but they are expensive.
Alternatively, use a combination of both prepared
and homemade. Asian peanut sauce can run as high as $5.00 and more. Seek out
reasonably prices options like fruit or
tomato
salsas, plum sauce, Chili sauce, cucumber
yogurt sauce, etc. Offer sauces in small bowls, saucers or cups.
Present the filling and dipping items
attractively. Place shredded lettuce, in small
lettuce cups or on a bed of red or green cabbage leaves on a platter
or individual plate (or even on a larger
buffet
) and invite diners to design the combinations they like.
list end
At 03:15 AM 8/12/2010, you wrote:
The Best Taco Salad
Source: Abby Pittman
Serves/Makes:5 servings
1 lb (.5 kg). hamburger
1 package taco seasoning
1 can Texas Ranch style beans
1 head lettuce, chopped
1 tomato, diced
1 green pepper, diced
1/2 onion, diced finely
1 package cheddar cheese, shredded
1 bottle Catalina salad dressing
1 bag cheddar cheese flavored Doritos or other corn chips
Brown hamburger and add taco seasoning as directed by package.
Add can of Texas Style beans until warm.
Remove from burner.
In a bowl mix together all salad ingredients.
Add hamburger and bean mixture.
Add package of cheddar cheese.
Pour whole bottle of Catalina dressing on top, and mix all ingredients
together until coated with the dressing.
Take bag of Doritos and crush while in the bag.
Pour all of Doritos on the top of mixture. Enjoy.
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