Pita Breads with Chicken Breasts and Lettuce

Ingrediënten: 6 pita breads, 2 chicken breasts, cumin, cinnamon, salt, lettuce, cucumber, garlic sauce,

Number of persons: 3

Preheat the oven for the pita breads. Bake the pita breads according the instructions on the packaging. Cut 2 chicken breasts into cubes and season the diced chicken breast with cumin, cinnamon and salt to taste. Bake the diced chicken breast brown in hot oil. Cut the pita bread sopen and fill with lettuce, slices cucumber and some diced chicken breast. Add garlic sauce and serve (pretty easy on a hot summer day!)

Spicy Lime and Herbed Tofu Lettuce Wraps

What’s better than a recipe that involves NO cooking whatsoever? Um, nothing? We made these for the first time tonight, and they were quite refreshing. Due to some poor menu planning on my part, we were missing quite a few of the ingredients, and made quite a few substitutions. The recipe below is our version, which we liked, but you can view the original recipe onEpicurious.

This recipe would be amazing if allowed to marinate. If you’re the plan ahead type, make the dressing and add the chopped tofu and let it sit for a few hours (or overnight). Also, next time we won’t strain the dressing so as to let more flavor come through.

Spicy Lime and Herbed Tofu Lettuce Wraps

Makes 6 appetizer servings or 3-4 main course servings.

INGREDIENTS
Dressing
1/4 cup thinly sliced peeled fresh ginger
1/4 cup thinly sliced fresh lemongrass, cut from bottom 4 inches of 4 stalks with tough leaves removed
1/4 cup fresh lime juice
2 tablespoons oyster sauce
2 tablespoons water
3 tablespoons sriracha chili sauce
1 teaspoon sesame oil

Tofu
1/2 cup diced seeded peeled cucumber
1/4 cup chopped green onions
2 tablespoons chopped seeded serrano chile
1 tablespoon finely chopped fresh cilantro
1 tablespoon finely chopped fresh mint
1 tablespoon finely chopped fresh basil (preferably Vietnamese or Thai)
1 14- to 16-ounce package firm tofu, drained, cut into 1/2-inch cubes, patted dry
6 large or 12 medium butter lettuce leaves

DIRECTIONS
For dressing:
Puree first 5 ingredients in blender. Let mixture stand at least 15 minutes and up to 1 hour. Strain mixture into small bowl, pressing on solids to release any liquid; discard solids. Stir in sweet chili sauce and sesame oil. (Can be made 1 day ahead. Cover and refrigerate.)

For tofu:
Combine first 7 ingredients in large bowl. Add tofu and dressing to bowl; toss to coat. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

Arrange 1 or 2 lettuce leaves on each of 6 plates. Divide tofu mixture among lettuce leaves and serve.

Spicy Vietnamese Shrimp Lettuce Rolls

These were so so. Edible, definitely, but we don’t know if we’d make them again. Taylor says too much lime, I say too hard to eat. Taylor suggests using a traditional Vietnamese fish sauce instead of the lime sauce, which could be good. Also be sure to get real butter lettuce – we used some other kind, and the leaves were not big enough to roll or strong enough to scoop. In other words, it was messy.

Spicy Vietnamese Shrimp Lettuce Rolls

Splenda? Seriously? I’ve never seen a recipe actually call for it before. We omitted it completely, a whole cup of any type of sugar/sweetener is way too much in my opinion. I used less sugar as well, maybe 1/3 cup total. Maybe that was why the lime was too strong.
Recipe from Epicurious. Makes 4 servings.

INGREDIENTS
1 1/2 lb medium shrimp, peeled and deveined
1 tbsp minced ginger
1/3 cup rice wine or sake
1 1/2 tsp toasted sesame oil
Juice from 6 limes (about 1 cup)
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup Splenda Granulated
1/3 cup light soy sauce
1 1/2 tbsp minced fresh garlic
1 tsp red pepper flakes
2 heads Boston, or butterhead, lettuce
2 cups fresh basil leaves
3 medium carrots, peeled and finely grated (about 1 1/2 cups)
1/3 lb rice stick noodles, softened in boiling water and drained thoroughly
preparation
In a bowl, toss shrimp with ginger, wine, and oil. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate 20 minutes.

DIRECTIONS
For dressing:
Mix lime juice, sugar, Splenda, soy sauce, garlic, and pepper flakes in a bowl; set aside. Core lettuce and separate leaves; rinse and dry them. Cook shrimp with its marinade in a medium pan or wok over medium-high heat, turning shrimp until opaque, 2 or 3 minutes.

To make wraps:
Place 3 shrimp inside each lettuce leaf along with 2 or 3 basil leaves, 1 tbsp carrots and a small handful of noodles and roll up. Divide dressing among 4 small dishes for dipping.

Asian Lettuce Cups with Ground Turkey and Apple

I have a new favorite food blog, Jaden’s Steamy Kitchen. Discovered when Jaden kindly commented on my Sushi photo from a few weeks back. Her posts are eye-candy and mouthwatering and informative to boot. I don’t dare compare my photos to hers (there is no comparison), but I would like to share the first of many (I’m sure) delicious recipes we’ve tried from her blog.

Asian Lettuce Cups with Ground Turkey and Apple

See the original recipe here.

What a delicious and refreshing take on lettuce wraps. You might think that apple is a strange addition, but it’s beyond perfect. And as you might know, I’m a huge fan of ground turkey.

And if you’ve never fried mung bean noodles, go out and buy some and fry them NOW. it is a life changing experience. Seriously. Just make way less than you think you’ll need, as you can see from the photo below, a little noodle becomes a lot of noodle after it’s been fried.

Seriously the most fun we’ve had in the kitchen for a long time (and believe me, we have fun).