Yuk Sung

You know what?  If you can persuade your fellow diners to move away from crispy duck and try something new then they may thank you for recommending Yuk Sung.

It’s a wonderfully simple but an equally impressive little starter or if you like it can replace the duck course in a Chinese set meal, it follows similar principles in that you wrap the main content in lettuce rather than pancakes. Given the right ingredients, sauces and fresh lettuce this is equally as good as it’s Duck counterpart.

The chilli is optional as it gives the whole thing a kick you may or may not want. What’s key is the minced pork and the addition of mint for freshness and spring onion for crunch.

Plum or Hoisin Sauce, dropped into the centre of each little lettuce parcel goes very well indeed

Ingredients Serves 6

500g Minced Pork

2 cloves of Garlic finely chopped

Thumb size piece of ginger peeled and finely chopped

2 Carrots

1 Stick of Celery

1 Birdseye Chilli finely chopped

3 Spring Onions roughly chopped

Tin of Water chestnuts

Tablespoon for fresh, finely chopped mint

Handful of coriander leaves

3 Little gem lettuces, leaves separated, to make little containers for the mixture

2 Tablespoons Rice Wine

2 Tablespoons Light soy

1 Tablespoon Dark soy

2 Tablespoons of oyster Sauce

1 Teaspoon of Sugar

Groundnut oil

Equipment

Wok

Food Processor, you can chop the carrots, celery and water chestnuts by hand but this will take ages

First Blitz the carrots in the food processor until finely chopped, add the celery and pulse until chopped, repeat the process with the drained water chestnuts

Mix the sugar, rice wine, both soy’s and the oyster sauce in a glass until the sugar has dissolved

Heat the wok until smoking, add a little , swirl round the pan, then fry/brown about ¼ on the mince, remove from the pan to a plate and repeat until the mince is all cooked

Reheat the pan and fry the Garlic, chilli and Ginger for around 30 seconds, then throw in the Carrot, celery, water chestnut mixture and fry for 1 minute

Return the pork to the pan and stir well for around a further minute

Now add the Sauces and sugar, cook for about 2 mins stirring well

Stir through the mint and Spring Onions then empty onto a warm serving dish

Serve with a pile of lettuce leaves, dipping sauces such as Hoisin or Plum.

Oh and napkins as it gets a bit messy