San Choy Bow is one of those Chinese dishes that is fresh, healthy and satisfying. Crisp lettuce cups are filled with pork or chicken mince, crunchy vegetables and a delicious Cantonese style sauce. Perfect for a light dinner. Forget takeaway, try this fakeaway recipe!
About This San Choy Bow Recipe
Dear Reader, I promised to come back from Singapore with lots more of my mother's Chinese recipes so get ready for this and more! San Choy Bow or San Choi Bau is a Chinese or Cantonese dish of filled lettuce cups. It was created in Guangzhou, China and is often served as a second course of Peking Duck after the duck is carved or as a dish on its own as an entree.
It is often made with pork or chicken mince (or shredded Peking duck meat when served as the second Peking duck course). It is popular because the fresh, crunchy lettuce and the delicious filling go perfectly. It is very popular in Chinese Australian cuisine and is simple to make and delicious.
The filling is made up of mince as well as crunchy vegetables like carrot, water chestnuts and celery and the sauce is a delicious but simple mix of several Cantonese sauces like oyster sauce, soy sauce, hoi sin sauce and sesame oil. All of these sauces are easily found at the supermarket.
This recipe all comes together quickly once the items are chopped. We both eat this a lot because it is a healthy, tasty dinner that you can make ahead of time. I make a big batch of filling and it lasts us for 2-3 dinners. If you love lettuce cups try these Thai beef salad cups or this crispy pork belly in lettuce cups.
Video: How To Make San Choy Bow
Step by Step Video: how to make San Choy Bow
Tips For Making San Choy Bau
1 - Make sure that your lettuce is fresh! The older the lettuce gets, the less you'll have of those lovely leaves to use as cups. Usually this is made with iceberg lettuce but you can also use soft lettuce or baby cos lettuce leaves for something a bit more bite sized.
2 - This is easiest when all of the ingredients are prepared ahead of time and chopped ie a mise en place. Then it takes around 10 minutes cooking time!
3 - Use your favourite mince - I use lean pork mince for this. Pork is usually used but chicken, turkey and beef mince also work in this. I also make a vegetarian san choy bao using red lentils.
4 - Make sure to cut the carrot and celery into a fine dice, around a 0.5cm/0.2inch dice is ideal. With the water chestnuts I just slice them up rather than dice them as we don't need them to soften and they are there for their crisp texture.
5 - I cook the filling until most of the sauce is absorbed into the meat and vegetables. Otherwise I find eating them a bit messy if there's a lot of sauce that drips out of the lettuce.
6 - You can easily double this recipe and it makes great leftovers. Just keep the spring onion and peanuts separate and add these after reheating the rest of the filling as they will go soggy otherwise.
7 - To make restaurant style lettuce cups, remove the outer leaves and cut out the conical core from the lettuce and follow the instructions below. These leaves and coreless lettuce will last 2-3 days in the fridge in a covered bowl. But as the lettuce is missing the core it won't last as long as a regular lettuce with a core.
San Choy Bau Recipe
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4-6 leaves large iceberg lettuce or 8-12 small baby cos leaves
Step-By-Step Instructions
Step 1 - Prep all items by chopping and have them ready and mix up all of the sauce ingredients together in a small bowl ready.
Step 2 - Add the oil to a pan on medium heat. Fry the onion until soft and translucent, then add the ginger and garlic and saute for 30 seconds. Increase heat to high and add the mince and brown breaking it up with a wooden spoon. Then add water chestnuts and carrot.
Step 3 - Turn the heat back down to medium and add the sauce mixture and cook until the sauce has been absorbed into the mince and there isn't much liquid left. The vegetables should still be crunchy but not raw. Remove from the heat and allow to cool.
Removing the core
Step 4 - Remove the 2-3 floppy outer leaves of the iceberg lettuce. Turn the lettuce upside down. Remove the core with a knife and place the lettuce hole side up in the sink. Using cold water only directed on the lettuce, gently pry apart the leaves. Remove them gently and then trim to a circle using scissors.
Using cold water to separate leaves gently
Step 5 - Place the lettuce leaves on a platter or individual plates. Divide the filling among the lettuce cups and sprinkle with peanuts and spring onion. Upgrade this to a more restaurant style san choy bau by deep frying some uncooked vermicelli noodles for 30 seconds or until puffed and crispy and placing on top.
Upgrade: finish this with some deep fried vermicelli. Just separate out a small section from a small bundle of uncooked vermicelli noodles and fry for 30 seconds in 180C/350F oil. The noodles will puff up and cook in the oil. Remove with a strainer and dry on a paper towel and then use.
Substitution notes and ingredients:
This is worth a little trip to the supermarket to find the sauces. Oyster sauce, soy sauce, Shaoxing wine and hoi sin sauce are basic sauces that you will use if you make Chinese food. If you have extra hoi sin sauce, try my hoi sin glazed salmon!
Water chestnuts are sold in small tins in the Asian aisle of the supermarket.
Other vegetables that you can use are bean sprouts, shiitake mushrooms, zucchini or red capsicum peppers.
I used spicy roasted peanuts from the Asian aisle too. They added a bit of spice and were already crunchy, salted and roasted.
Personal Note
I try and make up recipes according to what I think you'll like but also what is in season. Or sometimes I'll make a recipe based on just what I have in the fridge and this was the case here as Mr NQN bought an iceberg lettuce.
It sat neglected in the crisper for a few days and then I decided that I had to make San Choy Bow with it because I got some recipes from my mother and it is one of the most delicious ways to use lettuce.
I don't know what it is about using everything up but I feel better knowing that nothing goes to waste. So I made up some filling and then took the lettuce out. I goraned. The core of the lettuce was tinged red and the lettuce had definitely seen much better days. It was one of those super tightly packed ice bergs too that was made up of yellow inner leaves and it was also rapidly browning too. It was the worst of all worlds.
So instead of making a recipe around something, Mr NQN had to go out and buy another iceberg lettuce, which sort of deafeated the purpose of making this with the lettuce I had! But the reward was that it was so delicious that he wolfed down two giant lettuce wraps and this was a couple of hours before going out to dinner!
So tell me Dear Reader, do you like to use up as much as possible? Does it pain you to throw food out?
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