Chinese Lettuce

Those on diets also enjoy the fact that lettuce only contains 11 calories in a 100 g serving. It is grown everywhere around the world but mostly in Asia and Europe. China alone produces an estimated 12 million tons of lettuce a year with the US coming in second at 5 million tons.

Like the other vegetables featured in this column, Chinese lettuce is highly nutritional. Compared to carrots, Chinese lettuce has more of a lot of important vitamins and minerals. With 1.4 times the protein found in carrots, Chinese lettuce also includes significantly higher amounts of iron and calcium while also providing significant amounts of vitamin A, B1, and B2. Health conscious diners will love its nutritional properties while also enjoying the fact that it makes a great vegetable with to make an Asian wrap with. In the cold of winter, spicy foods, and chicken lettuce wraps are a great combination, give your customers another reason to come back by introducing them to the deliciousness of Barbequed Chinese Chicken Lettuce Wraps.

Barbequed Chinese Chicken Lettuce Wraps

Ingredients

2 cups, 4 handfuls, fresh shiitake mushrooms

1 1/3 to 1 1/2 lbs. thin cut chicken breast or chicken tenders

2 tbsp. light colored oil, such as vegetable oil or peanut oil

Coarse salt and coarse black pepper

3 cloves garlic, chopped

1 inch ginger root, finely chopped or grated, optional 1 orange, zested

1/2 red bell pepper, diced small

1 small tin, 6 to 8 oz. sliced water chestnuts, drained and chopped

3 scallions, chopped

3 tbsp. hoisin,

1/2 large head iceberg lettuce, core removed, head quartered Wedges of navel orange -- platter garnish

Preparation

1. Remove tough stems from mushrooms and brush with damp towel to clean, Slice mushrooms. Chop chicken into small pieces.

2. Preheat a large skillet or wok to high.

3. Add oil to hot pan. Add chicken to the pan and sear meat by stir frying a minute or 2. Add mushrooms and cook another minute or two. Add salt and pepper to season, then garlic and ginger. Cook a minute more. Grate zest into pan, add bell pepper bits, chopped water chestnuts and scallions. Cook another minute, continuing to stir fry mixture. Add hoisin Chinese barbecue sauce and toss to coat the mixture evenly. Transfer the hot chopped barbecued chicken to serving platter and pile the quartered wedges of crisp iceberg lettuce along side. Add wedged oranges to platter to garnish. To eat, pile spoonfuls into lettuce leaves, wrapping lettuce around fillings and squeeze an orange wedge over.