San Choy Bau or Sang Choy Bow or however you want to spell it is a great Chinese dish that easily lends itself to a Fast Diet makeover. I’m using minced Pork in this recipe, because I have it on hand, but Chicken,Turkey or even minced prawns could be substituted for a leaner dish (or larger helping). Hell you could go vegetarian if you wished (I might try a veggie one for lunch one day)
Having said that, even using lean Pork, you get quite a bit of food here for only 300 calories.The plate of food looks huge thanks to the Iceberg lettuce, and I’m sure this contributes to satisfying the hunger pangs that start around 6pm on diet days.
Like the spelling, I’m sure there is no one “Authentic” recipe for this dish, an it lends itself very easily to whatever ingredients you have on hand. I didn’t have Water Chestnuts (what was I thinking), so I substituted fresh crispy Red Radishes, I only had a couple of sad looking spring onion stalks, so opted for some red onion instead.
I my search I for a great San Choy Bau recipe almost every one I looked at seemed miles away from the one before. In the end the inspiration for this recipe came from this All Recipes link
http://allrecipes.com.au/recipe/10153/san-choy-bow.aspx
I was mostly after the sauce recipe, and this one looks good, but I’m guessing is a combo of more than one other recipe (with the fish sauce), but I had all of the ingredients on hand, so it was an easy decision. I used light soy sauce because the Hoisin is already sweet.
San Choy Bau
Ingredients
200 grams lean minced pork
1/2 small iceberg Lettuce Leaves
1/2 small Red Onion
100 grams Mushrooms, finely Chopped
2 red radishes finely chopped
1 cup Mung Bean Sprouts, finely chopped
1 clove garlic, minced
1 green chili finely chopped
1 tablespoon Hoisin Sauce
1/2 tablespoon Soy sauce
1/2 tablespoon sweet chilli sauce
1 tablespoon water
1 tsp cornflour
1/2 Tablespoon vegetable oil
Method
Separate lettuce leaves into cups
In a wok or non stick pan over high heat add the oil. Cook Pork, Garlic, Onion and chili until pork is browned and cooked through
Add the Mushrooms, Radish, Mung Beans, and mix.
When hot, add the sauce and stir to combine.
Serve over individual lettuce cups.
- 200 grams lean minced pork
- 1/2 small iceberg Lettuce Leaves
- 1/2 small Red Onion
- 100 grams Mushrooms, finely Chopped
- 2 red radishes finely chopped
- 1 cup Mung Bean Sprouts, finely chopped
- 1 clove garlic, minced
- 1 green chili finely chopped
- 1 tablespoon Hoisin Sauce
- 1/2 tablespoon Soy sauce
- 1/2 tablespoon sweet chilli sauce
- 1 tablespoon water
- 1 tsp cornflour
- 1/2 tablespoon vegetable oil
- Separate lettuce leaves into cups
- In a wok or non stick pan over high heat add the oil, cook Pork, Garlic, Onion and chili until Pork is brown and cooked through
- Add the mushrooms, radish, Mung Beans, and mix.
- When hot, add the sauce and stir to combine.
- Serve over individual lettuce cups.
- Most original recipes call for Water Chesnuts, I didn't have any on hand so used crispy red radishes instead. The Lettuce adds a fresh crisp contrast to the Pork Mixture.
If I hadn’t planned on using the pound of lean ground pork I thawed today for mapo tofu and sage sausage gravy with biscuits I’d give this a shot. Next time. 🙂
We don’t do sausage gravy with biscuits in this part of the world. I hope you put up the recipe, I’m intrigued.