Sung Choi Bow

I have been sitting here wondering what to write about this dish for the better part of two hours now. There is no story behind why I made this dish, no particular vegetable that I had been waiting all year to come in to season, no charming childhood memory about how I sat at my grandmother's side and watched her make this from a recipe passed down from generation to generation…

So, no. I am writing about this dish because this is a dish that I make at least once a fortnight; we just can’t get enough of it. I love the fact that you can pack so many vegetables in to the one dish, I also love the fact that I can practice my chopping skills on all the veggies, but one of the best things about this dish is that it is a way for me to eat water chestnuts.

It is not the flavour that I look forward to when cooking with them, because frankly there is not a lot going on in the flavour department when you eat these on their own. 
It is because of the texture. They are both crunchy & soft and yielding at the same time. They make me very happy when I have a couple in a mouthful. Because of the simple pleasure it brings me, I make sure that I don't chop them too finely and I use heaps! I feel very deprived if I order this dish in a Chinese restaurant and they skimp on the water chestnuts, or worse still, leave them out all together! I guess that is why I make it so frequently at home, I can put in whatever I like.

Actually, come to think about it, this dish really has a lot going for it than just the water chestnuts. Crispy, icy-cold lettuce cups with hot, tender pork mince and oodles of veggies that have been cooked at different times to ensure that each ingredient retains its own unique taste and texture. This is pretty smashing as an entrée, but have a go at eating it as a dish in its own right. And with little carbs in there, it really just gives you licence to enjoy this with a refreshing cold beer.

Sung Choi Bow

Adapted from Simple Chinese Cooking by Kylie Kwong

The below will make 4 cups which is great for an entrée for two. Just double it if you are planning on having this as a main meal (try it). The vegetables listed below are what I used at the time. This recipe is easily adapted to suit whatever vegies you have hanging out at the bottom of your crisper. Just leave out the pork if you are a vegetarian.


4 iceberg lettuce leaves
3 small purple carrots, finely chopped - use normal orange ones, I just had these on hand
4 fresh shitake mushrooms stems removed and finely chopped into strips
2 bulbs of spring garlic finely sliced - or one clove of garlic finely chopped
3 spring onions- finely sliced, reserve some of the green for later
1/2 yellow capsicum- small dice
1/2 red capsicum- small dice
About 8 water chestnuts, roughly chopped
8 baby corn, chopped
1 thumb of grated fresh ginger
good handful of bean shoots
coriander or Vietnamese mint, finely chopped (I didn't have coriander at hand and the Vietnamese mint was beautiful!)
250g of pork mince
About 2 tbsp of shao hsing wine or dry sherry
About 1 tbsp of light soy sauce
About 1 tbsp of oyster sauce
1 tbsp vegetable oil or peanut oil
1 tspn brown sugar
1/4 tspn sesame oil

1. Carefully pull the lettuce leaves off the head of iceberg and put in a bowl of iced water, chill in the fridge for a hour.
2. Heat the vegetable oil in a wok and add the ginger, whites of the spring onion and garlic, stir.
3. Add the pork and the carrot and stir fry for about 20 seconds to brown the meat
4. Add the mushrooms, capsicum, water chestnuts and baby corn.
5. Add the wine, oyster sauce, sugar and soy sauce and stir fry until the meat is cooked through.
6. Add the bean shoots and the green of the spring onion, stir to combine
7. Using a slotted spoon, transfer the mixture from the wok to a bowl. Garnish with the chopped Vietnamese mint or coriander.
8. Serve with the drained lettuce leave. Spoon some of the mix into a leaf and roll it up. 
9. Serve. Goes beautifully with a good cold beer while you crunch into it!