Wednesday, June 29, 2011

Lettuce Bundles with Spicy Peanut Noodles

I admit that I'm a huge geek about keeping files of recipes from years and years of food publications. These are physical, paper files of pages that have been cut from magazines, and in some cases, the pages were copied if I needed to file the front of the page in one folder and the back in another. Yes, there are folders to categorize drinks, appetizers, salads, soups, sides, seafood, holiday menus, etc. I said I'm a geek about it. I get that. Now, there are two types of searches that happen in these files. One is the frantic search in which I remember a dish, and I know the recipe is filed in there somewhere, and I flip through every folder trying to find it. The other search type is the meandering, happy, just browsing search. That happens when it occurs to me that I haven't dipped into the files in a while, and I take a breezy stroll through food ideas of the past. It was that kind of search that led me to these lettuce bundles, and this gem of a fresh, light meal came from Living magazine in January 2001. Noodles in a spicy peanut sauce are cupped in butterhead lettuce leaves and topped with fresh, crunchy vegetables and chicken, and the big, pretty head of butterhead lettuce I had from my CSA was ready and waiting.

This is a versatile kind of meal. You can set out all the possible fillings and let everyone involved put together their lettuce bundles as they choose. You could use a rotisserie chicken, or grill some chicken, or skip the chicken entirely. Duck was also suggested in the original recipe. I went with soy sauce-marinated chicken that I roasted in the oven. Next, the peanut sauce should be made, and this is a pretty simple one compared to others I've tried. Into the food processor went garlic, ginger, chile paste, peanut butter, soy sauce, a little sugar, oil, lime juice, and water. It seemed like it was missing something, so I added some fish sauce and extra chile paste. For the noodles, I used vermicelli-style rice noodles which cook in boiling water in approximately one minute. Once drained and rinsed, the noodles were tossed with most of the peanut sauce. Some sauce was set aside for drizzling on top of the bundles. Then, you just have to slice and/or chop all the vegetables for toppings. I julienned cucumber, carrot, and serranos and thinly sliced green onion. I had some Thai basil leaves from my herb garden, so I used those as well.

For a meal on the light side, this packs lots of flavor thanks to the peanut sauce. And, those perfectly cupped leaves of butterhead lettuce are easy to bundle up with fillings. Everything can be served at room temperature, or if made in advance, it could also be served chilled. In fact, for a summertime lunch, the cold noodles and sauce from the refrigerator the next day were delightful in the crisp lettuce cups.



23 comments:

  1. What a scrumptious Thai-inspired dish! A droolworthy combination of ingredients.

    Cheers,

    Rosa

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  2. What a delicious and healthy meal. I love anything with peanut butter!
    *kisses* HH

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  3. I have a little box of such recipes...a few that are almost as old as me (from my parents).
    The lettuce cups look fabulous.

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  4. I'm so glad you meandered along through recipe history because I love the sound of these lettuce cups! Oh peanut butter, how I love thee.

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  5. I have a huge crate in my garage waiting for me to unpack it that's full of recipes. (I'm old and I've been doing this compulsive recipe saving for a long time.)

    These little cups of edible peanutty delight make me smile. I want one.

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  6. I've had similar lettuce wraps when dining out, Lisa. It's one of my favorite things to order. And love them with duck, too. Yum. Never have made them at home however. I'm really pleased to have this recipe. And I have some leftover duck in my freezer. I don't know if the duck makes it less healthy, but it sure will taste good. :)

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  7. Lisa, I would love to see a photo of your folders, or maybe a page or two of one of them, just as inspiration. As I type this, my heart is quite heavy: just yesterday I gave ALL my cooking magazines away, except Fine Cooking.

    I considered going through each one and saving recipes, but in an impulse, I didn't. And now I see your post...

    More magazines will arrive, I must get ready!

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  8. The lettuce cup looks delicious and seriously no harm is saving those recipes .. i do to :)

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  9. I just recently got rid of a lot of random recipes I too had kept for many years! Although it was hard, it felt good to de-clutter a bit. These cups look very tasty!

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  10. I'm hysterical with delight, Lisa. Guess what I bought at a yard sale today??? A huge box of saved recipe files including, clipping, newspapers, etc. I can't wait to go through them!!!

    Thanks for sharing this recipe, I love to meander through my recipe files and cookbooks.

    P.S. I'm so sorry I haven't dropped by in a while. The Picnic Game post is going up tomorrow and I'll have more time to pop in! If you get a chance, drop by for the round-up.

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  11. I hoard paper recipes on our fridge. About twice a year my husband gets really fed up with all the pages sprouting from our fridge that he asks me to clean them out. It is so hard to ditch all my magazine pages!!

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  12. I actually have very few paper recipes, and save all of mine online. I love being able to search by just typing a keyword, but I bet there is something really satisfying about flipping pages rather than scrolling down a computer page.

    This recipe sounds fantastic... definitely worthy of a revisit!

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  13. O you should see my room where I am sitting now. I am literally surrounded by piles of cooking magazines! I have no structure in it, other then that they are organized by publication.. Donna Hay with Donna Hay, good food on good food, but that's just about the only thing. I love this dish!

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  14. I love the versatility of this. And, no worries...we're all a little geeky. ;) I am a research geek and could definitely use a bit of your organization skills. I'm terrible at it.

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  15. Wow- you're files go all the way back to 2001? I am impressed. I only wish I were so organized. That butterhead lettuce looks gorgeous. Sounds like a fabulous, light summer meal!

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  16. I'm an organizational geek as well, but I try to store everything electronically, because otherwise the recipes would take over my house! Looks like the perfect summer meal!

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  17. This is a salivating-inducing dish! Light, cause we need light in this heat, but oh so flavorful~

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  18. i have to admit, the only thing that appeals to me about this (other than the versatility) is that peanut sauce. what isn't improved by it? :)

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  19. Shelley: This is a little cringe-worthy, but my files actually go back to about 1995!

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  20. I'm a geek too, I keep my clippings sorted by category in old photo albums, and I have my recipe box that I"ve had since I was 9.

    I love this dish, one of my favorites from MS and it is indeed a treat for a hot day. Thanks for reminding me of it, I've been through the salad album in a while. =)

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  21. the peanut sauce looks really tasty. Like you mentioned, I think this will be fun food for a home party where the guests assemble the ingredients together :D

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  22. I have stashes of torn out pages with recipes, too - most of them I've never even made, but I can't get myself to throw them away, because one day... This looks absolutely lovely, Lisa! So fresh and light and just perfect for a hot summer day. Yummy photos. :-)

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  23. I STILL have and often add to, a large folder of recipes clipped and torn from various magazines. I have to admit, I've even pilfered a few from waiting rooms at the Dentist ;-)

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