Bored of lettuce as just salad filler, we were curious of new and exciting ways to cook with it as an ingredient. Little did we realise, we’ve been eating lettuce in various forms though many cuisines from steamed to grilled and all with traditional backgrounds and functions. So we decided to investigate and experiment ourselves and share with you three of the recipes we created, tried and loved.
CHARRED French style grilled Cos lettuce cobs
Popular, well known and synonymous with French cuisine petits pots à la Française is a charred-braised emulsification of sweet, buttery, husky goodness. Crisp and charcoaled when seared, Cos lettuce (or Romaine to North Americans) becomes a juicy, sweet and crunchy new form and when paired with peas there really is no other match for a fatty piece of barbequed or grilled meat. Inspired by our repertoire of transition season dishes from Nigella (who needs a last name Lawson) and Australian-French chef Gabriel Gâtè, we took their advice and adapted their adaptations of the traditional petits pots and rabbit stew. Using chicken thigh we seared the skin side down in butter and leek before adding bacon and once crisped, a liquid mixture of cider (or white wine) and dijon. Once the liquid evaporates we added the peas and halved cos gems (keeping the stalk in) face down directly on the pan. After a few minutes the lettuce starts to char – let it burn a little to really extract those sweet juices that gets caught by the peas before turning over to repeat on the outer side. Doing this in the pan really allows the juices of the chicken and cider to absorb into the burnt pieces of lettuce but charring separately on a barbecue or grill and adding back into the pan would give the most wonderful smoky flavour – especially served with steak.
BLANCHED Chinese style blanched butter lettuce
Szechuan biang biang noodles are an all time favourite and regular visitor in our household. Making the noodles is super easy and great fun and the challenge of creating a Szechuan pepper oil that is hot-hot and deliciously mouth-numbing but not so spicy that it is inedible for guests can be tricky. It occurred to us after one nose-dripping heat rush that we were missing a crucial element. In Szechuan restaurants there is always a side of steamed or stir fried Bok Choy to help balance out the spice and so we thought trying this out with two staple ingredients we always have in the fridge – butter lettuce and Swiss chard. We blanched the cut, cleaned leaves until they were at their brightest in colour, drained and drowned them in a deliciously punchy sauce of soy, sesame oil, minced ginger, minced garlic and a pinch of chilli flakes. As expected, and experienced during every Chinese restaurant visit, it worked a treat and is seriously delicious too. It is easy to use spinach instead of the butter lettuce but the sweetness and structure of the lettuce holds up much more nicely so that you still get a crunch with each mouthful which provides a lovely contrast to the chewy, soft noodles.
STUFFED Greek Iceberg lettuce Dolmates
Dolma are stuffed grape leaves, traditional to the Ottoman-Persian flavours of Greece, Turkey, Iran and Lebanon. Sometimes referred to as Sarma in the Middle East and cabbage stuffed Golubtsi in Russia, this dish is a cozy pocket of packed flavour much like a rice paper roll. Usually served at room temperature these cigars are stuffed with rice as the basis and seasoned with mince meat or seafood, herbs and spices or with aubergine, turnip or sour plums for vegetarian options. Curious, and struggling to find vine leaves here in Germany, we tried our old Greek family recipe with Iceberg lettuce leaves. Now we are not fans of Iceberg lettuce, but suffice to say after this experiment, we agree it is the one and only purpose of Iceberg. Not as good as the cabbage or vine leaved versions, the Iceberg’s integrity held up nicely and provided a refreshing sweetness which offers a great alternative to the sourness of the traditional wrappings. So too was it easier to eat in that the stringiness from the grain of the leaf was not a problem when using lettuce, meaning you can take bites rather than taking one big mouthful. Served with natural yoghurt, sumac and lemon these are a delightful entree or lunch.
So after investigating how to use a variety of lettuces for wider purposes we agree that it is a wonderful ingredient that transcends the seasons better than we all think. Especially in the between times of Spring and Autumn, all three dishes we discovered here provide texture, flavour and integrity whether you’re in need of a warm stew one day, or as a cooling palate cleanser the next. In all three methods we used, charring proved to bring out the most sweetness, blanching is great for paring with sauces and as a side to strong flavours and stuffing is the only purpose from Iceberg lettuce. In short, more lettuce recipes to come!
taking back beige 