Gochujang Pork Mince with Lettuce Cups

Ingredients

• 400 g pork mince
• 3 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 tbsp rice vinegar
• 2 little gem lettuces, leaves separated
• 1 cucumber, cut into matchsticks
• 1 thumb-sized piece ginger, grated
• 3 spring onions, sliced
• 2 tbsp soy sauce
• 1 tbsp honey
• 1 tbsp sesame oil
• 1 tbsp vegetable oil
• 2 tbsp gochujang
• 1 tbsp sesame seeds, toasted
• 1 lime, cut into wedges
• Steamed jasmine rice, to serve
• Kimchi, to serve
• Quick pickled daikon, to serve

Method

1. Whisk the gochujang, soy sauce, sesame oil, honey and rice vinegar together in a small bowl until smooth and glossy. Set aside — this is your pan sauce, not a marinade.
2. Heat the vegetable oil in a large frying pan or wok over high heat until it shimmers. Season the pork mince generously with salt and pepper, then add it to the pan in two batches. All at once and the pan crowds, water comes out, and you've boiled the meat instead of browning it. Break it up with a wooden spoon and cook each batch for 4–5 minutes until deeply browned with crisp, catching edges — that fond is flavour.
3. Return all the pork to the pan and stir in the cooked red lentils, pressing them into the mince for a minute so they soak up the rendered fat and disappear into the texture.
4. Push the mince to one side, add the garlic and ginger to the cleared space and cook just until fragrant — 30 seconds, no more. Burnt garlic turns the whole dish bitter. Stir through the mince.
5. Pour the sauce straight into the hot pan and let it bubble against the fond for 30 seconds before tossing — it'll loosen the stuck bits and turn glossy. Toss everything together for another minute or two until the mince is sticky and clinging to itself, the sauce coating every grain rather than pooling at the bottom.
6. Pull the pan off the heat and squeeze in half a lime — the acid cuts straight through the sticky sweetness. Taste, season, taste again. Most of the salt's come from the soy, but a final pinch ties it together. Adjust now, not at the table.
7. Arrange the little gem leaves on a platter like a nest of cups. Spoon the hot pork into each one, top with cucumber matchsticks and sliced spring onions, scatter the toasted sesame seeds across the lot, and tuck the remaining lime wedges around the edge for squeezing at the table. Serve with steamed jasmine rice and kimchi alongside.