Turkey Lettuce Wraps with Hoisin

Ingredients

• 500 g turkey mince
• 2 little gem lettuces, leaves separated
• 4 tbsp hoisin sauce
• 2 tbsp soy sauce
• 3 cloves garlic, crushed
• 1 thumb ginger, grated
• 4 spring onions, sliced
• 1 red chilli, sliced
• 1 tbsp sesame oil
• 2 tbsp sesame seeds
• Steamed jasmine rice, to serve
• Pickled cucumber, to serve
• Fresh coriander, to serve

Method

1. Heat a splash of neutral oil in a wok or heavy frying pan over high heat until it shimmers. Season the turkey mince generously with salt and pepper before it hits the pan — this is your one chance to season the meat itself.
2. Add the mince in two batches, breaking it apart with a wooden spoon and pressing it flat against the pan. All at once and the pan crowds, water comes out, and you've boiled the meat instead of browning it. Cook each batch for 4–5 minutes until the edges are catching and the pan smells deeply savoury, then return the first batch to the pan.
3. Drop the heat to medium. Add the crushed garlic and grated ginger and stir for 30 seconds — just until fragrant. Burnt garlic turns the whole dish bitter, so watch it and don't let it go past pale gold.
4. Pour in the hoisin and soy. Stir-fry for 1 minute until the mince is glossy, then push the meat to one side and let the sauce bubble and tighten in the bare patch of pan for another 20 seconds — that's the glaze becoming a sauce, not a paste. Toss it all back through so every shred is coated.
5. Pull the pan off the heat and stir through the sesame oil. Taste, season, taste again — most of the salt is in the soy and hoisin, but a final pinch ties it together. Adjust now, not at the table.
6. While the mince rests, separate the little gem leaves into cups and arrange on a serving platter.
7. Spoon the hot turkey into the lettuce cups, scatter over the spring onions, red chilli and toasted sesame seeds, and serve with steamed jasmine rice and a few coriander leaves alongside.