Eating In

Serves 4 – 6

1 small onion finely sliced
1 bunch of mint
1 bunch of basil
1 bunch of coriander
6 spring onions finely sliced
2 red chillies seeded and sliced
hoisin sauce
12 biggish lettuce leaves such as iceberg
for the filling
½ oz dried porcini or shiitake mushrooms
3 tablespoons sweet sherry
250g minced pork
2 tablespoons of fish sauce
2 cloves of garlic finely chopped
1” root ginger finely grated
1 onion finely chopped
oil for frying

Soak the mushrooms in the sherry with a little water to cover for about 45 minutes. Remove and chop finely. Mix the pork with the fish sauce, half the garlic, the ginger and plenty of freshly ground black pepper and leave for about 30 minutes. Heat some oil in a wide frying pan, or wok and gently sauté the rest of the garlic and the onion until it is soft. Raise the heat to high and add the pork mixture and fry for 5 minutes until lightly browned. Add the mushrooms and fry for another minute. Then add their soaking liquid and let it reduce. The pork mixture can be served cold or reheated.

Fry the thinly sliced onion until crisp and brown. Drain on kitchen paper.

Pick the leaves off the mint coriander and basil and place in a bowl. Put the fried onion, spring onions, chillies and hoisin sauce into separate bowls. Pile the lettuce leaves into another bowl and place all the bowls in the middle of the table.

Take a lettuce leaf. Put a spoonful of pork mixture in the middle; add a sprinkling of any or all the other ingredients. Fold the whole thing up into a parcel and eat it with your fingers.