There are two ways to eat this meat mixture: wrapped in lettuce leaves (the large, outer leaves of iceberg work well) or in a taco-type shell.
Ingredients:
- 1 lb. ground turkey
- 2 tsp. sesame oil
- 1/4 cup (or more, to taste) soy sauce
- 2 cans young bamboo shoots (drained)
- 2 cans sliced water chestnuts (drained
- 1 large onion (2 cups, chopped)
- 1/2 of a 1lb. bag of frozen shrimp
- Buy raw
- If you watch for it you can sometimes find 1-lb. bags for $4.99-5.99 (usually at Safeway)
In a 12-inch frying pan cook the turkey– breaking it up well– until it’s fairly dry. Drain the grease.
To get out as much as possible, I dump the meat onto a pile of paper towel in a dish, and it collects like bacon grease.
While the meat was cooking (or before I start) I chop all the other ingredients into bits the size of the ground meat (a food processor really speeds this step), making separate little piles.
I use the same knife and board for all my chopping, but I chop the raw shrimp last.
Not that I can think of any logical reason for it to matter, since there’s no way it’s crossing my lips before everything’s cooked, anyway.
Once the turkey is cooked and degreased, add the sesame oil and soy sauce. If you taste it should seem a little strong– you still have half your ingredients to add.
Next, press the turkey to the edges and dump the pile of diced bamboo shoots into the center.
This is a good chance to put your variable burner to specific use: you can turn off the outer coil(s) so the heat stays concentrated on what you want to cook.
The change is a bit subtle, but as they cook the shoots change slightly color and soften a bit (think of just-undercooked pasta). Stir into the turkey and push mixture back to the edges.
Repeat the center-cooking with the water chestnuts. These will “tan” a bit before they’re ready, and most of the moisture should evaporate. Repeat the mix-in and scoot.
Repeat with diced onion.
Last, add the minced shrimp to the cooking center and break up, keeping the bits-texture consistent with the waiting mixture. The shrimp is cooked when it changes from translucent gray to an orangey-pink.
The order is based on how much cooking each food/type needs.
Remove from heat and mix all together, adding more soy sauce if desired.
This is the meat base. For a meal I have brown rice cooking all this time (x-amount rice into 2x-amount boiling water then turn the heat turned to low).
The mixture comes out to 4-points/cup, which makes each wrap 3-Points:
- shell (1)
- ¼ cup meat mixture (1)
- ¼ cup brown rice (1)
- Veggies of choice (o)
- chopped orange pepper
- romaine or spinach (I like a strong lettuce w/ this flavor)
- Cucumber (if I have some chopped)
This is a family-pleaser at my house. The boy just takes the mix and eats it by the spoonful (something I’ve done when I want a quick protein), and my oldest likes the novelty of wrapping with lettuce instead of a shell.
Though it has a bunch of steps they’re familiar enough to be mindless now, and the week of plan-friendly meals is definitely worth the time for me.
