Overcoming Iceberg Lettuce Tragedy_2 Iceberg Lettuce and Meat Mille-Feuille (dinner 3 Sep)

As introduced in Japanese Hamburger Steak known as "Hambagu", I stored pre-heated Hamburger Steak pieces (made of minced meat mix) in my freezer. 
This time, I used them for 
Iceberg Lettuce and Meat Mille-Feuille.


This dish makes iceberg lettuce as a principal ingredient while usually a supporting when it is cooked.

Ingredients

• 10-15 large leaves of Iceberg Lettuce
• 400-600cc of Tomato juice
• minced meat mix

<minced meat mix>
Mix all ingredients as the following
Minced meat (beef and pork) 400-500g 

Large round onion  1/2 (chopped into small and pan-fried for 3-4 mins until they get translucent)

Breadcrumb  1 cup
Milk 1/2 cup

Beaten egg 1

Chicken stock 1/2 cube

Paprika or nutmeg  1/2 teaspoon

Salt and pepper
Vegetable oil

Directions

1. Flatten each piece of meat into 5 mm thickness. Place a piece in between cling films and spread it with a rolling pin

2. Place 2-3 pieces of iceberg lettuce to cover the bottom of a small pan and place the flattened meat over it. Make layers of lettuce and meat one after the other as Mille-Feuille. Make sure to complete the top layer with iceberg lettuce

3. Add tomato juice until to the level of the top layer

4. Make 4-5 small holes on a sheet of aluminium foil then cover the top of the Meat Mille-Feuille with it. Bring the pan into boil then turn the heat at small temperature and cook it for 15- 20 mins.

5. Place the entire piece of the Meat Mille-Feuille with a spatula on a large deep dish. Divide it with a knife to serve. 

The crunchy texture of cooked iceberg lettuce is enhanced by the smooth meat layer then the rich and sour tomato sauce perfectly unites these two!! 

This is very economical, easy to prepare and yummy dish!!

As I made only small portions of Meat Mille-Feuille, I add one more main dish.

Just season salmon fillet with salt, grill it at 250C temperature for 6-7 mins and drop soy sauce to serve.

Salad was also enjoyable. 
Fry the paprika and tomatoes in a small amount of vegetable oil for 30-40 seconds each.
Dress them with sugar (1 tablespoon), salt (1/2 teaspoon), vinegar (1 tablespoon), sesame oil (1 teaspooon). I mixed them with cucumber,  coriander leaf and pine nuts.

Total time to prepare: 40 mins

Total cost: 5.7 pounds (1.5 for meat mix, 3.2 for salmon, 1 for veggies)

Next morning, I made tomato risotto with the tomato sauce from the Meat Mille-Feuille remained in the pan. Boil 1 cup of cooked rice and 1/4 chopped onion with the Meat Mille-Feuille sauce for 10 mins in a pan. Add parmesan cheese and poached egg and top with dill and a tablespoon of truffle oil to serve.

Overcoming iceberg lettuce tragedy-1 (Dinner 3 Sep)

Taiwanese fried vermicelli, fried chicken
and miso soup with potato and enoki mushroom

Taiwanese Fried Rice Vermicelli was introduced before. 
This time, I used Iceberg lettuce instead for cabbage. 
Got a very nice, big, seasonal one from Waitrose in 1 pound.
Unlike other lettuces (round, curly, romaine, little gem), iceberg lettuce features its crispy and fleshy leaf. 

Tragedy of iceberg lettuce

However, I think it is shared experience such as when adding iceberg lettuce into salad too much against other ingredients, then the entire dish becomes watery. In stuffing sandwich, round or curly lettuces are better. If not seasonal, iceberg lettuce is just hard, watery and cold like iceberg. As it can last longer than other lettuces, can be found easily in Tesco Express or Sainsbury Local. It means iceberg lettuce is only one available leaf veggie when other shops are closed. As being voluminous when it is served, usually it is hard to use up at once, therefore occupies veggie space in the fridge forever.

To rescue poor iceberg lettuce...boiling is a good solution.

By cooking, the moisture is removed from the flesh then iceberg lettuce attains beautiful crunchy texture. Besides, when it is cooked, it enhances the flavour that is often hidden when it is cold and watery.

Therefore, I often add it into soup, fried rice, and noodles.

Ingredients

Iceberg lettuce 4-5 leaves (cut into small bite sized), 2 shrimps, 4 slices of pork belly, 2 spring onion (sliced), rice vermicelli (100g boiled in water for 1 min)
<Seasoning> 

1 tablespoon of soy sauce

1 tablespoon of mirin

1 tablespoon of sesame oil

1 teaspoon of oyster sauce

200cc of clod water

1 tablespoon of Taiwanese rice sake (if available)

1/2 teaspoon of Thai fish sauce

Directions

1. Fry meat, fish and veggies roughly for 2-3 mins in a large frying pan with vegetable oil (2 tablespoons)

2. add vermicelli and lettuce. Pour the seasoning and close the pan with a lid. Keep heating for 3-4 mins

3. Open the lid and stir-fry all the contents until the sauce disappears to serve.

Besides with vermicelli, I made a fried chicken. 

1. Soak chicken thighs with salt, black pepper and sake for 5-6 mins. 
2. Dust them with cornflour and deepfry them in a 1cm depth of vegetable oil in a small pan at medium temperature.

Total time to prepare: 40 mins
Total cost: 3.4 pounds (2 for chicken thigh, 0.4 for vermicelli, 1 for veggies)