The Good Earth Peanut Company

Recipe #16 Contest Winner

Thai Lettuce Wraps

Filling:

1-2 lbs. ground pork
2-3 T. sesame oil
2 tsp. red pepper flakes (depending on taste)
1-2 tsp. cumin
1-2 tsp. ground ginger
1 tsp. kosher salt
1 tsp. ground white pepper
1 bay leaf
½ c. fish or chicken stock
1 stalk lemongrass (don’t chop, but take rough green ends off)
1 pound plain roasted peanuts, chopped
Juice of one lime

Wraps:

2 heads worth of Bibb lettuce leaves
Whole mint leaves
Whole cilantro leaves

Dipping Sauce :

½ cup plain roasted peanuts
2 T. garlic-chili sauce
2 T. lime juice
Fish or chicken stock
Filling: Break up ground pork and sauté in sesame oil over medium-high heat until just browned. Add red pepper, cumin, ginger, salt, white pepper and bay leaf. Lower heat to medium-low and add stock and lemongrass. Simmer, uncovered, until juices thicken, about 15-20 minutes. (Meanwhile, make the dipping sauce.) Turn heat to high to cook off excess liquid. Add peanuts and lime juice. Remove lemongrass and bay leaf.

Dipping sauce: In food processor, grind peanuts into a paste. Add garlic-chili sauce and lime juice and blend until smooth and desired consistency. For a thinner sauce, add stock to taste.

Serve pork mixture in lettuce leaves with mint and cilantro. Dip leaf wrap into peanut sauce.

Knight Stivender

The Judges

Daniel Rogov

Daniel has been writing about food and wine for more years than he will admit in public. For the last twenty years he has been the Wine and Restaurant Critic for the Israeli Daily, Ha'Aretz. Rogov also contributes regularly on dining and wine to several European newspapers and magazines; and is an advisor to Hugh Johnson's "Pocket Wine Encyclopaedia" and contributes to Tom Stevenson’s “Wine Report”. His own book “Rogov’s Guide to Israeli Wines has just been published by Toby press and can be ordered through Amazon or Barnes and Nobles. He also maintains Rogov's Ramblings, an internet site devoted to wine, gastronomy and travel.

Jenise Stone

Jenise is a an avid foodie and accomplished cook from Los Angeles who contributes to the Food Lovers Discussion Group, an internet bulletin board devoted to food chat, recipe sharing and friendship.

Robin Garr

Robin Garr has been involved in wine appreciation online since the mid-1980s, serving as a manager of CompuServe's Wine Forum for nearly a decade before the evolution of the World Wide Web. He created the Wine Lovers' Page in 1994 as one of the first independent wine-education Websites, and has presided over its growth as the largest, most popular and most highly awarded wine destination on the Internet. He began its Wine Lovers' Discussion Group, the first Web-based interactive community for the intelligent and civil discussion of wine online, in 1996; and he launched his popular E-mail newsletter, The 30 Second Wine Advisor, at the start of 1999.