San Choi Bau
San Choi Bau is believed to have originated from Hong Kong. It is written in Chinese as “生菜包”, which in Pinyin is “shēngcài bāo”. This seems noticeably different to any pronunciations in the western world.
生菜 means “lettuce” and 包 means “wrap”.
It is hard to find the origins for this dish as It does in fact have a Wikipedia article, but only on the Chinese Wikipedia. The article is very short and Google Translate does not handle it well.
San Choi Bau
This week’s recipes are based around mince (also known as ground beef). Mince is a cheaper alternative to full cuts of meat like steak and loins, but the fat content makes it more appropriate to a ketogenic lifestyle.
Make sure when you purchase this from the shops to get the full fat version, and not the lean style. Many of the essential vitamins and minerals come from the fat of the meat. Please note grass fed is much better than normal mince, usually containing 6 times more of the essential amino acids and vitamins.
Grass-fed doesn’t always mean that its hormone free. Beef cattle are given a large amount of hormones to speed up the process from calf to fully grown livestock. Try also to purchase hormone free, organic beef. The extra cost is definitely outweighed by the benefits.
I have attempted to keep the ingredients fairly similar this week, which reflected nicely in my Sunday meal prep day. It usually takes me around 2 hours to make all 5 meals, and increasing the quantity (for a family) wouldn’t add that much extra time onto that.
So for 2 hours on a Sunday, I have lunches for the whole week, and sometimes even dinners! I’m not a big fan of eating the same meal 5 times a week. The diversity is not only better for your health, but it keeps your taste buds from wandering into sugar-land…
Having the same casserole or bulk food every meal of the day is my form of torture. It’s much cheaper and easier to eat in bulk, but the experience is far greater if diversification becomes routine.
Keep an eye out for the recipes over the coming days. I hope you enjoy them just as much as I enjoyed creating them!
San Choi Bau
Ingredients
- 2 Garlic Cloves crushed
- 2 cm piece ginger finely grated
- 500 g Pork mince
- 2 Tbsp soy sauce
- 2 Shallots thinly sliced
- 1/2 Lime juiced
- 1 teaspoon Sesame Oil
- 1 cup beansprouts trimmed
- 12 Large Lettuce Leaves
- 1/4 cup fresh coriander leaves
Instructions
- Heat wok (or frying pan) over high heat until hot. Add sesame seed oil, garlic, ginger and pork. fry for 2 to 3 minutes or until pork just changes colour.
- Add soy sauce and onions, 2 teaspoons of lime juice. Fry for 3 minutes or until heated through. Stir in beansprouts.
- Spoon pork mixture into lettuce leaves. Sprinkle with coriander. Serve and Enjoy!
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Steph says
Hi! I added some grated carrot and diced peppers to mine which was delicious.
Any idea how long I can keep this mixture in the fridge? I have a few days worth here.
Could you freeze it?
Thanks!
FatForWeightLoss says
Hi Steph,
You definitely can freeze the pork mixture. In the fridge, I’d keep it no longer than a couple of days.
Jennifer says
Loved this recipe. The flavours weren’t bad. We used to make this often prior to starting keto so it was nice to use this as guidance.We modified it by adding 250gm raw prawns and a finely sliced chilli. Our old recipe uses cornflour to thicken the sauce so we tried substituting with 1/2 tspn xanytha gum. Not quite the same but not too bad. Will tinker with the amount til we get it closer to our original.
jlowery0419 says
The recipe states:
1 Tbsp soy sauce
2 Tbsp soy sauce
Was curious if am using then a total of 3 Tbsp?
Aaron Day says
Hi Jlowery,
This has been amended 🙂 Thanks for the spot!