Fried lettuce is a dish made by briefly heating lettuce in a skillet with oils and seasonings. The dish enhances the sweetness of the plant and is best made with crisp lettuces like Romaine. It can be served alone or as a bed for other foods and is popular in Asian cuisine.
Fried lettuce is a meal or side of lettuce heated briefly in a skillet. The chefs prepare it with oils and seasonings of their choice. While the ingredients are similar to regular cold salads, people like fried lettuce because reheating subtly enhances the sweetness of the plant, making the greens less bitter and more pleasant to eat. A chef might also make fried lettuce as the best accompaniment to other reheated foods.
To prepare fried lettuce, a chef heats a small amount of oil in a pan. If the fried rice recipe calls for ingredients such as onions, seeds, nuts or potatoes, the chef fries them in oil before adding the lettuce to ensure they are cooked to the right extent. Once the lettuce is added, leave it in the pan only until the lettuce begins to brown or wilt slightly, which takes anywhere from one to five minutes depending on the type of lettuce and the amount of heat used. The last step is to add any other coatings or seasonings such as cooking sherry, rice wine, soy sauce and salt and pepper, tossing the lettuce until evenly distributed.
Once a chef has prepared fried lettuce, he should serve it immediately, preferably on a heated plate. This is necessary because lettuce, similar to other vegetables, cools quickly. Because lettuce uses heat, moisture is also drawn away from the dish, causing wilting.
While any lettuce is technically acceptable for frying, the best lettuces are crisp ones with a firm stem, such as Romaine. These lettuces have a texture that stands up to the heat of cooking better and are less likely to wilt easily. Leafy curl lettuce varieties don’t work as well, but they might have a flavor or color that the chef actually wants. The nutritional value of the lettuce variety is another consideration when preparing the dish. Regardless of which lettuce is selected, the chef should dry it after the pre-wash to prevent the lettuce from stewing instead of frying properly.
One factor that can drastically change the flavor of fried lettuce is the oil in which it is cooked. For a basic version, virgin or extra virgin olive oil is fine, but a chef might want something different depending on what else is being fried with the lettuce. For example, if the chef wants to add roasted, chopped peanuts, peanut oil might work better.
Fried lettuce works well on its own, but it can also be used as a salad bed for other foods, such as fried rice or fish. It works well in Asian cooking, but due to the variety of recipes available, chefs all over the world can use this way to prepare lettuce. It can take a while for people to get used to the idea that cooked lettuce won’t be mushy, and people may see the dish as an oddity at first depending on their culture and culinary experience.
Protect your devices with Threat Protection by NordVPN
