"Hail to the Victors' Salad" plus P.F. Chang's Lettuce Wraps

The boys were born at Mott Childrens' Hospital at the University of Michigan.  I'm not sure if they give kids a shot of something at birth, but they both LOVE the Michigan Wolverines.  I guess maybe it's more just living in Ann Arbor and going to school with so many friends with parent/grandparent alumni whose influence has infiltrated our everyday life.  "Go Blue" has been a part of their vernacular since they were three.

Mostly because of their friends they've been singing or trying to sing the Michigan fight song, "Hail to the Victors" for years.  The song goes, "Hail! To the victors valiant..."  Except they give it their own twist: "Hail! to the victors' salad!"  They think it's about salad.  Awe.some.

There they were with Vanderbilt hats (from the Smiths), yet I fear with an injection that made their blood Maize and Blue.  This town is something else. 

Fast forward six years and those tiny creatures have grown into little Michigan fans with their own ideas about what to eat.  They do pretty well.  When they both loved these lettuce wraps (albeit the holy mess they make while eating them), I knew that no matter what team they cheered for, we were going to be ok.  

P.F. Chang's Lettuce Wraps (via Cooking Light)

2 Tablespoons olive oil

3 Cups coarsely chopped shiitake and baby portabella mushroom caps (I do half and half)

1 1/4 lbs. ground turkey

1/2 teaspoon minced garlic

1/2 teaspoon minced ginger

1 cup thinly sliced green onions 

1 (8-oz) can sliced water chestnuts, drained and coarsely chopped

Lettuce leaves

Sauce:

3 Tablespoons hoisin sauce

2 Tablespoons soy sauce

1 Tablespoon rice vinegar

2 Teaspoons Sriracha (Rooster!) sauce

1/4 teaspoon salt

1. Heat 1 tbsp olive oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium heat.  Add mushrooms, saute 5 minutes, stirring occasionally.  Place mushrooms in a large bowl.  

2. Heat second tbsp of olive oil over medium-high heat.  Add turkey, garlic, and ginger to pan, cook 6 minutes or until turkey is browned, stirring to crumble.  

3. Add turkey mixture, onions, and water chestnuts to the mushrooms in the bowl; stir well.  

4. Spoon 1/2 cup turkey mixture into each lettuce leaf.  Combine hoisin, soy sauce, rice vinegar, Sriracha and salt into a small bowl, stirring with a whisk.  Spoon sauce over lettuce wrap.

This dish is all about the sauce.  We make two bowls when we eat this with the boys and cut way down on the Sriracha for theirs.

Bowl of goodness.

Oh yeah.

I usually buy butter lettuce to serve these wraps.  The perfectly uniform iceberg they serve at P.F. Chang's?  Crazy genetically modified space lettuce available only at P.F. Chang's.  Any big leafy lettuce will do; besides, the lettuce is only the vehicle for the sauce anyway.

This dish has great memories for us because the first time we made it, probably three years ago, it was a fabulous summer night and we sat on the deck with good friends drinking beer and devouring this as our appetizer.  Since then, we've moved it to main course status because the main course was always a letdown after the lettuce wraps.  You do what you have to do...

I also have good P.F. Chang's memories because there was one in Chicago between my office and Carter's and we'd meet there for lunch as often as we could (about once every other month).  It was a treat.  Every time we see one now one of us starts, "Do you remember in Chicago..."  We're super super cutesy like that.  Every time we speak to each other it's like a love poem.  For instance, this past Valentine's Day I received a text that read, "Happy V.D."  Ahhh...after I realized the holiday and that the text wasn't a reference to venereal disease, I was really touched.  Poetry.

"Hail! to the victors' salad!"