The first in our Comments Section recipe series is delicious on a rainy spring day, and a perfect dish to pair with your first Hot Stuff! We love to layer the Warm Chilli Oil and Original Hot Sauce with stir fried meat and vegetables, and serving it in lettuce leaf cups rather than with rice, noodles or flatbreads is a virtuous and fresh option reminding us summer is coming.

Stir-fry mixes are so personal and tell the story of how we like to eat, perhaps also how our family and community tend to eat, and are endlessly customiseable to account for any diet and lifestyle. We love the mixture of chicken and mushroom and have played with this on our Steamy & Co menu through the years. We currently serve a Chilli Chicken Ramen that’s garnished with mushrooms, our warm chilli oil and a chicken and mushroom meatball. This lettuce-wrap stir fry idea came into our minds as an extrapolation of that specific, perfect meatball!

Obviously, sub out the meat for more veggies for a vegetarian or vegan option, probably with some cooked brown rice thrown in at the end for texture, and maybe some sautéed tofu or tempeh.

When it comes to mushrooms, you could use readily available chestnut mushrooms or enoki, oyster, king oyster, shiitake, or any other small to medium size fresh mushroom. You could also use (rehydrated) dried mushrooms for a deeper flavour, but you won't get the same meaty texture. We are huge fans of all mushrooms and would love to hear what you choose!

Serves 2 for dinner with leftovers

1 small gem lettuce per person

250g chicken mince

1 diced/sliced wind-dried Chinese sausage (we used Poon's)

Longer-cooking veg, diced:

- 1 large onion

- 1 large carrot

- 1 large bell pepper

Quicker-cooking veg, sliced as appropriate:

- 2 cups diced mushrooms

- 2 handfuls beansprouts

- 2 large spring onions

- fresh chilli

- blanched broccoli/greens - up to 2 cups

Sauce, mixed in a bowl:

- 1 tablespoon oyster sauce

- 1/2 tablespoon sweet chilli sauce

- 1/2 tablespoon hoisin

- 1/2 tablespoon mirin

- 1 teaspoon fish sauce (more if you love the flavour)

Garnish:

- crushed peanuts

- snipped mint leaves, chives and/or coriander

- lime wedges

First, separate your lettuce heads into individual leaves. You can include the slim leaves close to the lettuce's core - they will hold a tbsp of the stir fry mixture - but avoid the very tiniest core leaves. You could shred these and use to garnish along with the herbs. Gently wash the individual leaves and sit them in a large bowl with cold water so they crisp up.

Get the wind-dried sausage pieces in a wok or frying pan as it warms. Once the pan is hot, the sausage's fat will melt and fry the sausage. Once this is fragrant and a little crispy or browned, scoop it out and reserve in a dish, leaving behind the fat.

Next, cook off the onion, carrot and pepper until softened - in a hot wok this will be quite quick. Add some sesame oil if the fat from the sausage isn't enough - there should still be one or two tablespoons' worth of hot oil in the pan.

Add the chicken mince, and stir fry until starting to crisp up. Remove the chicken and veg mixture from the pan and reserve in a dish.

Stir fry the quick-cooking veg all together and once softened to your preference, put all ingredients back in the pan with the sauce, and mix together on a low heat, or with the heat turned off if the pan is very hot still (definitely the latter if you have a proper wok.)

Serve the stir-fry mixture in a large bowl and top with the garnishes. Dry off the lettuce leaves and arrange on a large plate or tray. This is definitely one to eat family style, and with plenty of napkins available.

Depending on the size of your lettuce leaves, you'll be able to put up to 4 tbsp of mixture in a lettuce leaf, dress with chilli oil and hot sauce, and eat like a taco.

Bon appétit!