Mang Gai Tod : Crispy Chicken Mince Parcels

The crunchy mix you see in these leaves is fried chicken flavoured with fried baby shrimp. I’ve used lettuce in the photograph, but traditionally we’d use betel  leaves. These leaves are an acquired taste but very popular in Asia. They are the same plant that betelnuts come from, the nuts they sell on the street in Taiwan. Unfortunately they are popular because they are a legal stimulant, and I avoid them because it makes my heart flutter as though I’m nervous.

Below is a photograph of the Betel leaf version of this dish

Ingredients

• 100 gms Chicken Breast
• Oil

Ingredients for Sauce

• 70 gms Sour Tamarind Pulp
• 250 ml Water
• 50 gms Sugar

Side Dish

• Betel leaves
• Dried Small Shrimps
• Dried Chillies
• Peanuts

Preparation

1. Slice the chicken breast thinly and grill or fry dry (without the oil!) until cooked. This is the first stage of cooking the chicken.
2. Blend the chicken in a food processor to small pieces.
3. Now fry the chicken fragments in the hot oil until browned. Because the chicken was pre-cooked, it will not stick together and you end up with separate grains of crunchy chicken.
4. Then fry the small shrimp, dried chillies and peanuts for 30 seconds and take it out.
5. To make the sauce, mix tamarind pulp and water, squeeze the tamarind to get the sour juice out, then sieve to remove the pulp leaving only the liquid.
6. Place this liquid in a pan and boil, add the sugar and stir till dissolved.
7. Serve it by, put all fried stuff on the leaves. When you eat, you roll it up and dip it in the sauce