Lettuce wraps with Vietnamese lemongrass mushrooms

Warm, cool and fresh in one leaf

This is a modern sharing dish with flavor combinations often found in Vietnamese-inspired food: lemongrass, fish sauce, lime and fresh herbs. It isn’t a traditional recipe, but each component has a clear role. Lemongrass and garlic give the mushrooms a savory, citrusy aroma; the fish sauce and lime dip brings salt and acidity, while pickled carrot provides a crunchy contrast. Rau ram, also known as Vietnamese coriander, has a distinctive, peppery flavor. Use mint if you can’t find it, but expect a milder result.

Oyster mushrooms work well because their firm, ragged edges brown nicely while staying juicy. Tear them into pieces rather than chopping them finely; this gives you different sizes and more surface area to brown. Cook them in batches in a large, hot skillet. An overcrowded pan traps moisture, so the mushrooms steam rather than brown. Don’t stir them constantly at first: give the first side time to color. Add the lemongrass and garlic marinade only after that, so the finely chopped aromatics don’t burn.

The carrot gets a quick pickle with rice vinegar, sugar and salt. Twenty minutes is enough to mellow its raw sharpness while keeping the strips crunchy. Use a vegetable peeler to cut it into ribbons, or use a coarse grater; ribbons give the wrap a little more bite. Rice vinegar is mild and works well here, but regular white wine vinegar is fine too. Taste the dipping sauce before serving: fish sauce varies in saltiness from brand to brand, and sometimes an extra squeeze of lime is nicer than more fish sauce.

Use small heads of lettuce with firm, cup-shaped leaves, such as little gem or butter lettuce. Rinse and dry the leaves well, otherwise the wrap will go limp and the filling will slide out. Set the warm mushrooms, cold lettuce, carrot, herbs and sauce out separately and let everyone fill their own wraps at the table. This keeps the contrast between warm, cool, juicy and crunchy intact. Serve with rice or rice noodles for a light meal. Store any leftover components separately, covered, in the fridge, and reheat the mushrooms in a pan; it’s best not to store filled wraps, as the lettuce will quickly go soft.