Tasty Thai Wraps

Last night I made thai wraps for our friends Amy and Michael Whitlark, and I guess they were pretty good because Michael ate about 5 of them:) I've had several people ask me for the recipe, so I'm going to post it here on the blog. It's a hand-me-down from a friend and I can't find the orginal recipe, so hopefully I'll get everything right! I tend to improvise when I cook anyway, so they taste a little different every time.

Tasty Thai Wraps

1 lb ground chicken (I've also used pork)
1 tsp minced garlic
1 cup unsalted cashews - chopped
4 carrots - chopped
1 bunch of green onions - chopped
2 TBS fresh ginger root - chopped
brown sugar to taste - usually about 1 TBS
soy sauce to taste - usually about 5 dashes
red pepper to taste - a few shakes
2 dashes of tabasco
rice wraps - these are round, paper thin sheets of rice that you can only buy at a whole foods/natural foods store. They are about as big as a small tortilla, and one pack usually lasts through 4 batches of this stuff.

I also add a few sloshes of Mr Yoshida's oriental sauce - we got a huge jug of it at Costco a few years ago and still have a good bit left. I don't know if you can buy it at the grocery, but it is a dark brown salty/sweet sauce. If you can't find a sauce like this just add more brown sugar and soy sauce.

Brown the meat and garlic together while you chop up everything (the green onion is the worst to chop, so I usually do everything else first). Once the meat is brown, add the ginger, brown sugar, soy sauce and cashews. Then throw in the red pepper, tabasco and any special sauce you want to use until you get the flavor you want. It should be a spicy/salty/slightly sweet mix. Then turn off the heat and add the carrots and onions. Now the fun part - making the wraps. While you're prepping the fillings, put a teapot on to boil water. Once you're ready to make the wraps get out a shallow dish that is round enough to fit a whole wrap - some pie pans will work - I use a shallow (1" deep) round cookie tray. Place one wrap in the pan and pour boiling water over it. Let it sit immersed for about 30 seconds, then pull it carefully out with a fork and add another one to the pot to soak. I try to wrap one while the other is cooking - it's essentially just a big noodle but it cooks really quickly. You'll need to keep adding hot water to the pot to cook the wraps thoroughly - just be careful not to burn your hands.

I think the wraps are good on their own, but we usually make some sort of dipping sauce - either soy sauce, brown sugar and sesame seeds or the yoshida sauce I mentioned above. Either way they are delicious! And this recipe makes a ton of filling, definitely 2-4 meals for 2 people. Enjoy!